HiFi Voodoo products

Santy

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There seems to be a market for everything. Even for the Ripley's-believe-it-not kind of vood0o products. And some of them are insanely priced. A few have got 'rave' reviews too!

This intelligent chip when placed on CDP enhances the sound by reducing the harshness and improved dynamics. It works at sub atomic levels as it is explained here:
Audio System Tweak - Intelligent Chip, Artificial Atoms, Quantum Dots

This wooden volume knob for $485 which improves dynamics and naturalness.
Astronomically overpriced audiophile equipment - Boing Boing
The new knobs are custom made with beech wood and bronze where the bronze is used as the insert to mount to the stem of the volume pot. The beech wood is coated several times with C37 lacquer for best sound as pointed out by Dieter Ennemoser. How can this make a difference??? Well, hearing is believing as we always say. The sound becomes much more open and free flowing with a nice improvement in resolution. Dynamics are better and overall naturalness is improved.

Tuning Stick! (courtesy Thad)
Akiko Audio Tuning Stick Spectral Preview | Audioholics

Cable burn-in generator!
Hagerman Audio Labs: FryBaby Personal Audio Burn-In and Cable Break-In Device

Burn-in CD..

CARDAS AYRE ACOUSTICS (IBE) BURN IN CD at Music Direct

Magic Resonators
The Magic of Mpingo

Wooden cable elevators
Cable elevators : information Elevate your music Reduce ...
Elevate your music. Reduce the effect of vibrations in the floor on your speaker cables

You could faint with this one:
Pillows to keep your audio gear on!
Better Records: Hot Stamper LPs -- 100% Guaranteed Great Sound. - Product Detail

Audiograde Hifi tuning fuses.
HiFi-Tuning by Revolution Power
6moons audio reviews: HiFi?Tuning Fuses & Noise Killer

US$35000 power conditioner:
TRIPOINT AUDIO - PRODUCTS

Power outlets for the above:
cruzeFIRST Audio - The Maestro Outlet

Diamond studded ipod earphone $5200
World's most expensive ipod diamond earbud earphones by casa di

Yikes.. Ultra tweeters!
You can't hear them though since they operate in 1 Ghz range
6moons audio reviews: Golden Sound Ultra Tweeter

CD improving lathe, OMG
http://www.audiodesksysteme.de/downloads/england-hi-fi-issue-44-1.pdf
Quite simply the CD Improver is a lathe. It shaves the edge of a disc creating a 36 bevelled angle.
....
....
It makes your CDs sound more like real music with sound stages that all of a sudden become deep and wide. Focus and control of instruments improve greatly and the solidity of images is tremendously enhanced. All of a sudden, so many artifacts we attribute to the digital format seem to vanish.


Courtesy; Some are taken from dynacotubeaudio forum.
 
There seems to be a market for everything. Even for the Ripley's-believe-it-not kind of vood0o products. And some of them are insanely priced. A few have got 'rave' reviews too!

This intelligent chip when placed on CDP enhances the sound by reducing the harshness and improved dynamics. It works at sub atomic levels as it is explained here:
Audio System Tweak - Intelligent Chip, Artificial Atoms, Quantum Dots

This wooden volume knob for $485 which improves dynamics and naturalness.
Astronomically overpriced audiophile equipment - Boing Boing


Tuning Stick! (courtesy Thad)
Akiko Audio Tuning Stick Spectral Preview | Audioholics

Cable burn-in generator!
Hagerman Audio Labs: FryBaby Personal Audio Burn-In and Cable Break-In Device

Burn-in CD..

CARDAS AYRE ACOUSTICS (IBE) BURN IN CD at Music Direct

Magic Resonators
The Magic of Mpingo

Wooden cable elevators
Cable elevators : information Elevate your music Reduce ...


You could faint with this one:
Pillows to keep your audio gear on!
Better Records: Hot Stamper LPs -- 100% Guaranteed Great Sound. - Product Detail

Audiograde Hifi tuning fuses.
HiFi-Tuning by Revolution Power
6moons audio reviews: HiFi?Tuning Fuses & Noise Killer

US$35000 power conditioner:
TRIPOINT AUDIO - PRODUCTS

Power outlets for the above:
cruzeFIRST Audio - The Maestro Outlet

Diamond studded ipod earphone $5200
World's most expensive ipod diamond earbud earphones by casa di

Yikes.. Ultra tweeters!
You can't hear them though since they operate in 1 Ghz range
6moons audio reviews: Golden Sound Ultra Tweeter

CD improving lathe, OMG
http://www.audiodesksysteme.de/downloads/england-hi-fi-issue-44-1.pdf



Courtesy; Some are taken from dynacotubeaudio forum.


Who was it that said there's a sucker born every minute.....
 
I have fallen for one or two of such stuff. Pure curiosity, not because I believed, but because I wanted to try with an open mind.

Expensive experiments! I mean who likes an expensive paperweight, especially if it doesn't even look good kept on the table?
 
Hey, the Ayre CD really works..I make fun of audiophilia and all but that CD did bring about a cleaner sound...just to confirm, I passed around the CD and other members of the forum came to a similar conclusion..
 
Hmm..

I did think about adding a line saying 'sorry' to those who find any of these working when I referred to burn-in CD, cable elevator, resonators. But missed it. Nevertheless, I hope there is enough fun in this collection otherwise too. :p

Please add to it!
 
One man's snake oil is another man's saviour!!!

Long live snake oil :).

I actually looked at Santy's links one by one (Could not make head or tail out of it!!!).
 
I use wooden elevators not for any serious sonic benefit but rather to keep the floor nice and tidy - it is easier to sweep the floor for the maid :p .

He he.. :)

On a lighter note..

Any product that targets this use case is certain to do well especially in Indian market :)

There must be a proximity sensor like a radar. Whenever someone is inside the proximity zone of the speaker a siren with red lights placed on the speaker should go off.. :)

Now I am thinking of getting this :eek:hyeah:
caution-tape2.gif
 
If I put my speakers in a soundproof box, how can I tell if they are sounding better or not?

Give me some damn silly thing that is free, or very low cost, and I'll try it. Like green ink on the CD ...what the hell, does no harm! I'm going to try a USB isolator on my DAC: I don't think there is a problem to be cured; I'm not even sure that USB, like ethernet, doesn't do some sort of isolation in the circuitry anyway (???), but some experimentation is fun.

But when the experiments are at very high cost (and they are only high-cost because someone is selling us something) or are based on ideas that are truly ridiculous (Audioquest: I'm talking about your absurd network-lead claims, just as much as I'm talking about putting stones and sticks around the room), then it is a different matter. Why do people fall for this stuff?

If all these buyers trust their ears, then why don't they listen to audio engineers who tell them what actually can be and what can not? Sometimes I think that the thing that audiophiles have the biggest problem with is ...listening.

But, while the prices are high and the designs and packages are seductive, people want to believe, want to hear ...and why are audiophiles not interested in the psychology of that process?

The production chain of audio equipment is all high technology and engineering, but, somewhere in the supply chain it changes into unicorns and fairy dust --- a world where silly plastic supports for cables (how would they prevent vibration, anyway?) magically change the sound, and hey, if you trusted your ears you could hear it.

That's the world we live in.

"Hi Res" (here I go again ;) ) is the latest, mass-market voodoo. But people have heard it and agree that it is wonderful? OK, so... How many of those who agree that it is wonderful compared like for like, so-called-high-res against so-called-low-res of the exact same recording? Because, if you didn't, wonderful it might well have been, but there is no evidence that it was the "resolution" making it wonderful.

~
 
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T

This wooden volume knob for $485 which improves dynamics and naturalness.
Astronomically overpriced audiophile equipment - Boing Boing

Have you heard about their auto products division which makes wooden gear knobs which dramatically improve the performance and handling of any car?

Bugatti and Pagani owners have resorted to panic selling ever since Citroen 2CVs fitted with these gear knobs have been leaving them in the dust on the autobahns.....
 
"Hi Res" (here I go again ;) ) is the latest, mass-market voodoo. But people have heard it and agree that it is wonderful? OK, so... How many of those who agree that it is wonderful compared like for like, so-called-high-res against so-called-low-res of the exact same recording? Because, if you didn't, wonderful it might well have been, but there is no evidence that it was the "resolution" making it wonderful.

~

I'd like to convince you if I have an opportunity. Right now I have nothing more than some examples to cite.

Not too long ago, at Absolute High-end in Hong Kong I heard an all Kharma Setup. I was carrying my collection of Dire Straits PCM files (ripped by myself, zero jitter copies). They sound darn good on good systems. When I played them I was thrilled. The guys there quipped they had DSDs of the same and asked if I would like to hear them. I nodded readily.

When they played DSDs (on a relatively much cheaper front-end), it trumped the 44.1 PCM files hands down purely on details, despite the fact that PCM playback was happening on many times more expensive components. There were some flaws in DSD reproduction, but that's a separate matter. The point is - DSDs simply had a lot more information to play back and it was apparent.

My conclusion: Hi-res usually sounds better. A recording should have the ability to harness the extra resolution. A poor recording (mastering/mixing) may or may not benefit from the extra resolution. For example: a single frequency 1Kz tone would sound the same whether stored as 24/96 or 128 Kbps MP3. It won't benefit being stored as 24/96, 32/192 or 2.8 MHz DSD.
 
I do feel some (very few) are worth considering with an open mind. For example, the ayre CD that panditji posted about sounds reasonable to me. Not the demagnetization nonsense but the fact that a well calibrated sweep signal could give a good workout to the drivers. The equivalent of running your car at really high speeds once in a while so that the mechanicals can work together more smoothly.

There is also the enabl driver tweaks where they add some paint to fostex drivers that change the driver parameters and make them sound better.

A lot of it is just marketing and hype and complete bogus though.
 
There are many things and some of them work and others dont the problema is the over price they cost. Most of times the more expensive equipment is better but in some cases a mdium system with a good fine tuning can sound better than a more expensive untreated. Spikes, racks ,room, electricity and power equipments,cables are things that realy matters and can mke a huge diference in the final result.
 
A poor recording (mastering/mixing) may or may not benefit from the extra resolution. For example: a single frequency 1Kz tone would sound the same whether stored as 24/96 or 128 Kbps MP3. It won't benefit being stored as 24/96, 32/192 or 2.8 MHz DSD.
I'm not going to start a debate on this since a great writeup has already been done on this at Xiph. I do think that "hirez" audio files typically sound better because they are recorded/mastered better (new performances) or are remastered from the original recordings (and therefore slightly better than older PCM recordings).
 
I'd like to convince you if I have an opportunity. Right now I have nothing more than some examples to cite.

Examples is good! I'm very happy to hear of the comparison and the results.

<LATER ... I had to go out>

I'd like to see these things blind tested (not blind accepted ;) ) but even I wonder if DSD might not be the future format; it is the pcm higher sampling rates and bit rates about which I am cynical. This is regardless of whether or not I ever get to own any equipment or music in that format --- although at least Schiit have made an affordable DSD DAC now.

But, more in the spirit of this thread (from which I only diverged :eek:), I am now going to balance each of my speakers on four eggs. Of course, there will be those that say that three is better :lol:
 
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