Audio equip: What are your favourite scams?

Ayn Marx · 05-16-2022, 11:28 PM

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Originally Posted by Guybrush

You there. Yes, you.

The world of audio equip is just so ripe for myth. Tone and quality are often hard to pin down in quantitative ways and if you spend $$$ on a piece of equip, you have placebos and various cognitive biases that are going to try to fool you into thinking it's somehow improved things.

Isn’t it amazing then that pipe organ builders, violin makers etc aren’t led astray by their ‘cognitive biases’.

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HOWEVER. We know (or should know) that when audio equip is blind tested, listeners (including audiophiles) often can't reliably identify supposed higher quality gear, like preamps, dacs or cables.

Why ’should we know’?
Blind testing has itself been proven one of the best methods to confuse listeners perceptions. Have you considered the influence upon a signal arriving at your ears and the effect of cloth or whatever stretching over your face?

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We may have an inkling that the higher up in price you are, the less you get for your money. At worst, we're paying for snake oil.

Who are ‘we’?. At worst we may be paying for snake oil but my deluded perceptions tell me over and over the obscene amount (to some) I’ve paid for my audio gear has been worth every penny, just as my ‘deluded perceptions’ tell me the Rieger organ installed in Scots Church Melbourne is one of the most brilliant instruments. Maybe however I should attend the next organ recital blindfolded in order to learn what really is going on?

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So what are some of your favourite worst ways (pet peeves) in terms of wasting money on audio equip?

I don’t get peeved if the rich splurge obscene amounts on audio gear that to my ears is as musical as a strangled pig fart. I do get peeved at those who assume all of us using high-end gear are deaf and deluded.
And no, I’m not going to list the gear I run. Last time I stupidly did so on a forum I had the lot burgled . There’s another side to all this. There are some absolute bargains to be had today for, for instance in budget speakers. Sadly only the dedicated audiopress get around to reporting on such items :- from Stereophile magazine.
JBL Stage A170: $499.99/pair $$$
Measuring a little over 3' tall and a mere 7.5" wide, this slender floorstander uses a combination horn/waveguide for its 1" aluminum-dome tweeter. Below that are two 5.25" Polycellulose-cone mid-woofers, one crossed over at 2.8kHz and the other at 1.8kHz: The Stage A170 is a 2.5-way design. On the rear of its vinyl-clad cabinet are two reflex ports, and two pairs of loudspeaker connectors to facilitate biwiring. Key specs include a 6 ohm impedance and a sensitivity of 89dB. According to HR, the JBLs weren't at all fussy when it came to intricacies of setup and projected "an enormous, nicely detailed soundstage." On rock fare, and apart from slightly rounding-off leading-edge transients, the JBLs offered "relatively unrestricted" dynamics and allowed music to roll forward "with ridiculous ease." Writing from his test bench, JA confirmed the speaker's above-average sensitivity and praised the Stage A170's "excellent measured performance, especially considering its affordable price."

Not let’s throw a nasty suggestion into the ring. How many of you out there know many of the digital appliances, such as your Mac or whatever you run, are feeding dirty radio frequency signals not only into the ether but back onto your mains supply? If your audio gear doesn’t have effective noise suppression built between its power supply and the mains and your system can reproduce those higher frequencies, - - - - ? ? ? ?
But hey, all that’s just audiophile nonsense, isn’t it ? ? ? ?