Audio equip: What are your favourite scams?
 

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.

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.

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.

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

Starting off with something, my nr. 1 pet peeve is probably the supposed superiority of analogue mediums to digital ones, particularly LPs.

It doesn't affect me much personally in terms of gear, but the idea that vinyl is better than digital seems so widespread. People don't know or think about the limitations of the medium or the sacrifices made in the mastering process. They don't know much about needle fidelity / jumping or other things causing distortion. They just regurgitate unquestioningly that LPs are the superior medium.

You might have a personal preference for a sound with less bottom end playing at a slightly warbled speed over the hiss of a needle, but it's not objectively better.

If people spend tons of cash on a turntable, that's fine if it makes them happy. It's a bit like religion. I'm just glad it's not my monays.

From 2013 - Furutech Powerflux: The Most Expensive Power Cable Ever

Powerflux conductors are 68-strand a (Alpha) OCC twisted around µ–conductor strands with a special-grade PE insulation or dielectric. (Alpha conductors are fine OCC wire treated with Furutech’s Alpha Cryogenic and Demagnetizing process.) The dielectric is surrounded by an inner sheath of RoHS-compliant PVC incorporating carbon powder that enhances damping, and that in turn is covered by a full a (Alpha) conductor wire braid shield. Another flexible PVC outer sheath and a Nylon braid jacket finish the job.

Price: $1800 in 2013.

Let me clarify... this cable has nothing to do with delivering your pro audio signal, or your video signal... this is the short black cord that plugs your unit into the motherf***ing wall. $1800.

https://i.imgur.com/POogCjQl.jpg

Who am I to tell other people that what they are hearing doesn't sound superior to them.

I think that's a pretty weak attitude towards misinformation. Who am I to tell someone with cancer that colloidal silver is a scam that won't kill their tumors and instead poisons them?

IMO marketing and selling lies is harmful, to wallets or otherwise, and fighting those lies can help people.

Edit:

Nice! That's the worst thing I've seen in terms of audio equip. Holy crap :laughing:

I guess I'll have to play MadLibs® when it comes to that comparison,
'cause it ain't working on it's own.

The fact that you interpret a person's audible perception of sound as
something that's a result of misinformation is a pretty strange take.

Nice strawman? You seem a little off-topic. Check the thread title and first post. It's about snake oil, scams. It's not about consumers who like something, but people and companies making things that by and large don't work or have no special value, but that they still sell at inflated prices.

These things affect more than just the people who enjoy their 3000 USD analog/digital converter. It also affects the many more people who can't afford that, but feel like that's what they should have and their 150 USD DAC is probably ****.

If you think your directional, burnt in cables are the ****, go ahead and enjoy them. This thread is more about the people making and selling them.

OK, so I'll just answer the topic question and just ignore your first reply to it (?)

Even tho I can't ever say that I have a "favorite" scam (which would be a contradiction),
I will acknowledge that there are grifters in the world and I just try to steer clear of them.

I'll concede I'm not doing a concise job of pointing out the offending scam in my first reply, but I also wrote that I'm fine with the people spending a ton of cash on a turntable.

The scam is people who market LPs and turntables by saying it has a superior sound quality. They might say stuff like LPs can reproduce ultrasonic frequencies and that these improve the music (not so according to blind test studies) or claim that it's not possible to faithfully recreate audio with 1s and 0s (it is).

I'd rather say LPs sound different and that may or may not be more enjoyable.

As far as lies go, this LP one is relatively tiny and calling it a scam might be a little harsh. Still, I picked it because of how prevalent it is.

OK, I can see that line of approach to the topic.
In that case, I don't have anything to add because
I don't read high-fidelity type magazines or ever
have strong opinions about such things unless it's
technology that hinders overt communication
(like cellphones) or one that's performance-based
usage in large scale installations.
Scammers gonna scam tho.

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

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?
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?

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 ? ? ? ?

Are they not? How do you know?

I assume this is a joke, but I'll pointlessly point out that blind test doesn't mean you're blindfolded while listening or have cloth over your ears.

Listening to an organ you seem to know well while blindfolded isn't blind testing.. Against my better judgment, I guess I'll give an example.

Imagine you have need of a Digital to Analog (DAC) unit somewhere in the signal chain of your stereo listening setup. Let's say you get to test three units - a cheap one at 20 bucks, a medium priced one at 100 and an expensive one at, say, 3000.

A cognitive bias you could have is that the most expensive unit is the best sounding one. It seems a reasonable assumption, but may influence your listening experience even when it's not true. This is bad if you want the best sounding setup. However, you can avoid being influenced by this bias by having your friend set up a blind test.

So you listen to the same bits of music three / nine / 30 / whatever separate times with one of those three units in the chain. What makes it blind is you don't know which one you're listening to. All you get to do is rank unit A, B and C in terms of preference. Your buddy knows which is which.

If you did this, you might find you prefer one of the cheaper DACs over the most expensive. Not necessarily, obviously, but there are many good examples of this, but specially when the most expensive product is overpriced due to snake oilisms that just don't matter.

I don't either. I get peeved at people trying to scam other people. I get peeved by people harming other people with lies and falsehoods.

Is it? You may have attached some mythical thinking to this topic, but at least every music producer, bedroom or otherwise, who have ever turned on a pair of active speakers will hear noise very clearly and will soon read about ground loops and try to figure out how to best power the speakers to reduce hum. Anyone who dabbles in audio gear will eventually stumble upon a ground lift button on a preamp or something made for those situations when power causes hum.

I don't consider ground lift buttons a scam. But let's take cable elevators instead. Some may claim that the static electricity in your carpets and the occasional mechanical prod a cable might experience will significantly decrease your audio listening experience and that you should spend stupid money buying rubberized elevators for your cables to lift them off the floor.

In that case, they've pretty much made up a problem so that they can sell a solution. That would be a scam which is what I'm trying to target with this thread. My claim then is that if you blind tested many times with your cables either on the floor or elevated on rubber feet, the results would show that you're not able to tell the difference. Spending money on rubberized feet might, from a utilitarian point of view, have kept you from spending money on something that did matter and also make you worry about non-existing problems. It might've been better for your wallet and your happiness to spend your money elsewhere.

If you're really into audio gear, perhaps you know a scam or two?

AC line conditioners come to mind as a scam. If your house wiring is old or your utility company has not grounded your electric correctly . That 9,000 line conditioner is going to filter any thing.
Also the You Tube Critic is another audio scam !

Expensive Cables: High-end audio cables can cost a fortune, and the claims of superior audio quality are often unsubstantiated. In most cases, reasonably priced cables perform just as well as their expensive counterparts. Spending excessively on cables is a common pitfall.

Audiophile Ethernet Cables: Some companies market Ethernet cables to audiophiles at exorbitant prices, claiming improved audio quality. In reality, a standard Ethernet cable is sufficient for streaming audio data, and there's no evidence that premium audio-specific Ethernet cables make any difference.

Excessive DAC Spending: While a good Digital-to-Analog Converter (DAC) can make a difference in audio quality, there's a point of diminishing returns. Spending thousands on a DAC may not yield noticeable improvements over a reasonably priced, quality DAC.

Audiophile Power Conditioners: High-end power conditioners are often marketed as enhancing audio quality by cleaning the power supply. In practice, they might have a minimal impact on sound quality, and their high prices may not be justified for the average consumer.

Overpriced Accessories: Accessories like equipment racks, vibration isolation feet, and fancy power cords can be quite expensive. While they might have a place in some high-end setups, they often don't significantly improve audio quality for the average listener.

Chasing High Sample Rates: Some audio enthusiasts believe higher sample rates (e.g., 192kHz or 384kHz) offer better audio quality. In reality, for most music playback, 44.1kHz or 48kHz sample rates are more than sufficient. High sample rates can lead to larger file sizes without a discernible improvement in sound.

Excessive Speaker/Room Treatments: While acoustic treatments can improve sound quality in some cases, overinvesting in room treatments without properly analyzing your room's acoustics can lead to diminishing returns.

Unsubstantiated Claims: Be cautious of products that make vague or unverified claims about sound quality improvements without providing concrete evidence or independent reviews.

Buying Based on Brand: Some people spend more on audio equipment simply because of a well-known brand name. While brand reputation can be an indicator of quality, it's not a guarantee that you're getting the best value for your money.
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