Audiophools

edited July 2008 in Chit chat
Good grief, there must be some really gullible audiophiles about if Denon is selling this:

http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp

An ethernet patch cable costing $500! *An ethernet patch cable!*. Apparently it even has 'direction markings' for the signal!

You'd think someone who has a hi-fi addiction might also have enough critical thinking ability to see through this kind of thing, but obviously Denon (a major hi-fi manufacturer) doesn't. Shame on them for selling such a blatant rip-off product, and shame on the audiophiles who buy into this snake oil!
Post edited by Winston on
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Comments

  • edited June 2008
    I've never understood why people pay over the odds for Digital audio cable.

    Good cable prevents signal loss and bit dropping, but there is no way you need cable like that even for long connections.


    In any case even if it did work, what you are getting for your money is a load of hyped up shit. For that money I would expect it to come with Gold wire not copper. Sadlly the jack ends look as fragile as any RJ45 plug. Imagine snapping that bit of plastic off man you'd be pissed.
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • jpjp
    edited June 2008
    Hopefully Cat 6 compliant. Heh, imagine try to persuade someone you need 24x of these to populate a switch/patch panel...
  • edited June 2008
    Reminds me of an asian lad I went to school with, he was heavily into the Amiga music demo scene and making weird break beat related techno type stuff on his Miggy. He bought a pair of in ear headphones with some kind of low resistance tungsten cable and gold plated earpieces. Something to do with reducing soundloss and lack of clarity, I asked him how much he paid for them!

    150 smackeroos!

    I nearly passed out when he told me!

    Funny thing is he was using them with some crappy Sony walkman so he obviously wasn't getting his moneys worth.

    Dummy!

    I really hope for his sake he was lieing about the price to look cool otherwise that' one big fat uber-mug! :lol:
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited June 2008
    He bought a pair of in ear headphones with some kind of low resistance tungsten cable and gold plated earpieces.

    I never buy expensive earphones, they never last very long no matter what brand they are. A mate of mine bought a pair of Sennheiser in-earphones for about ?80, after about 2-3 months, the left ear had already gone. Waste of dough!!
  • edited June 2008
    GreenCard wrote: »
    I never buy expensive earphones, they never last very long no matter what brand they are. A mate of mine bought a pair of Sennheiser in-earphones for about ?80, after about 2-3 months, the left ear had already gone. Waste of dough!!

    Yeah if I had to waste 150 quid on headphones, I wouldn't buy one really expensive pair, I'd buy 150 crap pairs from somewhere like Poundland, I can guarentee they'd last a helluva lot longer :D
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited June 2008
    We had an audiofool at school too. This guy had got his family to spend about two grand on a digital piano, and he was bragging about the fact that it was 8-bit. He didn't understand that my new 16-bit Soundblaster and a cheap midi keyboard plugged into my PC could create a more realistic piano.

    It was about 1994/95 so Soundblaster cards were replacing Adlib cards all over the shop, and the prices were falling rapidly.
  • edited June 2008
    I remember years ago (another back in England story) a friend of mine was an 'audiofool'. I went around to his house as he was all excited about SPEAKER WIRE.

    He had paid 30quid A FOOT for some speaker wire....we listened before he installed it and then after his installed it....

    ..his reaction WOAH!!!! listen to the difference...my reaction...

    ...erm, its sounds the same.
  • edited June 2008
    beanz wrote: »
    ...erm, its sounds the same.

    like most situations like that, I bet you really hurt his feelings too :lol:
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited June 2008
    like most situations like that, I bet you really hurt his feelings too :lol:

    Too bastard right he should! I'd have tested him by wiring one speaker using the old wire, and the other with the new, then adjusting the balance from one to the other to make him guess which was which.

    Of course, these people always make the argument that you need to have a trained ear.
  • edited June 2008
    MattLamb wrote: »
    Of course, these people always make the argument that you need to have a trained ear.

    Backfires if they get it wrong though!
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited June 2008
    Winston wrote: »
    Good grief, there must be some really gullible audiophiles about if Denon is selling this:

    http://www.usa.denon.com/ProductDetails/3429.asp

    Damn! I was gonna buy one of those but I didn't have enough money left after buying those magic beans last week...
  • edited June 2008
    The most ridiculous thing about that ethernet cable is that by the look of things, it doesn't even have the one feature which I *would* happily pay a premium for (albeit not 500 dollars): plastic tabs that don't break off when you pull it out of your cables drawer. Grr. What were they thinking when they designed that connector?

    There's been an ongoing saga on the James Randi website in recent months: he offers a million dollar prize to anyone who can demonstrate paranormal abilities that stand up to scientific scrutiny, and last year he extended the challenge to anyone who could tell the difference between a $50 audio cable and the $5000 snake-oil audiophile one that one manufacturer was offering. Surprisingly enough, the manufacturer in question weaselled out of it using the same sort of excuses that the psychics and spoon-benders usually give (there isn't really a million dollars, the experiment will be rigged, we don't need the money anyway, etc).

    Doing the same thing for an ethernet cable is bizarre even by those standards though.
  • edited June 2008
    One should keep in mind that this is a cable carrying a *digital* signal, not an analogue one. Digital signals have noise immunity by design and the difference between an expensive cable supposedly less susceptible to noise and a regular cable meeting minimum specs probably amounts to little except in very noisy environments. Computers don't listen to digital signals like humans listen to music!!
  • edited June 2008
    I stopped reading hi-fi magazines about 20-25 years ago, when they traded science for mystical bollocks. One of the last reviews I read complained that both of the channels of the system being tested were out of phase (although of course the reviewer didn't put it nearly as scientifically as that). :roll: Sheer nonsense of course; the only way one channel of two can be out of phase, is relative to the other.

    And I always reckoned that using oxygen-free copper cables must cause severe problems if you're into Jarre. :lol:

    But perhaps the most notorious rip-off was those expensive green marker pens, marketed to [strike]mugs[/strike] audiophiles to "cure" a nonexistent "problem", that of the laser light used to read a CD being "refracted" and "distorting" playback by being "reflected from the edges".
    1. The beam strikes the surface of the CD at an angle of 90?, far too steep for refraction.
    2. CDs are read/written using an an IR laser; why should green absorb IR more effectively than any other colour?
    3. Why would a reflected beam from the edge, containing no digital information, contribute distortion (or anything else) to the decoding and playback?

    And even if this marker did anything other than bugger your CDs by dissolving the seal, a cheap one (not necessarily green) would probably also work.
    I never make misteaks mistrakes misyales errurs — oh, sod it.
  • edited June 2008
    I think the ultimate audio accessory would be a deluxe, super-comfy, iridium-plated, tinfoil hat. :D

    One which can be worn at the same time as those pretentious headphones for which you paid ?20,000 and the cat. ;)
    I never make misteaks mistrakes misyales errurs — oh, sod it.
  • edited June 2008
    I am one of those that thinks buying good speaker wire is an advantage. When I say good speaker wire. I mean about £12 to £20 a meter max. Any more than that and you are being sold down the river. Trust me its better than using the thin n cheap wire from Curries etc.

    Its crazy what the audio press and manufacturers get people to beleive.

    Take for instance the Marantz CD 63. Available in two versions (actually 3 but we will ignore that).
    Standard sold for £250.

    The special editition sold for £350.


    One of the selling points of the special adition was that it's chassy was stronger, thicker and more ridged. This they said not only made the CD more durable but improved the bottom end i.e. The lower regions of the bass.

    Absolute Bolocks. The signal read of the CD is digital and only converted to analogue on the main PCB in the electronics. How is a stiffer chassy going to affect the electronics.

    The only benifit of this is the reduced vibration may mean the lazer does not drop bits due to the CD and transport mechanism vibrating, in witch case you need the music very load and the speaker pointing directy at and close to the CD player.

    They did make improvements to the CD63SE (tha capacitors). Now this I can see having some effect.


    However, I own a Marantz CD63 and a CD63SE and I can honestly not tell the difference and my amp is a good-un an Audiolab 8000a.
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • edited June 2008
    Scottie_uk wrote: »
    I am one of those that thinks buying good speaker wire is an advantage. When I say good speaker wire. I mean about ?12 to ?20 a meter max. Any more than that and you are being sold down the river. Trust me its better than using the thin n cheap wire from Curries etc.

    Its crazy what the audio press and manufacturers get people to beleive.

    Take for instance the Marantz CD 63. Available in two versions (actually 3 but we will ignore that).
    Standard sold for ?250.

    The special editition sold for ?350.


    One of the selling points of the special adition was that it's chassy was stronger, thicker and more ridged. This they said not only made the CD more durable but improved the bottom end i.e. The lower regions of the bass.

    Absolute Bolocks. The signal read of the CD is digital and only converted to analogue on the main PCB in the electronics. How is a stiffer chassy going to affect the electronics.

    The only benifit of this is the reduced vibration may mean the lazer does not drop bits due to the CD and transport mechanism vibrating, in witch case you need the music very load and the speaker pointing directy at and close to the CD player.

    They did make improvements to the CD63SE (tha capacitors). Now this I can see having some effect.


    However, I own a Marantz CD63 and a CD63SE and I can honestly not tell the difference and my amp is a good-un an Audiolab 8000a.

    Dude, Kajagoogoo still sounds shit with all that equipement so stop listening to it!
  • edited June 2008
    beanz wrote: »
    Dude, Kajagoogoo still sounds shit with all that equipement so stop listening to it!

    I'll never stop listening to my Hifi. But Kajagoogoo!!??!!?? Beanz your letting yourself down??
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • edited June 2008
    Scottie_uk wrote: »
    I'll never stop listening to my Hifi. But Kajagoogoo!!??!!?? Beanz your letting yourself down??
    Why? The fact that Beanz has the biggest Kajagoogoo collection in the USA is no surprise to me.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited June 2008
    karingal wrote: »
    Why? The fact that Beanz has the biggest Kajagoogoo collection in the USA is no surprise to me.

    I bet Beanz had the spiky bleached Lemal mullet back in the 80's :lol:
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited June 2008
    karingal wrote: »
    Why? The fact that Beanz has the biggest Kajagoogoo collection in the USA is no surprise to me.

    Ah but he's too shy to admit it, it's all hush hush.
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • edited June 2008
    Scottie_uk wrote: »
    Ah but he's too shy to admit it, it's all hush hush.

    it took me 19 hours to get that joke :o
    is that a bad thing, or a good thing!? :D
  • edited June 2008
    guesser wrote: »
    it took me 19 hours to get that joke :o
    is that a bad thing, or a good thing!? :D

    A paradox if ever there was one :lol:
    Every night is curry night!
  • edited June 2008
    guesser wrote: »
    it took me 19 hours to get that joke :o
    is that a bad thing, or a good thing!? :D

    That depends on what you were listening too at the time. :D
    I bet Beanz had the spiky bleached Lemal mullet back in the 80's :lol:

    All that hair gel and spray must be why he's bald now.
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
  • edited June 2008
    Scottie_uk wrote: »
    All that hair gel and spray must be why he's bald now.

    Thats down to the unusually high levels of manly testosterone.
  • edited June 2008
    beanz wrote: »
    Thats down to the unusually high levels of manly testosterone.

    Which reacted to the amount of 'Flock of Seagulls' in his vinyl collection the only way it knew how.
  • edited June 2008
    beanz wrote: »
    Thats down to the unusually high levels of manly testosterone...
    ...he's received anally.
    I wanna tell you a story 'bout a woman I know...
  • edited June 2008
    beanz wrote: »
    Thats down to the unusually high levels of manly testosterone.

    Thats a very strange ingredient to put in hair spray. Well I suppose you went to great lengths to make it long and stiff so you could do all manner of things with it.
    Calling all ASCII Art Architects Visit the WOS Wall of Text and contribute: https://www.yourworldoftext.com/wos
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