Super cable

[Rig Pig]

This is an unmissable deal! The electrons will fly down this cable far faster than any cheap old wire!
Treat your welders to one or two!

 

[cumbriasteve]

If there are buyers there will always be sellers

My old fella used to say the item needs to be nothing special, it's the sales spiel that makes it appear special.

 

[Parm]

Does it say anywhere that it was made by virgin mermaids ?

 

[Exuptoy]

My mate builds and repairs hi-end hi-fi and his mate has a company specialising in snake oil products like the one above. He was telling me about people spending thousands on cable solutions etc, hi-end turntable cartidges (they were called needles by us years ago!!)

Here's an example of the sort of spends which will guarantee you crystal clear sound (whether your ear can differentiate is another matter!)

https://www.turntableworld.co.uk/an...k22gM7uSIFfxQEk-ZQsZ3KCaigJIV-dsaAga5EALw_wcB

 

[Exuptoy]

I have an Audio Technica LP60 something or other (starter end of the scale) which is worth around £100 maybe and whilst its a nicely presented bit of kit it is essentially a turntable for playing old vinyl. I certainly won't be spending silly money upgrading it.

 

[PhillipM]

Seems a bit of a shame to plug it into a plastic socket with some years old brass pins connected to a ring main full of noisy open copper, really....

 

[Luke]

I don't know who I'm more astounded by, the people who have the balls to market this sort of stuff, or the muppets that actually buy it....

 

[Exuptoy]

You have to hand it to the sellers, if they manage to punt this dross out to audiophiles then they deserve to reap the rewards. Lets face it, this sort of stuff isn't being purchased by your hard up young family who can't afford to keep their kids is it......and as such it's probably being purchased by people with maybe a bit more disposable income than most.

 

[skotl]

This guy's been around for decades, selling his snake-oil cables to gullible audiophiles.

What do the sparks think of his "Upgraded consumer unit" at £211?

http://www.russandrews.com/connected-offers/

 

[skotl]

Here's a good article on the scam, from way back in 2006:

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2006/jan/07/badscience.uknews

Let's think about how electricity gets from the national grid to that wall socket, where you plug in the kettle lead that powers your stereo. It zooms along huge cables between big pylons (at very high voltages, because higher voltages can get down long lines with less waste) and then gets turned into 240v at your local substation. Then it travels a fairly long distance from the substation to your house before it comes through the metering stuff. Then the power has got to go up the stairs, around the walls and under the floor to the socket next to your stereo. All of these voyages are fabulous opportunities for the cable to act as an antenna, and pick up radio frequencies that could present themselves as noise in the final sound coming out of your speakers. The cable might stop the last metre or so from picking up radio noise, but if radio noise really is a problem, it will probably be there already, from the huge length of preceding cables. I can't imagine how this expensive kettle lead is going to filter it out.

...as PhillipM says

 

[Parm]

Most of these audiophiles are most probably over middle age. It’s a medical fact that human hearing deteriorated with age, it’s called presbycusis, one third of us will experience this after a certain age. It typically affects our ability to hear mid and high range frequencies most common in the spoken voice range around 4K Hz.

No amount of spending on snake oil products is going to help overcome this

There are some advantages and benefits in having nice kit but there really has to be a limit

 

[brightspark]

Seems a bit of a shame to plug it into a plastic socket with some years old brass pins connected to a ring main full of noisy open copper, really....

guess what though I have wired high end systems up for folk a dedicated hager unswitched socket wired separately in 6.omm cable back to a hager db wired tt and a separate earth rod . I said to the guy pity your on the end of a line of houses out in sticks with a crap supply still everyone to there own what makes me laugh is they have speakers with thick gold plated cable that hasn't to have joints in and the conections each end just have a push in spring connector

 

[cumbriasteve]

Apparently the HDMI cable my mate gave me is a high tech gold plated bit of kit that cost him a lot of money 5 years ago and would make everything look much better.

I tested it against the £1 shop cable I bought...no difference at all, Kim Jong Un was still a little fat fella with a daft haircut no matter which cable I use.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Does it say anywhere that it was made by virgin mermaids ?

No, but it may be rolled on the thighs of virgins, like all the very best Cuban ceeegars.

When you think you're getting this......

this turns up......

 

[HughF]

Apparently the HDMI cable my mate gave me is a high tech gold plated bit of kit that cost him a lot of money 5 years ago and would make everything look much better.

I tested it against the £1 shop cable I bought...no difference at all, Kim Jong Un was still a little fat fella with a daft haircut no matter which cable I use.

All about improving those 1's and 0's

 

[HughF]

Most of these audiophiles are most probably over middle age. It’s a medical fact that human hearing deteriorated with age, it’s called presbycusis, one third of us will experience this after a certain age. It typically affects our ability to hear mid and high range frequencies most common in the spoken voice range around 4K Hz.

No amount of spending on snake oil products is going to help overcome this

There are some advantages and benefits in having nice kit but there really has to be a limit

I'll stick with my 1210's, my old made-in-melksham Citronic mixer and a pair of old celestions....

 

[Parm]

I'll stick with my 1210's, my old made-in-melksham Citronic mixer and a pair of old celestions....

I gave up on my 1210s a while back. Everything is all through sound cloud these days

 

[Dcal]

Most of these audiophiles are most probably over middle age. It’s a medical fact that human hearing deteriorated with age, it’s called presbycusis, one third of us will experience this after a certain age. It typically affects our ability to hear mid and high range frequencies most common in the spoken voice range around 4K Hz.

No amount of spending on snake oil products is going to help overcome this

There are some advantages and benefits in having nice kit but there really has to be a limit

In a way this is the crux of it.
A lot of audiophiles are chasing a sound they remember and their hearing is starting to let them down, so they keep tweaking and swapping stuff to get the "perfect" sound.
A lot of the snake oil kit and cables don't have a flat frequency response and mixing and matching can get you where you want.
it certainly wont have a flat response but if your hearing isn't perfect and you like it so who cares?
If you have a high resolution system and you change something you can hear differences. I won't say it right or wrong but you can hear differences.
Listen to an mp3 file on a tinny phone speaker and nothing is going to help.

The whole thing seems pretty harmless to me and no worse than spending the same, or way more on a battery watch (or just a battery!)
its easy to make fun of other hobbies, just think what most audiophiles would say about what we get up to?

 

[Parm]

In a way this is the crux of it.
A lot of audiophiles are chasing a sound they remember and their hearing is starting to let them down, so they keep tweaking and swapping stuff to get the "perfect" sound.
A lot of the snake oil kit and cables don't have a flat frequency response and mixing and matching can get you where you want.
it certainly wont have a flat response but if your hearing isn't perfect and you like it so who cares?
If you have a high resolution system and you change something you can hear differences. I won't say it right or wrong but you can hear differences.
Listen to an mp3 file on a tinny phone speaker and nothing is going to help.

The whole thing seems pretty harmless to me and no worse than spending the same, or way more on a battery watch (or just a battery!)
its easy to make fun of other hobbies, just think what most audiophiles would say about what we get up to?

I’m not knocking them for thier hobbies, some of the top end stuff sounds really nice, I have some too, but seriously some of those accessories

 

[maz0]

I sometimes dabble in the audiophile forums looking for bargains. Some of the stuff you read is akin to flat earth theorists. It’s been proven several times at audiophile conventions its mostly a load of confirmation bias and rubbish. I'm sure I read of one guy sitting down a bunch of “golden ears” who were convinced they were listening to 2500 quid a meter van dam cable and the guy was using lawn mower power cable from B&Q. Same was done again instead using straightened coat hangers. They thought it was a great sound, clueless numpties.

It’s all well and good saying leave people to their own hobbies, but when they are propagating lies and BS, I don't really see the difference between them and someone chappin old folks doors and telling them they have slates missing and can be all sorted for a measly 2 grand. Its a scam at the end of the day, and this is from someone who has £500 earphones. Bought them off an audiophile for £100