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CrazyLittle
Sep 11, 2001





Clapping Larry

oh god I was reading through some of the ERS threads on headfi and simply knowing this thread exists made be believe half the people in there were part of it... but the thread's from 2007. :gonk:

Hotpants, you have destroyed my universe.

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Kreeblah
May 17, 2004

INSERT QUACK TO CONTINUE


Taco Defender

:hellyeah:

I need to think of a gimmick now.

Audiot
May 18, 2006

CuddleChunks posted:

How is preserving your hearing a bad thing?

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for hearing protection, and I'm pretty religious about wearing plugs (custom molds :smug:) or a noise reducing headset for concerts. I'm not willing to drive around with shotgun plugs in though.

Back on topic...

Any thoughts on speaker doping? It's probably not with the spirit of the thread, but I have heard differences after someone painted some secret glue onto their speaker cones. At the same time a set of drivers were made to sound worse by some other glue mixture. I guess this has to do with DIY and experimentation, but I don't like the idea of ruining my gear in order to have the chance that it might sound a little better. Diminishing returns, I guess.

Coughing-up Tweed
Jun 12, 2006

Audiot posted:

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for hearing protection, and I'm pretty religious about wearing plugs (custom molds :smug:) or a noise reducing headset for concerts. I'm not willing to drive around with shotgun plugs in though.

Back on topic...

Any thoughts on speaker doping? It's probably not with the spirit of the thread, but I have heard differences after someone painted some secret glue onto their speaker cones. At the same time a set of drivers were made to sound worse by some other glue mixture. I guess this has to do with DIY and experimentation, but I don't like the idea of ruining my gear in order to have the chance that it might sound a little better. Diminishing returns, I guess.

Undoped speakers will resonate weirdly at certain frequencies. It can be cool sounding for guitar amps when you're slamming the poo poo out of an undoped speaker and it's howling these weird harmonics along with you, but for audiphile listening I doubt that is a desirable quality. Too much doping will alter the transient response of a speaker, making it less sensitive and less "punchy", for lack of a better word.

CAPS LOCK BROKEN
Feb 1, 2006

by Fluffdaddy
Can't believe this classic hasn't been posted yet.

Promoted Pawn
Jun 8, 2005

oops


Peven Stan posted:

Can't believe this classic hasn't been posted yet.


Am I correct to assume that the actual bars in that graph came from a real ad and that they really claimed that their "technology" could make your MP3s sound better than the original recording? :psyduck:

dealmaster
Dec 24, 2005

Somebody call for an exterminator?

Promoted Pawn posted:

Am I correct to assume that the actual bars in that graph came from a real ad and that they really claimed that their "technology" could make your MP3s sound better than the original recording? :psyduck:

This is Creative after all, I'd be surprised if they didn't claim using their highest end sound card reduced cancer risks.

getsuga
Dec 31, 2007
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=px7LqMMSdz8

If you listen closely he says he sold some of his audio equipment because he needed money for food :gonk: . Hello kitty bed sheets and horribly skewed priorities, but at least he "completed" his hobby right?

getsuga fucked around with this message at 16:07 on Aug 4, 2009

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

Peven Stan posted:

Can't believe this classic hasn't been posted yet.


Creative is about as far from audiophilia as you can get though, retarded claims about audio quality permeate the low end of the market too, e.g. Bose.

Speaking of which one of my favorite products is the Slim Devices Transporter. The normal squeezebox has a very good D/A converter and pretty high qality components. They couldn't get high end buyers to believe that it sounded good at $300 so they made a $2000 super squeezebox with the best of everything and a fancy metal case and it's actually sold pretty well.

qirex fucked around with this message at 19:42 on Aug 4, 2009

coolskillrex remix
Jan 1, 2007

gorsh

metaxus posted:

As an employee of the Hi-Fi world, I'll gladly make and send three audiophile-related prizes to the winners as determined by King Hotpants.

It's my day off tomorrow, but when I'm back in the following day I'll make them and take some pics of the awesome prizes on offer.

You just might score some special Australian bags of magic pebbles!

are we going to get to know what the prizes are? i can think of several tweaks but i dont think anyone at head-fi will fall for them unless i put a shitload of effort into it and take pics of me actually doing it...

Bass Ackwards
Nov 14, 2003

Anything can be used as a hammer if you try hard enough.

Omegaslast posted:

are we going to get to know what the prizes are? i can think of several tweaks but i dont think anyone at head-fi will fall for them unless i put a shitload of effort into it and take pics of me actually doing it...

So far, I've made a pair of Cat5 interconnects, and I'm working on a tweak based around some old hard drive platters.

I need to go to the hardware store tomorrow morning and pick up a few things.

Stay tuned...

Bass Ackwards fucked around with this message at 09:49 on Aug 5, 2009

King Hotpants
Apr 11, 2005

Clint.
Fucking.
Eastwood.

Omegaslast posted:

are we going to get to know what the prizes are? i can think of several tweaks but i dont think anyone at head-fi will fall for them unless i put a shitload of effort into it and take pics of me actually doing it...

I'm going to dig around in my A/V closet and see if I can find a really good prize. I'm sure I have something in there that would be awesome.

Also, you guys can discuss the contest in the contest thread. Just get a different username when you sign up on another forum.

Audiot
May 18, 2006
The sickness finally has a name: audiophilia. The timing is just too good and feels almost like some reverse troll.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824654,00.html

Lazlo Nibble
Jan 9, 2004

It was Weasleby, by God! At last I had the miserable blighter precisely where I wanted him!

Audiot posted:

The sickness finally has a name: audiophilia. The timing is just too good and feels almost like some reverse troll.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824654,00.html
The phenomenon definitely dates back a while (1958 in this case; 1991 is just the CD reissue).

MullardEL34
Sep 30, 2008

Basking in the cathode glow
I'm thinking about building an elaborate psychobabble defense for one of those nutty "CD improvement" tweaks that seem to be everywhere now, usually involving sandpaper and markers.

http://www.tweakaudio.com/Cd%20tweaks.html

http://www.tweaks4u.com/product_info.php?cPath=36&products_id=1112&language=EN

quote:

1. Lightly sand the outer and inner edge of the CD with sand paper (240 grit works fine) to remove the shine. This roughing of the edges stops a great deal of the laser reflections. This results in a more musical, natural and detailed playback.

2. Green or blacken the edges you just sanded and also green or blacken the top and bottom of the CD around the center hole where it is clear. Make sure you color into any centering grooves or hills. Because the laser is red everyone has assumed that you have to use a green marker to absorb the light. Black absorbs all colors and works very effectively. You want to use a marker that is opaque, doesn’t come off on your fingers and also does not peel off. Surprisingly cheap and effective is your basic black Sanford Sharpie marker. With this marker you need to go over each area several times to make it opaque. Doing this will give you even better sound.

Note: This previous quote was dead serious.


Or maybe I should work on something to do with the "creamy midrange," "airy highs" "multidimensional soundstaging" or "tonal clarity" that only extremely expensive :10bux: New-Old-Stock :10bux: Vacuum Tubes made in Europe or England can supposedly provide.

(I use a $50 quad of Russian made Electro-Harmonix EL34 in my Leak Stereo 50 power amp. I honestly cant tell the difference between the sound of the new Russian tubes and the $300 vintage Amperex tubes that came in the amp when I bought it. :v:)

MullardEL34 fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Aug 8, 2009

mediaphage
Mar 22, 2007

Excuse me, pardon me, sheer perfection coming through

Audiot posted:

The sickness finally has a name: audiophilia. The timing is just too good and feels almost like some reverse troll.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824654,00.html

The psychiatrist is a little hilarious in his description of marriage: "Significantly, says Psychiatrist Bowes (married, no children), an addict's wife almost always demands that the volume be turned down: "Perhaps in the male's interest in hi-fi she senses a rival, as shrill and discordant as herself." "

Haha, as shrill and discordant as herself? Someone's been unlucky in love.

luncheon meat
Oct 11, 2007

Brendan Jones, 42, Bendigo

qirex posted:

One of my favorite pieces of insanity is people going nuts for original model Playstations as audiophile CD players.
http://dogbreath.de/PS1/index.html

That guy clearly has something wrong with him. The dampening is the funniest part. I'm thinking it might be time to eBay my old Playstation.

swordfishtrombone
Dec 24, 2004

the violinist kept playing

saltbox posted:

That guy clearly has something wrong with him. The dampening is the funniest part.

No kidding. The damping spring element for his hopped-up Playstation is a weakly inflated inner tube from a child's bicycle. I imagine the guy perhaps lurking outside his house, patiently waiting for some unwitting kid to ride past; then leaping out to capture and harvest them for makeshift audio parts. Heh, audiophiles... :pedo:

elmwood
Aug 22, 2004

Your story has become tiresome.
This thread simply must be experienced on a vintage tube-based PC. It offers a much warmer, richer datastage that gives the Something Awful experience a level of authenticity and depth that cannot be experienced with mere solid state circuity alone.

mr. nobody
Sep 25, 2004

Net contents 12 fluid oz.

elmwood posted:

This thread simply must be experienced on a vintage tube-based PC. It offers a much warmer, richer datastage that gives the Something Awful experience a level of authenticity and depth that cannot be experienced with mere solid state circuity alone.

Analog computing is about as pure as it gets indeed.

something_clever
Sep 25, 2006

A $699 CD lathe.
In a series of tests, Dr. Erich Schrott and engineer Wolfgang Schneider determined that beveling the edge of a disk at 36 degrees could dramatically reduce scattered light and thereby audibly improve the sound.


The Golden Goddess 'Super Effect' Speaker Bullets incorporate a newly developed combination of carbon nanotube and gold-based quantum purification technologies.
Sure they do:rolleyes:..and only for a meager $4200

mikeyio
Mar 1, 2003

something_clever posted:

newly developed combination of carbon nanotube and gold-based quantum purification technologies.

drat it, why didn't I think of that?

Squibbles
Aug 24, 2000

Mwaha ha HA ha!

mikeyio posted:

drat it, why didn't I think of that?

http://www.enjoythemusic.com/SuperiorAudio/equipment/1007/bybee_golden_goddess.htm

quote:

What Do those Bybee Things Do, Anyway?
Basically, the technology gets rid of the noise you can't hear. And no, I'm not being a smartass. At the quantum mechanical level, as electrons flow through conductive materials, various types of noise phenomena occur—1/F noise, shot noise, etc. This quantum-level noise is not itself audible to the human ear, but its presence nonetheless has a degrading effect on the purity and accuracy of the information being transmitted.
...

I cannot emphasize too strongly that the Bullets require substantial burn-in time. In my system, the sonic improvement initially seemed somewhat nebulous. After 20-30 hours I was definitely hearing improvements, at that point similar to the effects of Jack's older Golden Goddess Speaker Cable Tails — very desirable, to be sure, but not the heart-stopping, mind-bending revolutionary transformation I was hoping to hear. But bit by bit, evening after evening as I sat down in front of my system, the sound continued to evolve, getting better and better. My best guess is that it took 200+ hours of listening time before the Bullets reached their full performance, though of course following their development was a fascinating and pleasurable process in its own right.

So be warned. If you are going to pop for these things, be prepared to give them enough time. In my setup big, powerful amplifiers were pushing music through the speakers at quite robust levels most of the time. So if you have, for instance, a 10-watt SET amp driving horns, you could be in for a very extended burn-in time. But I can promise you that the Bullets are worth investing your time.

Hear that? It gets rid of noise you can't hear which makes everything sound better (after you listen to it for a week... or maybe a month)!

qirex
Feb 15, 2001

Squibbles posted:

Hear that? It gets rid of noise you can't hear which makes everything sound better (after you listen to it for a week... or maybe a month)!
I think you'll find the sonic improvements are much more pronounced once the 30-day return period has elapsed.

something_clever
Sep 25, 2006

Wayne Donnelly posted:

At the quantum mechanical level, as electrons flow through conductive materials, various types of noise phenomena occur—1/F noise, shot noise, etc....Getting rid of that quantum mechanical noise yields quieter, blacker backgrounds, more exciting dynamics, purer tonality, more precise and expanded spatial resolution, etc., etc

I think thats been the problem with my hifi setup all along. drat you quantum mechanical noise!:bang:

Squibbles posted:

Hear that? It gets rid of noise you can't hear which makes everything sound better (after you listen to it for a week... or maybe a month)!

Everybody knows that a good 200 hour burn-in is neccesary to bring out the quantum mechanical noise suppressing abilities of great carbon nanotube and gold-based quantum purification technologies.

I might somehow reluctantly accept that an active analog electronic circuit or dynamic speaker might benefit from some burn in time and make a difference in frequency output at least from the standpoint of a series of advanced measurements. But i didn't realize that a goddamn speaker spade needs burn in time...:cry:

I guess Jack Bybee laughs all the way to the bank, while he diligently sacrifices his time and knowledge to rid the world of quantum mechanical noise and developing other audiophile placebo crap. According to Wayne, Mr. Bybee has at least been at it since 1996. If he has managed to create a business for more than 13 years years peddling expensive audio placebo, while I'm whining in some dark corner of the internets on a friday night, then maybe I really shouldn't be so smug on Jack's behalf...:downsgun:

Moist von Lipwig
Oct 28, 2006

by FactsAreUseless
Tortured By Flan

Quackery posted:

At the quantum mechanical level, as electrons flow through conductive materials, various types of noise phenomena occur—1/F noise, shot noise, etc. This quantum-level noise is not itself audible to the human ear, but its presence nonetheless has a degrading effect on the purity and accuracy of the information being transmitted.

Wait wait wait. This guy's claiming to have invented a device to somehow deaden quantum mechanical noise (which I think would only be possible by getting incrementally close to absolute zero), and yet he thinks electrons "flow" through conductive materials :pwn:

luncheon meat
Oct 11, 2007

Brendan Jones, 42, Bendigo
Do your CDs lack clarity or focus? Don't worry. Just freeze em.

http://web.archive.org/web/20001017103703/www.soundstage.com/synergize/synergize199912.htm

Bensa
Aug 21, 2007

Loyal 'til the end.
Speakers might actually be the only thing that could ever required burn-in, the surrounds might be more stiff than intended if they've not been used or have been in storage for a long time.

TenementFunster
Feb 20, 2003

The Cooler King

Bensa posted:

Speakers might actually be the only thing that could ever required burn-in, the surrounds might be more stiff than intended if they've not been used or have been in storage for a long time.
that is like the only thing I've picked up around "audiophiles" which even half-way makes sense to me. i wanted to scream the first time i heard about burning in cables however

Hypnolobster
Apr 12, 2007

What this sausage party needs is a big dollop of ketchup! Too bad I didn't make any. :(

TenementFunster posted:

that is like the only thing I've picked up around "audiophiles" which even half-way makes sense to me. i wanted to scream the first time i heard about burning in cables however

hey man all the harshness from a new silver cable goes away after 459.3 hours

porksmash
Sep 30, 2008

Hypnolobster posted:

hey man all the harshness from a new silver cable goes away after 459.3 hours

But any real man uses pure platinum cables which measure 0.000000106 ohms/m compared to 0.000000159 ohms/m for silver.

kyy
Apr 27, 2008

Audiot posted:

The sickness finally has a name: audiophilia. The timing is just too good and feels almost like some reverse troll.

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,824654,00.html

Good timing? That article was written in 1957.

proudfoot
Jul 17, 2006
Yak! Look! a Yak!
Audiophiles generally hate blind a/b tests. The general argument is that differences which are at first hard to notice become apparent only with use over a long period of time.

proudfoot fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Aug 27, 2009

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

saltbox posted:

Do your CDs lack clarity or focus? Don't worry. Just freeze em.

http://web.archive.org/web/20001017103703/www.soundstage.com/synergize/synergize199912.htm

Cooling those CDs will make the zeros and ones on a CD more orderly. This reminds me of a vinyl elist telling me about the zeros being the missing sound quality on a CD.

Twiin
Nov 11, 2003

King of Suck!

proudfoot posted:

Audiophiles generally hate blind a/b tests. The general argument is that differences which are at first hard to notice become apparent only with use over a long period of time.

They can bring their own 30-year old super-broken-in cables to the ABX test, then.

mr. nobody
Sep 25, 2004

Net contents 12 fluid oz.

kyy posted:

Good timing? That article was written in 1957.

This was the appropriate news article burn-in time.

Arrowsmith
Feb 6, 2006

SAGANISTA!

Moist von Lipwig posted:

Wait wait wait. This guy's claiming to have invented a device to somehow deaden quantum mechanical noise (which I think would only be possible by getting incrementally close to absolute zero), and yet he thinks electrons "flow" through conductive materials :pwn:

They're just words made of letters you can put them anywhere you want!

swordfishtrombone
Dec 24, 2004

the violinist kept playing

mr. nazi posted:

This was the appropriate news article burn-in time.

I like to enjoy my current events the same way I enjoy the fine wine in my enormous cellar. :smug:

Hey, did you guys hear what just happened to Kennedy? :(

Devian666
Aug 20, 2008

Take some advice Chris.

Fun Shoe

swordfishtrombone posted:

I like to enjoy my current events the same way I enjoy the fine wine in my enormous cellar. :smug:

Hey, did you guys hear what just happened to Kennedy? :(

A shame his death overshadowed that of Aldous Huxley.

Head fi is a great place to peddle $300 audio cables which are only 1m long. You should treat these audiophiles as customers. I'm sure I have at least $3000 of audio cable I could sell them.

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Arrowsmith
Feb 6, 2006

SAGANISTA!

Devian666 posted:

A shame his death overshadowed that of Aldous Huxley.

Ted Kennedy was larger than life, but can you hold the fat jokes until they find enough dirt to bury the guy budget to finish the Big Dig?

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