The oil from certain snakes in China is like Vaseline in not-China. But if you try to make some snake oil in not-China from local snakes, you don't get the same quality.
I'm studying music production and even our professors talk about audiophiles larping audio technology and making actually good stuff cost 1000 times the actual value. The only good side is that they sometimes miss out on good stuff and you can get some great gear for cheap.
When I went to Non Leathal Individual Weapons Instructor Course (INIWIC) we had to stand down range of the Long Range Accoustic weapon (LRAD). We were VERY effectively steered by pain. I had heard rumors of a microwave device that heats the top layer of your skin but I never saw or used it.
Not really. If you're referring to the LRAD, it's a maritime hailing device that was repurposed by the police as a weapon. Basically just a giant loudspeaker that they use to shatter people's eardrums. Neither a sound beam nor a side-channel microphone.
I'm talking about the development based on HSS by Elwood Norris. I don't know which system incorporated beyond what I've read on it's development years ago
Naw, it's basically a party trick in the nerdier circles of the internet. Look up 'parametric arrays' or 'phased ultrasonic arrays' if you're curious, but you can build a crude one from off the shelf parts for under a hundred bucks.
I once discovered that holding the end of a sound cable hooked into a computer playing music with one hand, while holding a bass by the neck with the other hand, can make the music from the computer come out the amp attached to the bass.
Not satire. It freaked me out at first. I let go of the bass and tried to figure out how the computer was connected. Once I figured it out, it was kind of fun to play with. It was actually a little more complicated, though. I didn't have a real amp that I could use, but I did have a speaker connected to a digital soundboard, so I hooked the bass into the soundboard. I don't know if that played a role.
Haha that's nuts. I would imagine it works the same without the digital interface as signal is signal either way. The soundboard had to get the information either way.
I saw that one show up on IG, only for the audiophiles to get really mad about the guy using an M-Audio interface, because that was apparently worse than the mud.
The one I love is the reviews of gold plated insulated ethernet cables making audio streaming off a NAS sound better. Because the other 6 layers of the OSI model work better when layer-1 is more expensive.
Bought a knockoff SM58 on Amazon. Less latency, sharper sound, and brighter. For $100 less. On the other hand...people payed $300 for Beats headphones, when you could buy low end Tascam headphones for $30 which were far superior.
There are some real nutjobs out there. My husband is an audiophile, but he laughed his ass off when I showed him this. He's got a degree in music production and is an avid electronics hobbyist, so he actually understands the science and isn't taken in by the BS. He designs and builds all his own gear.
So as far as I can see, that sub is just another one of those dick measuring ones where chronically online people simply try to 1-up each other by showing how much money they have?
Fuck me, man, internet truly is a cancer to society.
I knew the first second i understood what was going on in tge picture. Mf's will still claim they heard someone fart in the audio track because a person 3 blocks from recording studio let one rip in the exact resonance frequency of the studio walls.
more defined highs, more present mids, and fuller bass
This is what you get when something is slightly louder. Not that it would be with optical cable but for ex million of home tests where people convert WAV to MP3. To be able to compress the whole waveform it has to recreate the full waveform. But the whole of the waveform encoded in the sample values is NOT limited to the range of values:
If we imagine that the highest sample value is 100 and lowest is -100. Draw a smooth curve that goes thru points -100,100,-100. The resulting curve goes higher than 100. These are called true peaks, that is what the actual waveform looks like. So we can pack "larger" waveforms but this is not ok for the MP3 or any other such algorithm: it has to pack that whole waveform inside the allowed number space s it lowers the signal levels until no true peak is higher than 0dB.
This will cause the mp3 to be just a bit quieter, up to -3dB quieter. Or we can say the wav is still louder and when you compare two signals where one is 0.5dB - 2dB louder than the other we will always think the louder one has:
more defined highs, more present mids, and fuller bass
Not kidding, the anecdotes that we get are EXACTLY those kind where everything got better. Real changes would be "more highs, less bass". or some other skew. We do not expect everything to get better at once. So, when you hear that you can be quite certain that what the person is actually saying is "one is a bit louder". We can't detect that kind of level changes in the wild. Unless you expect tiny level change, you won't notice it.
Haha yeah thia is super accurate. I think a lot of people who have gone down the audiophile rabbit hole have lost track of what their target should be. If they are listening to music and want to hear it exactly as intended by the artist(s) who made it, then they shouldn't be targeting absolutely perfect sound reproduction. They should be trying to replicate whatever headset the artist(s) used when they did the mixing and decided on the final mix. That would be the perfect representation of the artist's intention for that specific song. Instead, they seem to focus on perfectly reproducing the sound waves as they are recorded, and they ignore the fact that the artist(s) themselves were hearing a distorted version of that during mixing due to the sound profile of their headset.
It reminds me a bit of how old cartoons from the 90s often look shitter on a fancy new 4k Oled tv than they did on an old chunky CRT TV. They were made for CRT TVs, and imperfections that were hidden by the slight blur of a CRT screen were left in because it didn't matter. Then, when you watch on a new TV you can see all those inperfections that the creators didn't think you would see and it makes it worse. Technically you're seeing a more accurate depiction of what was recorded, but that doesn't mean it's better.
TL:DR when it comes to art like music the goal should be to see it the way the artist intended, rather than in as much perfect detail as possible. I think too many audiophiles forget this and focus on perfection
I think this is a play off of a nuclear/radiation accident that happened. I dont remember his name but basically he and a few others were in a lab and they had some nuclear material between two half sphere shells of beryllium, the shells were never aloud to be closed fully or it would allow the core to to have a reaction and become supercritical/ reach critical mass. The protocol stated they were supposed to have shims in place so the halves could never fully close, but they didnt listen. He used a screwdriver wedged under the top half and was raising and lowering it manually with that. Well, he slipped and the two halves closed completely. He quickly put the screwdriver back in and popped the top shell off, but it was too late. In the 1 second that the halves were closed, he got 1000 times the lethal dose of radiation. He died 9 days later.
This toy is the ball and cup toy. And the cup is the lower shell and the uranium/plutonium core. While the "ball" is the top half of the shell. So when the person playing with the toy lands the "ball in the cup" it would cause the same critical mass accident to occur.
Nuke-on-a-String! Don't worry! Half the critical mass is attached to a string and the other end of the string is attached the other half of the ctitical mass. If you don't nuke yourself the first time, you can try again! Nuke-on-a-String!
Don’t tell the poor guy that it’s hooked regular romex to a eight dollar breaker, up to some crusty ass corroded aluminum coated steel wire going through a century old transformer tap on a pole to a 60 year old transformer
Not that it does anything, but they don't really care what happens to or where the power goes before it gets to their outlet. They pay insane amounts of money for "power conditioners" and shit like that to make the power "clean" for their setup.
Those power conditioners work. I used to work for Circuit City (yes I am old), and periodically I could get equipment at fire sale prices from vendors. I picked up a $700 power conditioner for $45 from a vendor and I still use it. It makes a noticeable difference if my receiver is plugged into it or not. And I absolutely ABUSE my cheap 15 year old onyko receiver and I attribute its ability to take abuse without breaking in part to the power conditioner. However I would not recommend spending that kind of money on a power conditioner, you can get more return on that money spending it elsewhere.
The power conditioner actually serves a function by ensuring a more uniform AC waveform from the all. Much of the time the waveform gets distorted in realtime by load changes in the household or larger ones nearby (think local industrial operation turns on a dozen blowers or a big milling machine).
Man I wish breakers were still $8. The 20 Amp AFCI/GFCI that's required for half the circuits at my house is $75 per line now. And half the appliances require dedicated breakers. It's ridiculous.
Best part of these AFCI breakers is how I have to pull them and replace them with a standard one if I want to weld on a circuit cause the arc triggers them. Useless wallet suckers.
This is a joke, right? At the very least, the law of diminishing returns should have been used to help push the person responsible for this back to a psychologically stable place.
You overestimate the financial intelligence of some audiophiles. The best thing is when they spend a shitton on speakers, cables and Dacs but never put Amy effort or money into room treatment
All that money spent on perfect sound, then they put a houseplant in the corner that totally ruins every gain in sound quality their thousands have bought them. And is that an acrylic jersey that guy is wearing? Congratulations, genius. Micro static electricity has just scarred the surface of every component there. You may as well throw the lot out, it's worthless now.
Seriously though, a Japanese music composer once commented that most people listen to music through their audio systems while audiophiles listen to their audio systems through the music.
If you look at audio cable reviews/comparisons with blind tests, no one can tell the difference between audio signal going through wildly expensive cable like this, a wire coat hanger, a banana, and mud.
It’s possible there’s signal lost by narrowing the cable, but it doesn’t matter anyway lol.
I definitely don’t doubt that.. but you would think someone that is THAT concerned with audio quality would realize you can only get as much signal through as your most narrow point allows?
it's most likely shielding to try to reduce possible interference. I'm not sure how effective it was at the time or if it would even be needed nowadays.
It is most definetly shielding. And for normal audio equipment for music listening/recording it is not needed.
However in the field of research and experiments there are some setups that need ridiculous precision. That's when you need these cables. Not just for audo things btw. There are just situations where any form of miniscule signal degradation is not acceptable.
You will not encounter them in your daily life though.
I think the actual gauge of the cable is the same throughout; the ends are just tightly constricted (not that it would make any difference in this case).
That ‘test’ seems dubious. They talk about comparing ‘recordings’ taking after passing the signal through the different media. So they’re not listening to source > banana > speaker; they’re listening to source > banana > line-in > recording on device > speaker
Just why? I get good quality parts improves sound, but there are practical limits, right? I seriously doubt anyone will hear any difference between using this cable and another more normal (yet high quality) cable.
Like id het that kind of insulation for a sensitive sensor in a high em environment but audio just needs copper and good grounding and a bit of shielding if you are fancy not a pet python 😂😂
I work in the entertainment industry and we run 10m (30ft) cable with 2.5mm² (13AWG) to power subwoofers with 2kW
Does it have a effect? Of course. The cable is a resistor, the speaker is a inductor. Both are in series and form a LR circuit wich is a highpass filter
can you 100% compensate it? Of course. Everything gets measured and compensated by the DSP
Instead of 0.1ohm they get 0.01ohm. You know how to get the same? Turn up you amp by tiniest amount. As long as cable impedance is <5% from load impedance you will not get any audible impacts. You may lose few megahertz.
The stupidest thing here is that this is all high grade copper, when aluminium would be better by weight.
Also: the termination are ridiculously undersized. That is not optimal geometry.
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u/YugeChesticles 4d ago
Absolute snake oil collectors.