I wonder what effectively does this audiophool "cable burn-in device"...

[Twoflower]

Except that is not alluminium but a "special magic tesla quantum proprietary alloy", I'm unable to understand how that would create ground.

Don't you remember the 'wireless ESD hand-wrist' (EEvBlog #768)? They're using the same technique!

[Cerebus]

Of course but I think it's not dignified to make money by exploiting people's technical ignorance.

It is not about technical ignorance, it is about lack of critical thinking. And I believe it is perfectly fine to exploit that.

And sometimes it is also about showing off. There is no reason anyone needs $100000 Vertu Android phone, but certain groups of people consider it cool and a status symbol.

Apparently they don't, as Vertu went bust back in July.

[ataradov]

Apparently they don't, as Vertu went bust back in July.

Was not aware of that. Now I have to buy a Ferrari, I guess

I feel like all those audio scam companies are not getting all that many orders, it is just their operating expenses are very minimal, and you can probably run one of those as a side business.

[technix]

Apparently they don't, as Vertu went bust back in July.

Was not aware of that. Now I have to buy a Ferrari, I guess

I feel like all those audio scam companies are not getting all that many orders, it is just their operating expenses are very minimal, and you can probably run one of those as a side business.

Since I am designing a Bluetooth headphone adapter, maybe I should also set up a "audiophile" branch, selling the same circuit board but in a different case, and maybe have the decency to put in the work fine tuning the DSP matrices a bit... For this design there are likely a few times more work being put into the product, fine tuning the DSP matrices, than those...

[tszaboo]

Apparently they don't, as Vertu went bust back in July.

Was not aware of that. Now I have to buy a Ferrari, I guess

I feel like all those audio scam companies are not getting all that many orders, it is just their operating expenses are very minimal, and you can probably run one of those as a side business.

Since I am designing a Bluetooth headphone adapter, maybe I should also set up a "audiophile" branch, selling the same circuit board but in a different case, and maybe have the decency to put in the work fine tuning the DSP matrices a bit... For this design there are likely a few times more work being put into the product, fine tuning the DSP matrices, than those...

Come on, bluetooth is not really audiophile. Not because it is compressed and clocks and wireless. Because it is digital. Everyone know digital is bad. Cylinder phonographs are the real deal.

[cdev]

There are credible arguments for using a lot more bits and faster sampling rates in digital audio and they are legitimate - what they do it for is to get more dynamic range and more ability to process the signal many times without multiplying errors..

[free_electron]

diode ? yeah. sure go stick a diode in your audio path. it will get very interesting .... dumbasses
and run off the mill ST opamps ? if they at least had used some exotic analog devices or burr-brown part ...

[free_electron]

Holy Bullshit Batman
Almost $10k USED!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nordost-Valhalla-2-speaker-cables-4-meter-pair-/263221331798

Used ? yuckk . who knows what usic has run through those cables. i don't want any residual metallica electrons contaminating my bachs 5th overture ...

[Electro Detective]

Holy Bullshit Batman
Almost $10k USED!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nordost-Valhalla-2-speaker-cables-4-meter-pair-/263221331798

Used ? yuckk . who knows what usic has run through those cables. i don't want any residual metallica electrons contaminating my bachs 5th overture ...

or banged b!tch electrons from rap moozique   

[Buriedcode]

Since I am designing a Bluetooth headphone adapter, maybe I should also set up a "audiophile" branch, selling the same circuit board but in a different case, and maybe have the decency to put in the work fine tuning the DSP matrices a bit... For this design there are likely a few times more work being put into the product, fine tuning the DSP matrices, than those...

Probably too late to the market, as I keep seeing 'Apt-X lossless' being thrown about (doesn't exist), along with claims of 24-bit @ 96kHz (with the Apt-x enabled transport of 16-bit@48kHz).  These are of course not from trusted sources but I don't think Qualcomm is going to correct anyone.

Generally, anything that an engineer can think of to 'improve' quality won't cut it.  It has to be expensive and unique, both of which are seen as signs it "must be good".  This is why a lot of "audiophool products" are so basic.  No complicated electronics, DSP, or acoustic design, but a basic cable WITH ALIGNED CRYSTALS.  Or a very simple valve amp, with capacitors 'rescued' from the the iron curtain, and transformers, wound to receive the shumann resonance.  Any actual 'technology'.. many will trust engineers, but add some unique mystery to it, and engineers know nothing - they're just sheeple or part of the conspiracy.

[dashpuppy]

Notice in this picture, it shows you whats inside a pair of 10K$ pair of speaker cables.  I bet the piece of the outer jacket of the cut off of that cable is helping as it's glued into the box for weight.   FAIL !

[ataradov]

This is proverbial virgin snot, it makes things sound better

[vk6zgo]

Most receivers and audio gear have lower noise floor than a spectrum analyser. So it's plausible.

How could they have determined this noise floor then?

Don't forget this 350 Euro ground wire.

Well, to determine the noise floor at baseband, they would have done a conventional signal/noise test, 
similar to that which we did as a normal routine, except they would use a calibrated standard modulator.

That said, I don't think the noise floor is that spectacular with any intercarrier sound receiver.

I think the main problem with the SA was lack of resolution at the thirty odd MHz IF frequency, &, for the baseband case, running out of range at the low end of its coverage.

The FFT range on a DSO may have done the trick, but such Devices were only in their infancy at that time.

In both the cases I related, there was no question of the problem being something that could only be heard by the "gifted".
They were real faults which were not immediately apparent in the relatively limited time available to busy Technical staff, but did appear to an enthusiast listening in a good monitoring situation.

In both cases, the people concerned were staff members, not random audiophiles "off the street".

[ChrisLX200]

Assuming you're never going to get better signal quality out of a system than that of the source you push into it, just what are these audiophool zealots using as a music source? I'm pretty sure none of the common recording methods (and uncommon ones...) involved the use of any of this phoolery. :-)

[free_electron]

Apparently they don't, as Vertu went bust back in July.

Was not aware of that. Now I have to buy a Ferrari, I guess

I feel like all those audio scam companies are not getting all that many orders, it is just their operating expenses are very minimal, and you can probably run one of those as a side business.

Since I am designing a Bluetooth headphone adapter, maybe I should also set up a "audiophile" branch, selling the same circuit board but in a different case, and maybe have the decency to put in the work fine tuning the DSP matrices a bit... For this design there are likely a few times more work being put into the product, fine tuning the DSP matrices, than those...

Come on, bluetooth is not really audiophile. Not because it is compressed and clocks and wireless. Because it is digital. Everyone know digital is bad. Cylinder phonographs are the real deal.

Real audiophiles hire the orchestra to come play live. any form of recording is lossy. Wanna listen to Gaga ? pay a few million.

[mcinque]

Notice in this picture, it shows you whats inside a pair of 10K$ pair of speaker cables.

Source please, pleeeeease!

[mcinque]

I found some true EE in audiophile cables, a Zobel network.

It's only a bit overpriced but at least it's science.

[Fungus]

small impurities in the conductor’s metal begin to act like a diode, favoring current flow in a particular direction.

Um, isn't that a bad thing for an AC signal?

Surely even audiophools know about diodes and AC. 

[technix]

Probably too late to the market, as I keep seeing 'Apt-X lossless' being thrown about (doesn't exist), along with claims of 24-bit @ 96kHz (with the Apt-x enabled transport of 16-bit@48kHz).  These are of course not from trusted sources but I don't think Qualcomm is going to correct anyone.

What I am trying is a multi-input multi-output device that can function with any combination of Bluetooth, USB, line-level analog and headphone with mic.

Generally, anything that an engineer can think of to 'improve' quality won't cut it.  It has to be expensive and unique, both of which are seen as signs it "must be good".  This is why a lot of "audiophool products" are so basic.  No complicated electronics, DSP, or acoustic design, but a basic cable WITH ALIGNED CRYSTALS.  Or a very simple valve amp, with capacitors 'rescued' from the the iron curtain, and transformers, wound to receive the shumann resonance.  Any actual 'technology'.. many will trust engineers, but add some unique mystery to it, and engineers know nothing - they're just sheeple or part of the conspiracy.

I may end up selling some slightly better tuned DSP matrices...

[technix]

There are credible arguments for using a lot more bits and faster sampling rates in digital audio and they are legitimate - what they do it for is to get more dynamic range and more ability to process the signal many times without multiplying errors..

True, but human senses don't have infinite resolution either, as determined by the laws of thermodynamics and the finite power draw of a human brain (about 45W as chemical energy). There is no point designing a circuit that can go beyond that. You start to burn performance and money away on minute details that even yourself cannot process.

[ruffy91]

There are credible arguments for using a lot more bits and faster sampling rates in digital audio and they are legitimate - what they do it for is to get more dynamic range and more ability to process the signal many times without multiplying errors..

True, but human senses don't have infinite resolution either, as determined by the laws of thermodynamics and the finite power draw of a human brain (about 45W as chemical energy). There is no point designing a circuit that can go beyond that. You start to burn performance and money away on minute details that even yourself cannot process.

A 100Gb/s optical transceiver uses <3.5W so we should use AT LEAST 1Tb/s for true audiophile music transmission.


ATM I'm creating an audiophile converter which converts a spotify stream to a 64bit, 15.625GHz WAV.
I also sell audiophile cloud storage for your converted streams, just 499,95$/TB. The clouds are made of absolutely pure nitrogen.

[technix]

There are credible arguments for using a lot more bits and faster sampling rates in digital audio and they are legitimate - what they do it for is to get more dynamic range and more ability to process the signal many times without multiplying errors..

True, but human senses don't have infinite resolution either, as determined by the laws of thermodynamics and the finite power draw of a human brain (about 45W as chemical energy). There is no point designing a circuit that can go beyond that. You start to burn performance and money away on minute details that even yourself cannot process.

A 100Gb/s optical transceiver uses <3.5W so we should use AT LEAST 1Tb/s for true audiophile music transmission.

OTOH a single 4-core 64-bit Xeon E3-1231v3 consumes about 80W at 3.6GHz. So 256-bit wide processing at 1.8GHz? Optical transceiver don't process information, so not quite comparable here.

ATM I'm creating an audiophile converter which converts a spotify stream to a 64bit, 15.625GHz WAV.
I also sell audiophile cloud storage for your converted streams, just 499,95$/TB. The clouds are made of absolutely pure nitrogen.

Mine may be more realistic, with a finely tuned DSP matrix that can boost your 16-bit@48kHz to 24-bit@96kHz performance.

[ruffy91]

I don't think I'm that far off. A GTX 1080 will do ~8000 GFLOPS with 180 W and has a memory bandwith of 320GB/s
So with 45 W 80GB/s (~600Gb/s) and 2000 GFLOPS are possible (but I think these are half-precision). Also I think the brain should be more efficient than a current graphics card.

I sell my GTX 1080 where I changed all the electrolytics to foil capacitors (which are way better suited for audio as everyone knows). So that you can get all that clarity and width of the stage on your TV speaker via HDMI. Only 24'995$ and it's yours.

Also it should be able to decode the audiostream and sample it back down to 24bit/192kHz PCM so that your TV should be able to play it.

I think I'm way to technical to sell something to a sucker.

[CJay]

Holy Bullshit Batman
Almost $10k USED!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nordost-Valhalla-2-speaker-cables-4-meter-pair-/263221331798

I think somebody needs to ask them what sort of music has been played through those cables so they can be sure they've not been tainted

[CJay]

hey dont blame the manufacturer. when there are customers there will be the market.

I disagree. This kind of bullshit is dramatically similar to homeopathy and false cancer cures; they exploit the ignorance of people that become victims.

No, none of this is life threatening, a cancer cure which doesn't work is.

These items are a choice, medicines aren't and there's a reason why things like 'cancer cures' are illegal to advertise and sell.

Nobody dies because they got sold some bullshit cable conditioner.