[R-390] Audiophools

[Gary webb]

Thirty years ago I could run the function generator thru a speaker up to 18-19khz
and be able to hear the 'noise'.  Last time I checked (5 years back)
13-14khz is the best I could do.  Even if every claim was true, I would be paying
for a lot of sound I can't hear anymore.


Michael Watts wrote:

> You could then sell them silver solder and retrofit kits to solve that problem!  $100 per
> connector sounds about right.
>
> I was, for a few years, in the largest audio company in the world and met some of the real nuts of
> this type.  Most of them don't work for the company but must be dealt with in some way or other.
> Many of them write columns.  One of these so-called "golden ears" claimed he could hear the
> difference between cables.  He also claimed that cable ends are "sexed" and he could hear it when
> a cable was installed "backwards".  Pure bullshit.  But we had beer and I let him know what I
> thought of that.  He challenged me to blind tests - using a curtain between the equipment and him.
>  We connected one set of cables and then the other and had him A/B them.  He picked the nitrogen
> filled hard line over the monster cable 22 times in a row.  We then sexed the cables and he told
> which was the "right" way - blind listening still.  Then we scrambled them and he picked the
> correct sexing without error 14 times.  At that point I decided I didn't know as much about the
> world as I thought I did.  If this was a parlor trick, then neither I nor my companion who is one
> of the most respected engineers in the audio field were unable to figure out how he did it.  And
> we were the ones that set up the test - using our lab, our gear, and with us doing the work with
> no one else in the facility that could have been tipping him off.  I don't get it and it made we
> wonder.  But I'm still not a believer in that crud.
>
> The "warm" sound of vacuum tube audio amps is a proven effect, however.  As is the difference
> between one tube and another.  The tubes cause distortion and that distortion happens to result in
> a pleasing sound - much like the distortion caused by a certain type of wood in certain string
> instruments etc.  It turns the amp from a transparent device into something of a musical
> instrument with its own characteristic sound.  This distortion of tube amps has been measured and
> characterized.  A number of companies now make solid state DSP processor units that implement this
> distortion and provide the "warm sound of a tube amp".
>
> --- Ron  Kolarik <rkolarik@neb.rr.com> wrote:
> > If you really want to tweak one of these audiopholls
> > just point out the fact that the connectors are soldered
> > on....with LEAD/TIN solder.  Then tell them it
> > introduces a phase delay between the different metals.
> >
> > You should probably not do this to a close friend though
> > and have a good line of retreat staked out beforehand :).
> >
> > Ron.....
> >
> > > From: "Kenneth Crips" <w7itc@hotmail.com>
> > > To: r-390@mailman.qth.net
> > > Subject: Re: [R-390] TUBES
> > > Date: Sat, 16 Feb 2002 02:18:18 -0700
> > >
> > > RE: The suggested retail price is $400 each
> >
> > >  250.00 bucks a foot which solid platinum connectors.
> > > A sucker is born every day.
> >
> >
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