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Do you consider yourself an audiophile?

Are you an audiophile?

  • Yes

    Votes: 32 13.7%

  • No

    Votes: 84 36.1%

  • Audiophiles are deluded bullshitters

    Votes: 117 50.2%
  • Total voters
    233
Another hilarious article about the Belts

A short while later I lifted the tonearm and smeared it with a light coating of Cream, then returned the stylus to the beginning of the record. I don't think I heard much of a change. The harp arpeggios might have sounded a little prettier the second time around, with a little more percussive snap to them. But I'm not sure.
I switched to guitarist Tony Rice's Manzanita (LP, Rounder 0092) and listened to the first two tracks. Then I stopped the music and applied a thin schmear of Cream under the front edge of my preamp. I relistened to the first two songs and was somewhat startled by the improvement. I wasn't startled by the degree of improvement, which was actually rather slight: I was startled that I heard any change at all. There was definitely a little more bounce to the picking: more nuance and sheer force audible in the downbeats carried by the upright bass. Consequently, the music sounded a bit more fun.
Click to expand...


I listened to Tony Rice's recording of "Nine Pound Hammer," then stopped the record and placed a bit of Rainbow Foil on the label on each side. The Belts advise using one of these adhesive strips specifically to cover the number 33 1/3 on each label. Manzanita's labels lack such a number—the folks at Rounder Records have a libertarian's faith in our ability to know the right speed, apparently—so I had to guess at the right position.
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Peter and May suggest that the temporal-energy disruptions imposed by photography can be reversed for a given subject by following these simple steps: Locate a photograph of the subject taken when he or she was relatively young, seal it in a plastic bag, and place that bag in the freezer. Do the same with a more contemporary photograph of that person. Problem solved.
Click to expand...
 
Peter and May suggest that the temporal-energy disruptions imposed by photography can be reversed for a given subject by following these simple steps: Locate a photograph of the subject taken when he or she was relatively young, seal it in a plastic bag, and place that bag in the freezer. Do the same with a more contemporary photograph of that person. Problem solved.
Click to expand...

Holy batshit batman......
 
Good luck to 'em, I say. "Let's see how far we can take this ridiculous nonsense while still getting fools to pay for our surreal comedy products!! megalols!!"
 
twentythreedom said:
Good luck to 'em, I say. "Let's see how far we can take this ridiculous nonsense while still getting fools to pay for our surreal comedy products!! megalols!!"
Click to expand...

And yet when I use this excuse for ripping off grannies apparently I'm "a bad person". It's so unfair.
 
Not really.

I have a seperates system including a graphic EQ. Cost price at shop just over a grand.It sounds good enough to me but in all honesty I could have spent half that and not noticed much difference on sound.

I prefer proper CD's to MP'3 but am quite happy to use both.
 
Cotton-insulated cables:
http://jupitercondenser.com/Cable/cotton-insulated-cable.html
Beeswax Capacitors:
http://jupitercondenser.com/cryo-ht-beeswax-paper-capacitors.htm
Shakti Hallograph Soundfield Optimizer:
http://www.elusivedisc.com/prodinfo.asp?number=SHAKTIHALL
38062dd8.jpg
 
Monkeygrinder's Organ said:
Only twelve quid? Showing a distinct lack of ambition there compared to some of this stuff.
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Especially considering:

The electrical mains power supply is the “fuel” that feeds every audio or visual system. If this “fuel” is degraded along the way, it will not perform to the very best of its ability. One of, if not the weakest link in the audio/visual chain is the fuse. Without doubt, it will degrade the electricity as it passes through.
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Scientifically we call such degradation "resistance" and it's a quanitive change, rather than a qualitive one.
 
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/viewpoint/0712/aa_chapter_152.htm

P.W.B. Cream Electret
I first heard about this cream way back when, but for some reason never tried it out. Then, Art Dudley wrote about it again very favorably over two articles in Stereophile a couple of months ago ( here and here) and I remembered that my friend Clark Johnsen had discussed the stuff way back in 2008 in Positive Feedback magazine. So I contacted May Belt, wife of Peter Belt, the inventor and asked for a small review sample. She not only sent the sample but several copies of articles from the dawn of audiophillia on his discoveries and products. To read just about everything you need to know about the cream, please see Art Dudley's articles as Art writes it up far better than I can, and go to the Belt website. So this is sort of a follow-up on his articles, and an affirmation of his findings.
The cream looks and smells like white boot polish, and can be applied with a cloth to any piece of equipment. As very little goes a long way, with one only having to smear a small amount on the edges of equipment, I only needed to use about 1/8th of the supplied material to treat all I could think of, of my huge 8 channel system. The company feels that the cream's effects can be heard not only by applying it to your electronics, but also speaker cabinets, furniture around the room, light bulbs and fluorescents, remotes and telephones. They even state that using a cloth to apply the cream which has one of their Rainbow foils attached will add to the experience.
So was there any effect, how great or significant was it, was it worth the effort and expense, is it based on science, religion or magic, and was the effect actual or some psychologically induced phantom of my imagination? Yes, there was an effect on the sound when applied to electronics, a tightening of transients but a softening of the total soundscape making it more natural. The change was not huge, but definitely there. Unhappily I know of no way of completely removing the cream so there is no way of reversing the process or being able to do a double blind evaluation. At 1/2 hour and about $30 plus shipping, I'd say it is worth the effort and cost, as that wouldn't even cover the cost of one high end RCA plug.
I know of no scientific principle presently known that can account for the changes. It's not due to changing the electrical properties as it supposedly works on inert objects which shouldn't be carrying charges. Nor is it due to changing the molecular characteristics of the piece as one is only using a small amount on a small portion of the surface area. I did try coating larger areas of chassis but it didn't seem to improve on doing a small percentage of the surface area. I doubt it was psychological or my knowing what I had done, as my wife, who has superb hearing, came into the room and asked what I had done to remove some harshness from the sound of the system. So that leaves black (or white) magic, meaning some scientific principle not presently known which is causing a change either in how the surroundings or our bodies are being affected by the material.
I had thought that with the marked improvements that have occurred in my system over the past year that I had gotten away from the mystical side of our hobby, but this cream has once more peaked my interest in the "strange" side of our hobby. I'll probably be contacting Mrs. Belt to get some samples of their other products. Who knows, maybe I'll try those magic dots from a few years ago over again.
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out of interest, why do they make all this stuff out of gold when pure silver is a better conductor ?

I assume it's because gold doesn't corrode like silver, but would this make that much of a difference ?
 
Orang Utan said:
£67.50 for a gold plated 13 amp fuse:
http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/viewitem?itemId=390449205855
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Somebody is getting ripped off, you can get 3 for £12 here:
http://www.analogueseduction.net/amr-fuses/AMR32.html
then again it's a different brand so yours might have been steeped in freshly harvested audiophile baby seal grease and then been polarised with magic audio cream™ so that the current flows only in the right direction while accurately spacing electrons for a fuller sound stage.
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
I had a band member a few weeks back who insisted on using his own XLR cable for the vocal mic he'd brought with him because it was a "high performance" one and thus better than the standard cables in the venue.
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man obviously knows his shit
:facepalm:
I'm actually fairly surprised at what some people who should know better come up with sometimes.
 
wemakeyousoundb said:
man obviously knows his shit
:facepalm:
I'm actually fairly surprised at what some people who should know better come up with sometimes.
Click to expand...
My job often involves a fair amount of gentle psychology though, if he thinks it's gonna sound better he may well end up performing better so I just let them get on with it. See also adjusting the DFA for a performers monitor mix and so on :D
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
I had a band member a few weeks back who insisted on using his own XLR cable for the vocal mic he'd brought with him because it was a "high performance" one and thus better than the standard cables in the venue.
Click to expand...

I knew a bassist who had an XLR socket fitted to his bass because he thought that an XLR jack to quarter-inch phono jack lead gave a balanced signal. I tried to explain where he'd gone wrong, but he wouldn't have it.
 
ViolentPanda said:
I knew a bassist who had an XLR socket fitted to his bass because he thought that an XLR jack to quarter-inch phono jack lead gave a balanced signal. I tried to explain where he'd gone wrong, but he wouldn't have it.
Click to expand...
Oh I've had to explain that many many times :D

It seems to be a definite guitarist thing - if the plug fits in the socket the cable must be the correct one, no matter what.
 
beesonthewhatnow said:
My job often involves a fair amount of gentle psychology though, if he thinks it's gonna sound better he may well end up performing better so I just let them get on with it. See also adjusting the DFA for a performers monitor mix and so on :D
Click to expand...
That is true psychology does wonder, I try to get guitarists to turn right down then after a minute or so I ask them to turn it up, they're usually well chuffed after that.
ViolentPanda said:
I knew a bassist who had an XLR socket fitted to his bass because he thought that an XLR jack to quarter-inch phono jack lead gave a balanced signal. I tried to explain where he'd gone wrong, but he wouldn't have it.
Click to expand...
:D
 
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