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Top 10 Signs That A Cable Company is Selling Snake Oil

This response was published by Audioholics.com.
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The audio industry is full of hype with the most nonsense surrounding the simplest component of the A/V chain - interconnects and speaker cables. Because there are often very little measurable and audible differences between cables, many of the exotic cable vendors use psuedo junk science to differentiate their products from their competitors. These vendors often prey upon the suggestible audiophile giving them reasons why these products must be utilized in their precious systems in order to achieve the best performance possible to reach the true path of audio nirvana. Listed below are the top 10 cable snake oil claims to watch out for. If a vendor is selling you on any of these fallacies, run don't walk away from their products, unless of course you enjoy a good sci-fi story and desire to buy expensive audio jewelery.  

Watch out if a Cable Vendor or Manufacturer:
  1. Promotes that their product allegedly eliminates audio related Skin Effect and/or "Strand Jumping" problems.
  2. Claims revolutionary breakthrough in cable technology by polarizing or biasing the dielectric using a battery.
  3. Promotes that their products eliminate "Audiogenic", "Diode Rectification" or any type of non linear distortions. See Debunking the Myth of Cable Distortion and Dielectric Biasing
  4. Physically places (+) and (-) wire leads in separate dielectrics not closely spaced in a common jacket. See: Calculating Cable Inductance of Twin Feeder Cables
  5. Claims vast improvements in sound by inserting "Cable Elevators" to raise the cables off the floor and minimize electron misfiring or static energy fields.
  6. Claims that cryogenically freezing cables improves fidelity or measurably changes electrical properties after the cable is restored to room temperature.
  7. Claims that their cables require a "Break In" period.
  8. Claims that measurements cannot quantify why their designs are superior and often misapply engineering principles in their reasoning but abandon the associated governing laws and metrics that establish them.
  9. Claims audible differences exist between stranded and non-stranded wires of same gauge rating, geometry and conductor spacing.
  10. Claims audible differences between silver and copper cables of equal design geometry and gauge.

128x128blumartini
audiozenology
362 posts
 
While I don’t disagree with almost all those points (with exception) and could add some more, not to mention, if the claim is only associated with consumer audio (and not other more rigourous industries) it is probably bunk, I have to go with Teo on this, the only point of this post is to incite discord and it has no value to the forums.  I think it would be best to remove it.


I don’t agree with Teo that "questionable" products are essential to the health of the industry, and could argue the opposite is true, but if people want to believe what they believe, that is their right, as is spending money where they feel like. These people should also respect that if they are promoting their belief in a forum where others are exposed, that others have the right to question said beliefs (if they don’t resort to name calling). This us vs. them / cancel culture that is prevalent in today’s culture doesn’t help anyone but the ones who profit off discourse.
rodman99999
6,125 posts
 
What teo_audio said, +1
clearthink
1,421 posts
 

audiozenology"I don’t agree with Teo that "questionable" products are essential to the health of the industry"

Teo never claimed, stated, or asserted such a thing, and you're use of actual quotation marks to claim that teo did say that is very deceptive at the very least.
Post removed 
teo_audio
2,197 posts
 
All sciences have questionable edges, that is their nature.

Anyone who does not understand that.... does not understand the concept of science, nor moving forward.

Anything else is dogma and dead.

as my signature at DIYaudio used to say:"Only dead fish swim with the stream" -Malcom Muggeridge

And no one and no science and no endeavor can properly move forward by driving through viewing the world through the rear view mirror. As that is only half of the story ....and results in dead circular logic.

The future cannot be successfully projected by viewing the dogmatic past aspects of human endeavor. Anyone who understands what the word science means, knows this. Science was delineated, as an act, to specifically avoid this. Science is about proofs ----- but first comes exploration.

No one ever said a company can’t base a product on exploration.

As a matter of fact, such a thing is not all that uncommon, and not just in the world of audio. Not by a long shot.

Audio is about the sonic qualities as heard by the ear, and those are not wholly measurable. This is known. As the correlations and the sciences of all the aspects involved are not fully fleshed out.

The nature of the situation is to have varied levels of hearing ability and varied levels of intellect, varied levels of self awareness, all involved across the whole field of audio.

And we end up with threads like this, where the one set of people gang up and attack another set of individuals.

Individuals who just want to be left alone, as they are tired, to their bones... with the illiteracy that ceaselessly comes after them. No reasoning at all, just the unending ceaseless illiteracy.

Which is why some forums have banned such threads from existing. It is something that Audiogon should consider enacting.
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