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Moto_Man's Scam Of The Week

I thought that for the amusement of all (and principally my own), I would endeavor to scour the AudioGon ads and pick what appears to me in my purely unscientific way to be the "scam of the week," which typically represents overblown claims of wonderment coupled with a silly price.  A couple of weeks ago, I highlighted some snake oil that I think will be difficult to beat . . . the $5800 Dalby D7 record clamp.

This week, there are a number of contestants ranging from the "Shun Mook Audio LP Clamp" yours for only $3,000.  Here is what the seller claims about the Shun Mook Audio Clamp:

"This extra heavy century old ebony root which were immersed in the swamps of Africa has a unique power that no other wood possesses. The vibration generated by the diamond stylus in the vinyl groove besides inducing an electroflux through the phono-cartridge also excites the ebony molecules, causing it to resonate. This in turn is feed back through the stylus and is reproduced as expanded sound staging, enhanced separation, sharpened focus and enriched tonal balance of the music."

Century old ebony root that has received a "unique power" from the swamps of Africa? That gets excited by a phono cartridge's "electroflux?" Give me a break.

But in good conscience, the BS claims of the Shun Mook were already referenced in my prior thread on the Dalby D7, as deserving as this bit of nonsense is for "Scam of the Week," I will award that coveted distinction to . . .

The "HighEnd Novum PMR Premium MkII - Room Acoustic Resonator hand made in Germany"  which is essentially a stepped bronze wok on a display stand, for $2,490.  Now, as usual, I haven't heard the Room Acoustic Resonator.  Maybe it is a miracle worker.  Logic says it is total BS.  Just read the numerous claims parroted by "reviewers."

"By overlaying the music with a full scale of multi-vocal overtones, more detailed sound is produced [by this bronze plate]. The music gets more momentum and energy, the presentation of the instruments is more realistic and more solid. The spatial imaging is increased in all directions. The result is again a natural and authentic sound experience with beautiful sounds."  

Sure it does.  The secret to this miracle plate? (1) Creation of a two-sand mold by means of a "primitive model"
(2) Heating the bronze alloy to about 1200 ° C (3) Casting of liquid metal in the form and the all-important (4)
Controlled cooling off the casting for the production of a fine crystalline structure of metal.  It must be the production of that "fine crystalline structure of the metal" that overlays the music with a full scale of multi-vocal sounds.  This screams for a legitimate double-blind test.

Those are just some of the reasons that I call out "HighEnd Novum PMR Premium MkII" as the Scam Of The Week.

Note:  there is apparently a miniature version that is only $649.  That is really too cheap to qualify as a "scam of the week," but it is possible that such a puny bronze plate must be used with the big daddy bronze plate to "tune" the music even further, which would probably qualify, LOL!
moto_man
douglas_schroeder
3,281 posts
 
I have heard this product demonstrated, and it utterly failed my Law of Efficacy. What's more astounding is that it was sitting on a cardboard box at the time. One might think that better foundation would aid the performance. Imagine this product on its stand, on a cardboard box; one of those incredible moments I mentally shake my head and think, only in audiophilia. It is an example of a product I would suggest a person is more advantaged putting money into products which are involved in the shaping of the signal path. 

Moto-man, you obviously are not afraid of offending others, which I would suggest is not necessary. Merely pointing out the discrepancy would suffice. You seem to assume that those selling and making these devices are charlatans; I am not assured of that. I have spoken with many manufacturers and distributors who are not B.S.ing and do believe that such products are useful. Your disdain is not necessary and it is very divisive. If your goal is to start fights, then you may succeed, but it's not necessary. People will make up their own minds, and someone offensive will not sway them typically - often it has the opposite effect. 

Unless you have used or heard demonstrated a product, you are in a weak position ridicule it. You do no favor to yourself by mocking it from ignorance - that is inexperience. People who have heard it or own it can simply dismiss you as a loudmouth without experience. I'm with you on the conclusion that this device is fairly useless. It is possible that it does alter the sound in certain environments, however, I see no advantage to it, as the sound added would be alien to the room and unnatural. i.e. ringing of a device would produce noise, a conflicting wave, etc. 
wlutke
718 posts
 
Thank you moto_man!  for the light-hearted entertainment.  
ahendler
416 posts
 
Another condemnation of a product by someone who has not heard the product. What total nonsense. I know record clamps work by altering the resonance characteristics of the record. I have heard this with my own $50 TTW clamp. If the Shun Mook was $50 you would not be writing about it. Discredetig products based on there cost or by technical info on how it works is a waste of time. If you heard the device and it did nothing that you could hear that would be much more useful
Alan
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Sympathetic vibration I think is the term you’re looking for, which explains why tiny little bowl resonators like Franck Tchang’s gold, platinum and silver bowls, his even tinier Sugar Cubes, Synergistic Research’s tiny little bowls, my tiny little ceramic bowl resonators, the recently mentioned tiny little Mpingo bowls. What is interesting, and less mentioned is that there are two, count em, two things involved with the tiny little bowls which, by the way, are directly descended from Tibetan Singing Bowls. One is the acoustic waves, which makes sense, right? But also microwaves, since the tiny bowl diameter (of around an inch) is not only an acoustic wavelength or half wavelength, whatever, but also operates in the radio frequency domain.

ivan_nosnibor's avatar
ivan_nosnibor
1,047 posts
 
We spend so much money on sympathetic vibration (mostly trying to kill it...tone arm design, speaker cabinets, component chassis, etc)...and then to turn around and say that injecting more of it (even if in an attempt to control it) is somehow better than none. To me simply ’adding’ resonance, no matter how pleasant it may appear to be on **most** musical material, will almost certainly add something that is clearly undesirable to the sound at least some of the time. Far better off to stay with the original signal, IMO.
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