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Quack System Upgrades

Ok, so what's the most ridiculous "SNAKE OIL" upgrade you have come across?

Let the fun begin HAHAHA :) :)

128x128crazyeddy
yogiboy's avatar
yogiboy
5,654 posts
 
How about these?
http://www.cableisolators.com/
mb1audio02
188 posts
 
" One could argue that that the cables sold by Blue Jeans are the identical wire that most likely a good amount of the music we listen to were recorded with.  

So then somehow cost no object cables are reversing the effect of the cable used in the production of our music and then providing a more realistic rendering of the original production on replay?"

I've heard this argument many times and I've never understood the logic behind it. Cables use in a playback system have a different job to do than the ones use in a recording studio. Do speaker companies make brass tweeters because that's what cymbals are made out of?

Most people would agree that a playback system is supposed to recreate the original event with as much transparency as possible. We all know that this is done with varying degrees of success, but that's the goal. If a cable used in a recording studio has a certain coloration, you don't use the same cable in the playback system, you use cables and components that are transparent so that the system can reproduce the sound of the cable in the recording studio. What happens if they used more than one type of cable in the studio?
mb1audio02
188 posts
 
" Blue Jeans Cables are great. Especially if you consider overall value (price to quality to performance). I have personal experience with their speaker wire and RCA interconnects. If you put them in a system compared to much more expensive wire and perceive a "big and unmistakable" difference you should call into question which set of cables is reproducing the sound correctly (measurably closer to faithful reproduction of source) as opposed to which you merely prefer."

Wouldn't calling them great be a bit premature? According to your own post, you first need to determine what cable is reproducing the sound more correctly?

"measurably closer to faithful reproduction of source"

I've been waiting my whole life for someone to show me how to do that. Maybe you'll be the first?

auxinput
2,920 posts
 

I would not bang on Blue Jean cable that much here. I also wouldn’t say that it’s snake oil. First thing, it’s the job of any dealer/manufacturer to try to sell their product, so if you ask them if their product is better than a different product, they are obviously going to try to influence you to think their product is better.

They are a distrubitor of Beldon and Canare bulk cable. I have not tested Canare, but Beldon cable is a mixed lot. The Audioholics site is a big fan of the Beldon 10awg speaker cable and they say you don’t need anything more. However, under testing, I found the Beldon to be completely lacking and the standard 12awg stranded OFC speaker cable (basically monster cable) out-performed the Beldon. The Beldon cable just sounded lo-fi and did not have the resolution of even the 12awg stranded OFC.

However, I do find that the Beldon digital products are excellent. Both the HDMI and Digital Coax cables perform excellently. I have not tested these against super-exotic thousand dollar cables, but they have actually performed better than some Neotech HDMI and Audioquest silver digital coax cables. In this case, Beldon and Blue Jean cables know what they are talking about with regards to digital signal transmission.

randy-11
1,913 posts
 
yes, add the gizmos that levitate cables up above the floor

I've seen claims that the floor pushes static electricity into the cable

Again, the post above about poor electronic design is relevant...

and what about the snake oil around wooden equipment stands?

Finally, I am wondering how a $30,000 DAC makes things sound better
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