Simple snake oil detection

amg56
Being newish to HiFi I research every claim that I am interested in. The latest was about the quantum diffusor. The claim on this one is one of the funniest examples of "snake oil" you will find. A knowledgeable and trustworthy gent explained to me that the Schumann resonance is simply the natural resonance frequency of electromagnetic waves which circle the earth-- if you compute the wavelength vs path length, you come up with around 8Hz which is what this box claimed to emit electromagnetic waves to nullify acoustic feedback! This magic box, of not inconsiderable expense, couldn’t acoustically nullify itself if it tried.

Actually, no such claim is made for the box. They do, however, claim the device improves video as well as audio. And the last time I looked video is not an acoustic medium. Have you considered checking the credentials of that knowledgeable and trustworthy gent? Oh, dear, this is all so confusing!

I used to be the same as OP before I built better audio systems. :) 

I will explain the problem. Audiophilia is not simple arithmetic (elementary math), but rather Boolean Algebra. 

I'm glad I could clarify that for everyone.  :) 

Czarivey, Yogiboy's snake oil wouldn't set off your SOD. Nor does a product need to cost as much as a BMW; do you recall the Tice electric clock? 

Dear geoffkait, Your posts are most humorous, sarcastic, but humorous.

personally i think the op is expressing what most reasonable people would think. I think wire is very important in a high end system but only the buyer can decide the value in financial terms.
But there is no doubt that us in the audio club have allowed the ridiculous pricing of so many audio products because we are willing to pay for it.
I have certainly spent plenty of bad money in audio but it was my choice.
The OP expresses an opinion that I very much agree with. The cost to final price is not evidenced in any other manufactured products that I’m aware. Does anyone really think the cost to price ratio of a Steinway to a similar priced interconnect pair would in any way be similar. Give credit to the cable guys in particular. They don’t make us buy it.