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Too good a post to waste

On a thread that is a running example of the textual equivalent of nonstop cat videos. So here it is again.


I could understand the cables are snake-oil doubters and take them seriously- in 1980. Back then there was no internet, Stereo Review was pretty much it, and Julian Hirsch was the Oracle of all things audio. Stereo Review and Julian Hirsch said if it measures the same it sounds the same. Wire is wire, and that was that. 

Even then though J. Gordon Holt had already started the movement that was to become Stereophile. JGH took the opposing view that our listening experience is what counts. Its nice if you can measure it but if you can’t that’s your problem not ours. 

Stereo Review and the measurers owned the market back then. The market gave us amplifier wars, as manufacturers competed for ever more power with ever lower distortion. For years this went on, until one day "measures great sounds bad" became a thing.

Could be some here besides me lived through and remember this. If you did, and if you were reading JGH back then, I tip my hat to you, sir! I fell prey to Hirsch and his siren song that you can have it all for cheap and don’t really have to learn to listen. Talk about snake-oil! A lot of us bought into it. Sorry to say.

But anyway like I was saying it was easy to believe the lie back then because it was so prevalent and also because what wire there was that sounded better didn’t really sound a whole lot better.

Now though even budget wire sounds so much better than what comes off a reel you’d have to be deaf not to notice. Really good wires sound so good you’d notice even if you ARE deaf! No kidding. My aunt Bessie was deaf as a stone but she could FEEL the sound at a high enough volume, knew it was music. The dynamic punch of my CTS cables is so much greater than ordinary 14 ga wire I would bet my deaf from birth aunt Bessie could "hear" the difference. Certain so-called audiophiles here, I'm not so sure.

Oh and not done beating the dead horse quite yet, according to my calendar its 2020, a solid 40 years past 1980. Stereo Review is dead and buried. Stereophile lives on. A whole multi-billion dollar industry built on wire not being wire thrives. Maybe the measurement people can chalk up and quantify from that just how many years, and billions, they are out of date and in denial. 
128x128millercarbon
gasbose's avatar
gasbose
82 posts
 
Geoffkait,

Johnny Cochran .. really? ’If the glove doesn’t fit...’
and you know Neil A misspoke and said ’a small step for man, but a giant leap for mankind’?


gasbose's avatar
gasbose
82 posts
 
Back to Stereo Review. I subscribed to it for a year or two, until I noticed that every review of a questionable component (including some serious lemons) ended with  (the sound/performance/etc).... 'was among the best we have heard in its class'. You had to stop and wonder what that meant.

After I stopped my subscription, I kept getting free copies for the next 6 months, showing they cared more about the size of their subscriber base than on the amount (20 cents or so) I was paying them per issue.
falconquest's avatar
falconquest
1,108 posts
 
"There's no-one left alive - must be draw."
So the Blackcap Barons toss a coin to settle the score.
cd318
2,636 posts
 
millercarbon,

"Notice he doesn't deny any of it.
No system.
No degree.
No knowledge.
MachinaDynamica.
The one person who claims to have met him at a show said he enjoys making fun of audiophiles because.... they love audio.

If you can find one constructive comment in 23k posts, please provide a link.
And still can't find even one constructive comment in any of his 23k posts.

Interesting."



Yes, but it's still very early days. 

Magic pebbles and teleportation tweaks obviously need more careful testing and evaluation, don't they?

What about these glowing testimonials from the machinadynamica website? :


[I purchased a 6-bottle suite of Machina Dynamica's Brilliant Pebbles that gave quite audible improvements to my tubed amp & DAC and CD transport in a nearfield listening setup. More clarity, detail, texture, deep bass pitch definition and a lot less digital glare." Sept 2005]


[I cannot listen to my system any more without the pebbles." - Hans-Peter, Switzerland, 2004]


[NEW!! "Geoff, I have the better part of an hour determining the efficacy of the Teleportation Tweak, may I claim it has exceeded all my expectations? This from a violin instructor. My initial evaluation of the Teleportation Tweak is that any bass boom that had existed is totally gone. I must admit this is the best tweak I have ever attempted." - Singapore, June 2011 (distance 9660 miles or 15500 kilometers)]

[NEW!! "How in the world does this work, but I have clearer sound and better imaging. You have to try it to believe it!!!!!" - April 2010]

[NEW!! "The Machina Dynamica Teleportation Tweak works! All I can say is that it increased detail, definition and focus, and increased depth and imaging in the soundstage."]

["Another logic defying tweak from Geoff. In fact, he has outdone himself with this recent invention. The man is truly gifted...a genius who is also humble! I thank you from the bottom of my heart, Geoff. " - December 2007]

This all counts for something, doesn't it?
What does this all tell us?
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