What is the Silliest Accessory You Have Ever Seen.

cakyol,
I'm still wondering about your ears. I've been in this game for many years, and there are HUGE difference in digital cables. I have three good quality cables, and all sound very different. Different wire, insulators and RCA's (I use single ended) all make a difference. I wish I couldn't hear the difference, like you. I would be a little richer.

I’m still wondering about your ears.

Hearing or not differences, this discriminative power is not linked to solely our listenings habits and history, or to our hearing fitness and potentials different for each of us, but this discriminative power is also function of the way the audio system is rightfully embedded mechanically, electrically, and acoustically...

No way someone could hear some modifications in his system if the noise floor is too high or the acoustic too bad in his room, because of a lack of controls in these 3 dimensions...


All the sour and sometimes angry discussions between people come from the simple ignorance that it is not only the quality of the electronical design that makes great audio experience, but MOSTLY the way the audio system is embedded in these 3 dimensions; never mind his price if the system is on an acceptable level of quality already, the way it has been embed or would be, or not, is the KEY.....

theaudiotweak and everyone who chimed in on "patent pending",

I take the issue of advertising as "patent pending" seriously. Not to go into why anyone would have kept it in that state for 17 years, people have strange habits, but it does seem suspicious to say the least. Lawyer costs, or not.

The issue at hand is that we are talking about an item which is very unusual in its execution and proposed action so it may or may not work as advertised (according to two camps here). Decision to invest quite some amount of money in it is largely on credibility of the manufacturer and her/his claims. If said manufacturer has been marketing by claiming something untrue regarding patent ("pending") for years, how likely is it that the rest of the claims are believable? Not to mention that, if those links above are correct, it is even a punishable offense.

Way before writing this post, in fact before ever mentioning this patent issue in my posts, I tried to locate the patent for Hallograph with no success.

In short, scrutiny may be in order.

Having said that, it seems that claiming impossible-to-verify patents is not unheard of in audiophilia. There was at least one product by PPT that was falsely advertised as being patented. Even one of the Tekton Design patents has expired (fee related), but it may be deliberate and it may take some time to connect claims with actual patents that are active.

To be clear, I am not claiming that any of the products do not work as advertised. I simply state that claims about patents are dubious. We all have our pet peeves and this happens to be mine.

roxy54-

I'm still wondering about your ears.

The problem isn't in the ears, its in the brain. It takes a lot of time and effort to compare and evaluate different components. Are they really going to do that when already convinced it can't possibly make any difference? Why? I wouldn't. It'd be nuts. Oh sure maybe every once in a while they might be able to just sit there all lazy and passive while someone else changes things for them.  

But then you know for sure exactly what will happen. The comparison won't be valid. It won't be double-blind. It won't be statistically significant. It will need to be repeated a bajillion times to be sure. It was done as part of a marketing demo. It wasn't the right music. The sun was in my eyes. The dog ate my homework. 

Its all so lame you have to wonder how it is that an adult with enough on the ball to be able to afford an internet connection isn't able to make up anything better than a bunch of excuses that have people thinking like mijostyn started it all off with:

Of all the dumb, idiotic, profoundly stupid things I have ever seen.

And that my friend is a brain problem, not ears.

millercarbon,
And then cakyol said:
"There is error detecting & correcting logic in all digital gear."

Yes, of course there is, but what does that have to do with digital cables? It is not the job of digital cables to correct errors in the digital stream.