Amazing James Randi?

Mr Hosehead,

Interesting thread - thanks for the link. None of this surprises me in the least - least of all the venom. Fremer sounds like an emotional fellow and this is just the type of person who writes good objective reviews.

If Randi has brains or good advice then the test will be with ordinary wires of short lengths ( no capacitors, diodes, resistors, inductors in the cable) furthermore he should use an easy speaker to drive (close to 8 ohms with no nasty dips to destabilize the amp) and a low output impedance high quality amp (run at levels far far below clipping). The test should also require music not test signals.

In this configuration, Mr Fremer will have a very tough job indeed, as the audible differences are known scientifically to be extremely small. And as you say other tests in the past have shown similar results - no detectable audible difference ( although we all know that a very slight difference must exist ).

Clearly Randi does have an objective....to show that triple figure cables are not materially different in their audible characteristics from the already exotically priced Monster Cables. This is probably why he is primarily focussed on two very high $$ cables...after all it will make a good press story whereas two similar priced cables might make no splash at all.

The stakes are high for both parties...if Fremer wins it would be tremendous vindication for the kind of reviews we read in Stereophile.

Personally I hope this verbal abuse from Fremer is not intended to leave him a way out of the test....he now simply claims it is impossible to work with a "LIAR" and a "Sack of Sh*t", as the test will be rigged anyway.

Interestingly this is the exit or avoidance strategy that many paranormal psychics etc have used with Randi in the past.It is a win win for them. They gain publicity by accepting Randi's challenge and then back down over a number of months, one excuse after another...

jmcgrogan2: "not that it really matters anyway" What does that mean?

I think the whole Randi vs. Mikey thing is just a dog and pony show, a publicity stunt if you will. I doesn't matter to me what comes out of it. I could care less whether they have their 'pissing' contest or not.

It doesn't matter because you know cables have a sound all their own or that once the known paramaters are achieved it's like throwing money out the window?

I only posted the amazing Randi because I remember James Randi when he would make his appearence on many late night talk shows. I was amazed how he debunked many a phoney psychic of the day Geller,and many of the so called psychic surgeries coming out of east Asia. I have to say after reading MF letters to Randi and his earlier ones too Arthur Salvatore of audio critic, they all seem to possess the same language and sound points. His use of foul words and name calling does not belong in a business letter, even if the party you are addressing has in ways rubbed you the wrong way.I also would like to say about high-end that I cannot see why a reviewer would not question the price tag of ten feet of wire at the going price of seven thousand plus and much more. How much technology was invested and spent to manufacture wire costing that much for the connection between amp/speaker. I have been involved in bodybuilding for many years and please no jokes about the correlation between intelligence and muscle building. I remember in his early day's Arthur Jones a brilliant man and the major inventor of the nautilus training equiptment, who had trained many a famous bodybuilder in Deland Florida. One of his major complaints of the time was that many barbell comapny's were making more money not on the sales of weights but the food supplementation side of the buisness. He was angry that their was no way to tell if a supplement was really working or not. My point is I believe Mr Randi no matter right or wrong within this topic, does have a right to question the high-end audio industry with many of its claims, many that have no scientific data or are fraudulent at best. We should not be so hard on James Randi as much as we the consumer should be asking the reviewer to ask that hard question. Why so much for ten feet of wire that was purchesed at Dow Corning in great bulk?