Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion Off Topic Can't get away from snake oil

Oh yeah, some of it is for real. But can you play well enough to justify some of it gets complicated. And/Or will your playing improve with something "better". I guess that is similar to, can you hear the difference in the audio world. Most amature Fiddlers pay $300-500 for a fiddle (some pay $50.00 some pay $5K). Most Student Violinist (say college level) pay no less than $10K. A famous pro fiddler might pay $10K-$20K as well. I can't tell the different between a $200.00 bow and $2000.00 bow. But I can tell the difference in $300.00 fiddle and $5,000.00 fiddle (one that isn't a scam any way).

Well some claim to have done so - in blind if not double blind trials. Check out Nagyvary violins and the 'biotech violins' made by Schwarze and Rhonheimer.

I think most agree that you're paying for the antique/fame/bragging-rights attributes of these uber expensive violins. Not just the sound.

Quite a few companies have claimed to play as well as an original Strad. With super complex measuring equipment as well as blind tests. But some will still believe an original Strad has unique sound quality. Just like some believe uber expensive cables sound better.

One funny story is the "Standard" Violin in Strad's time was actually a Stainer. Everyone wanted and played Stainers. It was not until after Strad died that some famous Violinist used a Strad and did some spectacular performance with it. After that, everyone wanted a Strad. And it has remained that way since.

The interesting thing to me, when it comes to audio, is that not only is it true, and I know it to be true of me, but even when I am conscious that I might be deluding myself, it's still very difficult to throw it off. It's like I sometimes collude with myself to delude myself. That almost always costs money. Think how much harder it is when one is not conscious of deluding oneself. No wonder selling snake oil will always be a profitable career.

I have heard it said that having "The Best" of everything (Be it Cables or Sports equipment etc), does not put you at an advantage, but ensures that you are not at a dissadvantage.
Thoughts, Chris

No question - I agree fully. Just take a look at my equipment list for a living, breathing, deluded example. I've been having this debate with myself whether to buy the Theta Bluray player. I 'know' it is nothing more than a nicely dressed Oppo - but maybe, just maybe it's more than that ...... sigh!

Here is an objective explanation as to how a power cord can make a difference. Ferrite material used in power cables has high impedance at a specific frequency. The result is that the cable rejects that frequency only (noise) and passes others (60Hz). So if you have noise in your application at the frequency that is being filtered by a particular power cord then you may hear a difference, but only if your power supply is not already filtering it out.

But you don't have to spend much for a ferrite filter.

http://www.amazon.com/Ferrite-Core-Cord-Noise-Suppressor/dp/B0002MQGEK/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_c

I've often seen them added just inside the power connector.

Yes. It's just about filtering noise, which can be done for a few bucks.
I was just responding to Simon's statement about an objective explanation.

Joel, great find - another really good article / interesting read - thanks ! It's nice to find some rational common-sense from time-to-time & as a result of this thread I've just spent a couple of hours on the Ethan Winer website (again !) : quite a lot of useful & sensible information on there backed-up by logic & physics.... Axle, can you provide a link to some reliable data that shows this ? Please feel free to p-m me with this in order to stay on-topic & not start a cable (war !) discussion....

OK, that is a good one. From my personal experience ferrite rings on power cords make no difference (yes, I bought a bunch just in case ), or at least, they did not in my particular circumstances.

This is a key point. There may be benefits, but *you* might not realize them. To return to the saxophone situation, you might never realize the extra "darkness" and "warmth" of your shiny new horn if you use a "bright" mouthpiece with a "thin" reed...