The Quackery Thread

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Scottmoose
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#136

Post by Scottmoose »

Next on the list:

http://www.monstercable.com/productdisplay.asp?pin=17

I especially like this bit:
Monster's Sigma Retro Gold cables may very well be the best cables ever made. Some things are extraordinary because of their simplicity, like the Golden Gate Bridge or Rockefeller Center. They are as ageless and timeless today as when they were conceived. It is with this sense of the classic that Monster created Sigma Retro Gold speaker and interconnect cables.
Right. So they're comparing their expensive wire, possibly made for v. little in a Chinese sweat-shop, to the Golden Gate Bridge, and the Rockerfeller Centre. Whatever these people are smoking, I want some. How could any human being otherwise invent such an idiotic load of cobblers? I mean, I thought Kurt Vonnegut was good, but this is in a different league entirely. Larry Niven would doff his hat. Ringworld is but a bagatelle next to this. Wherever the creatures who wrote this about wire came from, one can only imagine that the evening air is rent by the cries of the first eleven as they swing through the girders on their way to the field. The second eleven will be going on all fours. Gibber.

If anything this part is even better:
Sigma Retro Interconnect Cables offer a stylish 24k gold contact RCA connector housed inside a termination which resembles a jet engine.


I can picture (although I'd really rather not) some very sad men becoming highly aroused at this. What other use it has must be beyond human understanding. I mean, other than causing a few emotionally disturbed types to reach for a box of Kleenex, what other purpose can this blithering nonsense possibly serve? Why in the name of sanity would you want an RCA connector that looks like a jet engine, make and model unspecified? Can I have a Rolls Royce Tay please, with the optional reheat?

Nurse!
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theoldtrout
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#137

Post by theoldtrout »

I love the reference to Magnetic Flux Tubes with a small R to show the name is registered. The term Magnetic Flux Tube has been use by astro-physicists for some time. I'd like to know if and how the Monster's MFT work in relation to cable.

Remember Harry Enfield's great TV sketch set in an antique shop? The catchphrase was: I saw you coming.
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Scottmoose
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#138

Post by Scottmoose »

Indeed. And they don't (as in work with anything to do with the wire). I note with great interest (well, I couldn't care less really, but you get the idea) that after the initial remark, no other comment on the subject is forthcoming on that page. Figures. And could someone please inform me how their 'Super-MultiTwist construction rejects audio bandwidth distortions.' And what, pray, might those distortions be? Are they saying that they've somehow discovered a wire that introduces non-linear distortion? They'll be in line for a major science prize if they have. Or is this simply a euphanism for 'we've braided it to reduce the effects of RFI?'
It's pathetic, that's what it is.

Bo$£ are another example of a company claiming tradmark protection of words / phrases that have been around for decades. And speaking of which...

http://www.bose.co.uk/GB/en/learning-ce ... /index.jsp

The Bo$£ Acoustic Waveguide. Here's a lovely extract:
They realised that by mounting a loudspeaker in a tube, the motion of the loudspeaker would act as a waveguide, effectively transforming a small amount of input (air) into a large amount of output (sound).
Er... you mean like... a Quarter Wave line? You know -a tube that's sealed at one end, open at the other, and resonates when excited? The sort of thing that's been employed for (quite literally) thousands of years? The sort of thing that Rayleigh, Olney and all the early horn-bods worked extensively with? Somebody, please help me to sit down, I'm feeling all pale & wan.
Additional analysis and measurements revealed that the tube could be folded into intricate patterns with no ill effect on sound quality. This discovery eliminated any concerns about the length of the waveguide and proved to be an extraordinary breakthrough.
Extraordianary breakthough? What cave have these people been lurking in? Take a gander at Olney's Acoustic Labyrinth, Bailey's [not actually] non-resonant loudspeaker enclosure (because the box thereafter described in his Wireless World article patently was resonant) most of the 'classic TLs' since then... the list is truly vast. What complete and utter bollocks. I feel for Amar Bose actually. He's a good researcher / scientist. But the marketing monkeys are running the show.
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Nick
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#139

Post by Nick »

Image
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Scottmoose
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#140

Post by Scottmoose »

Yup. :lol:

Ancient Greek theatre too, anyone?
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#141

Post by Mike H »

Did I mention about cables I saw once on't Webernet a while ago, can't remember whose but they were in Seattle I think ~ anyroad the RCA phono plugs didn't have all metal screen rings, but plastic with a small gold plated pin let into a gap in the ring that makes the actual earth connection.

The reason was, it was explained, so that there is no electro-magnetic resonance or circular eddy current type things going on in the otherwise conventional continuously circular metal screen tube.

A bit like, what you might get at microwave / radar type frequencies one supposes. I.e. where it's like a cavity for a magnetron.

On reflection, TBH I'd be more worried about this single little pin going bent and making for poor earth connection
 
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Ali Tait
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#142

Post by Ali Tait »

Eichmann plugs are like that.
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Nick
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#143

Post by Nick »

This is possibly the best yet
If we could find a way of converting bullshit to energy that web page could power the north of England.

I particularly love the line "Another analogy may be drawn to the fine art of noise shaping in digital filtering algorithms." Fine ART????
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#144

Post by stevieg »

How can you draw an analogy with digital? Analogy's analogue, innit?
Love to read their company's mission/vision statement. "We are passionate about helping the gullibility challenged community to walk more upright by emptying their wallets"
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Nick
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#145

Post by Nick »

How can you draw an analogy with digital? Analogy's analogue, innit?
True, but Analogue is only a analogue of reality, and reality is quantised when it comes down to it after all :-)
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#146

Post by stevieg »

I showed my cat your last post and it ran away. Why would it do that?

Yours Erwin Schrodinger
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Nick
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#147

Post by Nick »

stevieg wrote:I showed my cat your last post and it ran away. Why would it do that?

Yours Erwin Schrodinger
You should have put it in a closed box first.
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andrew Ivimey
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#148

Post by andrew Ivimey »

Could it have been about to have kittens!?

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stevieg
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#149

Post by stevieg »

I did put it in a closed box, and I didn't. The cat is about to have kittens and it isn't. I'm not sure of anything anymore, but then again I am. What have I done?

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andrew Ivimey
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#150

Post by andrew Ivimey »

a single malt will do. :-)
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