Of Coat Hangers…

From a post on the Audioholics forum:
We gathered up a 5 of our audio buddies. We took my “old” Martin Logan SL-3 (not a bad speaker for accurate noise making) and hooked them up with Monster 1000 speaker cables (decent cables according to the audio press). We also rigged up 14 gauge, oxygen free Belden stranded copper wire with a simple PVC jacket. Both were 2 meters long. They were connected to an ABX switch box allowing blind fold testing. Volume levels were set at 75 Db at 1000K Hz. A high quality recording of smooth, trio, easy listening jazz was played (Piano, drums, bass). None of us had heard this group or CD before, therefore eliminating biases. The music was played. Of the 5 blind folded, only 2 guessed correctly which was the monster cable. (I was not one of them). This was done 7 times in a row! Keeping us blind folded, my brother switched out the Belden wire (are you ready for this) with simple coat hanger wire! Unknown to me and our 12 audiophile buddies, prior to the ABX blind test, he took apart four coat hangers, reconnectd them and twisted them into a pair of speaker cables. Connections were soldered. He stashed them in a closet within the testing room so we were not privy to what he was up to. This made for a pair of 2 meter cables, the exact length of the other wires. The test was conducted. After 5 tests, none could determine which was the Monster 1000 cable or the coat hanger wire. Further, when music was played through the coat hanger wire, we were asked if what we heard sounded good to us. All agreed that what was heard sounded excellent, however, when A-B tests occured, it was impossible to determine which sounded best the majority of the time and which wire was in use. Needless to say, after the blind folds came off and we saw what my brother did, we learned he was right…most of what manufactures have to say about their products is pure hype. It seems the more they charge, the more hyped it is.
Of course, everyone with at least a spoonful of brains in his head knows this.
The big question remains - knowing that most human beings do have a brain, sort of - why the fuck every single one us of still falls for all this hype ?! All the time.
And don’t get me started on all this bio-food stuff and shiite.
Listen greenie, bio-food is NOT handmade by some lovely garden gnomes, okay ?
Even bio-diesel is almost as harmful as regular diesel. It just sounds better. And costs more.
Duh.
Comments
Comment from guy
Time: March 5, 2008, 10:10 am
Stupid people are made happy very easily.
Rich stupid people - RSP’s - are made happy even easier; conceal the truth about your product (mostly with vague blahblah), make it expensive beyond the reach of the masses, and bingo ! One more sucker down.
Examples: Ferrari, Bang & Olufsen, MonsterCable, Loewe, Moog, all boutique super-hi-end hi-fi systems, most upper-class fashion brands (Gucci et all), most middle-class fashion brands (Diesel et all), and French wines.
There’s only one amplifier to rule them all: Quad.
Ha !
—
Other than that, how’s life in the jungle, Tom ?
Comment from Fraze
Time: March 9, 2008, 6:58 pm
You forgot to add Mac to that list.
Comment from Tommickx
Time: March 10, 2008, 10:35 am
Traffic gets worse by the day, Hummers and brand new Land Cruisers rule the streets; inflation is skyhigh (20% anually according to the latest statistics), corruption is rife; real estate is booming, daily evictions; shoddy workmanship/ignorance/apathy/”non-curiosity” abound.
Weather’s great; girls are pretty as ever; cool cultural events (theater, film, photo, music) are on.
For all the fast change, it’s pretty much bu$ine$$ a$ uSual: the rich get richer, the poor get screwed. What’s good is great, what’s bad is horrible. It’s a country of extremes.
I’m still lovin’ it.
Comment from Tommickx
Time: March 5, 2008, 8:29 am
I used to build amplifiers as a kid and I always built the same design: an adapted version of Philips’ MFB (Motion Feedback) amplifiers, but without the motion feedback (i.e. small microphones built into the speakers). Everything I turned them on people would come into my lab and say: Wow, that sounds awesome! (This includes both non-audiophiles AND musicians.) And that was a 25 W single-supply class AB-B amp with $10 worth of components, tested on a full-range speaker in an open TV cabinet.
Hilarious, people spending more money on a speaker cable than a car. But hey, if it makes them happy…