The BIGGEST Hi-Fi Scams and Snake Oil of the Past 40 Years (We Got Fooled Too)

Comments · 69

• SA

  @SastusBulbas1 · 1 month ago

  Crazy that AI could not tell us about how The Goldmund Eidos 18 was a £90 Pioneer DVD player literally plonked in a fancy alloy case, £9000 for a Pioneer DV-300 which had nothing changed internally, just a case.

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• TK

  @tkyap2524 · 1 month ago

  Marketing is actually snake oil because it's about the tactic of pushing out a product.

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• DD

  @DddNnn-p2k · 1 month ago

  THE BEST hifi upgrade and the cheapest is two beer. System will sound 10x's better.

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• BO

  @bobstan-m5w · 1 month ago

  Don't know about the speaker cable risers ' have heard differences '

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• EL

  @Elluvis72 · 1 month ago (edited)

  180 grams records, a "puck" on your record platter, a "high-end" interconnect costing $1500, a pair of "supertweeters", a >$5000 DAC.

• IV

  @ivovlot4094 · 1 month ago

  At the age of 14 I built my own radio with tubes. Next was audio amplifiers, first small ones, later balance amplifiers with expensive transformers etc.<br>Loudspeaker cabinets, like the Kar;sson resonator, which I built at least 10, for myself and friends. Those took one gross (144 pcs) of screws, in those years slit type, philips was not available then...<br>At some moment I had the opportunity to buy an MC cartridge made by AJ van den Hul, who was a wellknown inventor of audio equppment in Delft, The Netherlands.<br>In an SME tone arm it performed wonderful with a pre-amp I built with discrete compnents, all carefully matched.<br>After a few years I had to go back to the workshop of AJ van den Hul to get a repair, after the cantilever had broken because of an accident.<br>There, in the Valhalla of sound freaks, I heard some of the best sound, coming from equipment completely built by van den Hul. Amplifier with tubes, working in a bridge configuration, transformerless, capable of delivering 600 V/uSec. Speakers with hand built frames and mid-high all electrostatic.<br>Amazing, even at a low level playing classical music I recognized how clean and transparent this sounded.<br>When AJ vd Hul (decades later) promoted and sold digital signal cables for ridiculous amounts of money, I lost it, or he lost me...<br>His shop sells also loudspeaker cables made from special processed wires that cost you a fortune. His story about how this improves the sound doesn&apos;t convince me.<br>I &nbsp;always tried to look critically at everything in the audio freaks world and laughed just a little when someone was talking about their amplifier overhaul, with silver wiring.<br>Or the time I saw the wiring inside an expensive Elipson speaker, it was actually a very thin and obviously low grade wire. That one could really profit from an upgrade to a good, heavy wire. <br>And don&apos;t forget to calibrate your ears every now and then, by listening to some live music, at a level that won&apos;t kill your hearing...

• RO

  @rogerking7258 · 1 month ago

  I believe that &quot;audiophile&quot; is a word of ancient Greek origin that means &quot;mug&quot;. I recently purchased a new pair of loudspeakers (for the first time in forty years), and settled on spending over twice my original budget because the more expensive ones were genuinely far superior to the ones I was originally interested in. To be fair, the retailer didn&apos;t even suggest trying the more expensive option - it was my decision entirely and I&apos;m pleased with my decision. But I then decided to &quot;audition&quot; speaker cables - and having listened to a range from the cheapest to highly expensive I told the retailer that I couldn&apos;t tell any difference between them. I was met with looks of astonishment and disbelief, but I stuck to my guns and bought the second cheapest on offer (because they were better looking than the cheapest). I spent my working life in an industry where objective data is the only thing that matters and it&apos;s hard to break the habit. I&apos;m still very happy with my cheap speaker leads - and the speakers sound superb with them.

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• TI

  @tinmanw9256 · 1 month ago

  I think the little metal dots sticking to the speakers or equipment claiming to control resonance of the speakers and equipment is also a 10 out 10 snake oil!

• HO

  @howardskeivys4184 · 1 month ago

  I was the recipient of a very good education. In higher education I received an excellent grounding in the sciences and majored in physics at university. Everything ive learned screams at me that power conditioners should make no audible improvement. But, when the manufacturer of my amplification, who I hold in high respect, when they introduced their own version of an active power conditioner, I purchased 2, on a complete whim. Well actually, I purchased them on my Amex Platinum card. &nbsp;€2500 later, I can confirm, beyond any shadow of a doubt, that with my equipment, in my room, to my ears, they make absolutely no &nbsp;audible difference! Maybe, just maybe, they cause my monoblocks to run ever so slightly cooler. But I appreciate that could be placebo as the manufacturer said that would happen. Power conditioners along with audiophile fuses should be added to that list.

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• EA

  @earthoid · 1 month ago

  A fun trip down Memory Lane!<br>Back then I couldn&apos;t understand how trusted reviewers could hear sonic improvements using things like special green pens (not the cheap Magic Marker ones) or expensive Tice clocks that looked identical to a cheap Radio Shack model but were magically treated somehow (like changing the Radio Shack name to Tice?). I now realize that people can self hypnotize themselves into believing just about anything, and the pressure to not miss out on the latest and greatest idea or &quot;discovery&quot; fuels this.

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• RE

  @revoxjazz · 1 month ago

  The reason I have no recollection of ever being misled regarding &quot;things&quot; supposedly designed to improve the quality of the audio equipment I’ve owned throughout my life is likely because I have always believed, fundamentally, in the physics governing the manufacture and use of audio gear—whether Hi-Fi or professional. Since I work in the professional audio sector, any proposal put to me must be verifiable using my own instruments. Perhaps that is why I have never been targeted by absurd claims, and to this day, I have a clear conscience. If anyone wants to sell me something, they have to prove its worth using my own testing methods.

• DA

  @Dave30867 · 1 month ago

  A live performance will always sound the best you will ever hear .