Akiko Audio Tuning Stick Spectral Preview

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A

admin

Audioholics Robot
Staff member
A late night visitation brings on horror as one of our reviewer's systems is infiltrated by Akiko Audio Tuning Sticks. If you were inconvenienced by the blackout, we are sorry. Audioholics everywhere - beware! Check your cables! If one of these sticks appears, contact us. We are building a special cage that emits high levels of EMF and micophony that we believe will contain them. Tell your friends!


Discuss "Akiko Audio Tuning Stick Spectral Review" here. Read the article.
 
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rushwj

Audioholic
classic! i love tom's writing, and this was a riot to read. if you enjoyed this little post (in style and wit), then i recommend reading his books which i found equally amusing. anyway, well-done tom.
-bill
 
Marshall_Guthrie

Marshall_Guthrie

Audioholics Videographer Extraordinaire
Wait, did they actually submit these for review? Have they never read Audioholics?
 
gene

gene

Audioholics Master Chief
Administrator
Thanks Adam. I didn't see that. Not sure why Tom labeled it as a review but I will update the page title.
 
J

j_Galligan

Audiophyte
Game changer

I have a full set of 54 of these and can report that they DO WORK. The change in sound quality is NOT SUBTLE. For years I foolishly attempted to improve the sound of my system by upgrading the quality of my speakers, amplifiers or sources, NO MORE!! Sell your expensive gear, these sticks will make your Dayton Audio bookshelfs sound like Wilson Alexandria's powered by Boulder mono-blocks! If you put them on your USB or HDMI cables they will make 128kps MP3s sound better than vinyl. They say you can't put information back into a file that's been remove, THEY LIED. These sticks are able to detect the artists original intention of the waveform and recreate it better then any expensive DAC ever could. Plus they use the magnetic field of the planet to determine the right amount of low-end that sounds best in your home.

Read the site, it explains that a lot of the technology happens on the molecular level so it probably can't be measured by regular equipment. But your ears are the most sensitive instrument ever invented and unlike test equipment, your ears can't be fooled!

My system sounds so good that I physically can't leave the room while it's playing.

They are so worth it, but one warning. As you've probably already read, these do take 6-8 weeks of burn-in. After that, watch out!
 
Cliff_is

Cliff_is

Audioholics Content Manager
I have a full set of 54 of these and can report that they DO WORK. The change in sound quality is NOT SUBTLE. For years I foolishly attempted to improve the sound of my system by upgrading the quality of my speakers, amplifiers or sources, NO MORE!! Sell your expensive gear, these sticks will make your Dayton Audio bookshelfs sound like Wilson Alexandria's powered by Boulder mono-blocks! If you put them on your USB or HDMI cables they will make 128kps MP3s sound better than vinyl. They say you can't put information back into a file that's been remove, THEY LIED. These sticks are able to detect the artists original intention of the waveform and recreate it better then any expensive DAC ever could. Plus they use the magnetic field of the planet to determine the right amount of low-end that sounds best in your home.

Read the site, it explains that a lot of the technology happens on the molecular level so it probably can't be measured by regular equipment. But your ears are the most sensitive instrument ever invented and unlike test equipment, your ears can't be fooled!

My system sounds so good that I physically can't leave the room while it's playing.

They are so worth it, but one warning. As you've probably already read, these do take 6-8 weeks of burn-in. After that, watch out!
Someone please tell me this is satire. It's like an episode of the Colbert Report.
 
J

j_Galligan

Audiophyte
It's satire

Cliff_is, I tried my best to cram in every cliche of customer reviews for this type of product. It was hard not to be inspired after reading their website which is pretty hysterical.
 
L

lallygagging

Audioholic Intern
Has anyone on this thread actually tried these Tuning Sticks? Or are they being ridiculed simply based on the belief that they couldn't have any affect at all and thus the conviction that they cannot be anything other than snake oil? :confused: :)
 
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lallygagging

Audioholic Intern
Seeing how old this discussion is, I probably won't get any reply to my question. But I would really like to know. I wish I had found it sooner.
 
j_garcia

j_garcia

Audioholic Jedi
Has anyone on this thread actually tried these Tuning Sticks? Or are they being ridiculed simply based on the belief that they couldn't have any affect at all and thus the conviction that they cannot be anything other than snake oil? :confused: :)
 
mtrycrafts

mtrycrafts

Seriously, I have no life.
Has anyone on this thread actually tried these Tuning Sticks? Or are they being ridiculed simply based on the belief that they couldn't have any affect at all and thus the conviction that they cannot be anything other than snake oil? :confused: :)
What is there to try? Do you try everything? Do you have any credible evidence that they should, mind you didn't say work, work??? What are the facts behind it??? Marketing nonsense???
 
L

lallygagging

Audioholic Intern
Once again, I am late in responding.
I had to go to the US for awhile on an emergency and was unable to keep up with posting.
But even though some time has past I want to respond anyway because this argument is a pet peeve of mine. I am sure that people will still be reading this thread in the future and I am hoping that someone will read my response and get something worthwhile out of it.

My answer to the poster who sarcastically asked ''Do you try everything?'' is no I do not try everything. BUT neither do I form opinions, positive or negative, about things that I have not personally experienced.

Many posters on this and other forums do denigrate products which they have never experienced. And they like to call those of us who believe in such things as cables, tweaks, break-in, etc. ''audio-fools.'' But any reasonably intelligent human being, with just a smattering of wisdom, realizes that in reality the person who forms an opinion of anything whatsoever, without having actually experienced it, is a very foolish person indeed.

Can you imagine a researcher submitting to a scientific journal a treatise on something that he himself has never actually had any experience with which says in effect, ''Well, I don't have to study it because, given that which we already know to be true, I just KNOW that it simply cannot work?''
I wonder what the journal's editing department would do with that?

Your diatribes laced with technical and/or scientific ''proof'' are just as empty of substance as that treatise would be because you have no real first hand knowledge of the products you are denigrating.

Your attitudes toward these products is somewhat akin to the little child who, when confronted with a new food, says, ''I don't like it'' before even trying it... but with one glaring and important difference. The little child is talking only of himself. He is not trying to get everyone else not to like that food.

I have been around long enough to have learned that in this world there are many many phenomena which, as of yet, have no logical or scientific explanation. But these phenomena do in fact exist. I am sure that you are also aware of many such phenomena yourself.

Audioholics is a highly respected online website dedicated to objective reviews of audio equipment that are based on hands-on listening and testing. It performs a truly valuable service for all of us who are interested in this hobby. In this case, however, I do not feel that the Audioholics' article on the Akiko Tuning Sticks written by Tom Andry (to which this thread is attached and who's sarcasm, admittedly, is amusing and entertaining) lives up to Audioholics' high standards. Given, however, that the article is only a preview perhaps it doesn't need to. I don't know.

But what I do know is that it is certainly off-putting, as is also the tone of the posts that follow it. And, all-in-all, the result is a disservice not only to manufacturers who have put time and effort into developing their ideas but even more so to potential consumers who might otherwise decide to give different products a try. Today, what with manufacturers offering sometimes up to 60 days of trial use, tying out products is easier than ever. And, since the last word that I have read in many reviews and on many many threads is ''trust your own ears'' trying products that one may be interested in should be encouraged, not discouraged.

Does it at all occur to you that manufacturers who offer trial periods do so because they actually believe in their products? If companies like Akiko were shysters deliberately trying to foist sham products on us, how would it behoove them to let us try those products out first?
If you say it is because they know that a certain number of those who try will somehow be fooled (or will fool themselves) into believing that those products do work then my first question would be, ''How do you know either that this is the company's intention or that anybody would in fact be fooled?' Such argumentation is merely conjecture.
My next question would be, ''Isn't the last word on the subject always, 'trust your own ears?' ''
Well, if we trust you and don't try the product then how can we trust our own ears?

But when we do trust our own ears, you denigrate us for that. We tell you we actually heard improvement and you put us down. You offhandedly dismiss our observations. You say we are imagining it. You say we are ''subconsciously'' leading ourselves into hearing improvements because that's what we want to hear.
Well, if that's the case then no one... not you, no reviewer, no consumer, no manufacturer... should ever trust his own ears because we all have a subconscious and we are all being influenced by our subconscious all of the time.
So right here and now let's throw out the whole concept of trusting our own ears. Instead, let's trust you who with your vast knowledge of physics and technical know-how ''know'' the real truth. Let's deny our own ability to hear and discern, and let's just trust and follow you...
like sheep!

Are you aware that the following magazines -- STEREO TIMES, 6 MOONS, CANADA HIFI, POSITIVE FEEDBACK, MONO STEREO, HIFI PIG, TNT AUDIO, HIFI ADVICE, PIANO 10 (FRENCH) PHILSTAR (FILIPINO), ALPHA AUDIO (DUTCH), QUALITY HIFI (DUTCH) -- have all written very positive reviews of the Akiko Tuning Sticks? Stereo Times gave them a 2013 Most Wanted Components award and 6MOONS gave them a Blue Moon award. All of these reviews (at least the ones I can read... can't read the Dutch) say that the improvements are immediately very noticeable... not subtle. And all of them say they are definitely worth trying.
Also, on the very off chance that Stereo Times and 6 MOONS were promoting these products in order to protect some financial interest, they could have certainly written positive reviews without conferring awards on them, no? Conferring awards on products that are a sham would be very risky for a magazine, don't you think? So why the awards if they don't really believe in the Sticks?

I am not saying that these reviewers are correct in their assessment. Never having tried these tuning sticks I can neither affirm nor contradict what they have written.
But please, you tell me. What do you think? Are all of these people out and out lying to us? Or are they sincere but deluded simpletons who are all unable to hear properly? Are they maybe all on Akiko's payroll? Or are they all letting their subconscious lead them around by the nose because they want SO VERY BADLY for the tuning sticks to work?

A couple of questions:
Which of you, who put so much faith in measurements and technical knowledge, if faced with two amps where amp B sounded better to your ears than amp A would choose amp A because it measured better?
And which of you, given the opportunity to try a tweak or a cable, upon discovering that it actually did bring a big improvement to your system would reject it on the basis that logically such improvement just could not be happening?

Do I think that you or anyone else should try everything? Of course not! Such would be impossible.

What I do think is that you should report only on items that you have had hands-on experience with and if your assessments includes technical analysis then so much the better for all of us. But until you do so, your statements are not even worth reading -- just empty negative speculation which you make sound impressive by falling back on theory... but empty speculation nonetheless. The problem is that the others of us often have to sift through pages of such negative speculation in order to get to the meat.

I for one am tired of having to sift through pages of negative speculation based on ''technical savvy'' in order to get to the meat. But what I most take offense to is being told that my experiences don't matter... that my ears are not as good as your head knowledge... that you are in-the-know, in the inner circle, and I am just an ''audio-fool'' who is trusting the wrong input... my own ears.

At the end of the day your speculative naysaying does no service to anyone other than, perhaps, to your own ego attachment to your intelligence and erudition.

Well... intelligent you may be and erudite you may be, but wise you are not. (the opposite of wisdom is foolishness).

I have been wanting to write such a post for a long time now. By not forthrightly answering my question but, rather, responding so defensively and accusatorially you opened the door for me to do so. I thank you.
 
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markw

Audioholic Overlord
I have been around long enough to have learned that in this world there are many many phenomena which, as of yet, have no logical or scientific explanation. But these phenomena do in fact exist. I am sure that you are also aware of many such phenomena yourself.
"By all means let's be open-minded, but not so open-minded that our brains drop out." - Richard Dawkins
 
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