Audio terms BS and not BS

davidscott

davidscott

Audioholic Ninja
Anybody here remember the Tice clocks? Plug it in to the wall and it made all of your components sound better. Didn't even have to be connected to your stereo. Never had or heard one but it disappeared from the market pretty quickly.
 
VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
Love those CD Stoplight pens.... man did Billy Joel sound better!!!
CD-Stop-Light.jpg
 
VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
Here I thought stones were "perfect conductors" according to the movie TREMORS! I didn't know they were
isolation pads!

StoneIsolation.jpg
 
VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
Cleveland Rocks! Cleveland Rocks! Whoops. I mean Audiophile Rocks! Audiophile Rocks!!! :eek:

If only these were raspberry marshmallow treats instead..... :p

AudiophileRocks.jpg
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
It’s still stout/porter season for me. Gets me through winter. Lol. A dark Belgian ale might be good in a couple months.
I'm a lager lout. I like it light and not hoppy. Mexican or Japanese beer does it for me.. although I make an exception for good lo' Yeungling (which is the darkest beer I enjoy if I'm in the mood for a second... unless I'm in the UK, then it's local stout on tap).
Went on a brewery hopping trip today in the SF area with a buddy who's big into beer. Many IPAs of various kinds, stouts, imperial stouts, some belgians and some barrel aged stuff. I really don't like light beers altho once in a while will have a Bohemia at a taqueria as that's often the best offering. Japanese beer...meh.
 
VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
Yeah the lemon should be in the Tom Collins! ;)

I invented a drink many years ago I call a "Pucker Up" (because Warhead was already taken).

Juice Press 3 limes, 1 lemon, 1 orange. Add a jigger of sweet and sour mix. Add a jigger of Amaretto (preferably Disaronno). Prepare for SOUR followed by sweet. Warhead indeed. :D
 
K

KallyCoda

Enthusiast
This is an inappropriate post and exemplifies extreme laziness. This is something you can easily research yourself, and should. We do not mind helping people with problems and difficulties. However creating for you a personal dictionary of technical terms is not a good use of our time.

Now go and research this in your own. You are welcome to come back and explain what you have learned. We can then critique your home work. This is how education works. Spoon feeding never works. That will actually make you lazier and less educated than you are now. I encourage members not to answer your question until you can show you have put serious effort into answering it from your own Internet research.

Lastly the term you selected is not BS. Now please go and find out what it means.

Wow! That's kind of harsh for a Beginners and Neophytes thread. Isn't that essentially the intent here - help newbies get up to speed? There's so much crap and BS out there - even measurements are suspect, so why not start with some key metrics to use in your assessments? TankTop - You hit on what might be the first approach that needs adjustment. You ask about BS when you see it. Forget that. go out and listen. Whatever you like and suits your tastes is good. Forget everything else or you'll never make a decision. Otherwise, there are great forums that will steer you towards a sound that is akin to your preference. You don't need a masters degree.
 
VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
Wow! That's kind of harsh for a Beginners and Neophytes thread. Isn't that essentially the intent here - help newbies get up to speed? There's so much crap and BS out there - even measurements are suspect, so why not start with some key metrics to use in your assessments? TankTop - You hit on what might be the first approach that needs adjustment. You ask about BS when you see it. Forget that. go out and listen. Whatever you like and suits your tastes is good. Forget everything else or you'll never make a decision. Otherwise, there are great forums that will steer you towards a sound that is akin to your preference. You don't need a masters degree.
Rude (and uncalled for) is the word I'd use. People can research any number of things by themselves elsewhere, but given this is a thread about such things.... Besides, no one makes anyone respond to someone's question.
 
K

KallyCoda

Enthusiast
Don't directional cables also have an arrow pointing people to the next higher (more expensive) option? :p
They certainly have arrows but I've never heard a difference. All hype! why would a cable go in one direction? It's made of the same metal throughout and the rest is hype.
 
K

KallyCoda

Enthusiast
LOL! Well there ya go. sometimes it's just that simple! Love the answer though!
 
K

KallyCoda

Enthusiast
I'd add one: Oxygen Free cables
"The high-end speaker wire industry markets oxygen-free copper as having enhanced conductivity or other electrical properties that are supposedly advantageous to audio signal transmission. In fact, conductivity specifications for common C11000 (ETP) and higher-cost C10200 Oxygen-Free (OF) coppers are identical;[12] and even the much more expensive C10100 has only a one percent higher conductivity—insignificant in audio applications.[12] "
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen-free_copper
I have to ask - does the same theory apply to directional interconnects? I honestly don't know but have never heard a difference.
 
killdozzer

killdozzer

Audioholic Samurai
Forget that. go out and listen. Whatever you like and suits your tastes is good. Forget everything else or you'll never make a decision.
One of the biggest marketing BS out there and grounds for the entire Bose marketing model; you don't have to know, just come and listen, we'll dazzle your ears and take your money, we even prefer you not knowing...

@TankTop5 It is always good to arm yourself against BS as much as you can. Perhaps no one will ever be full proof, but it can still steer you clear of some unnecessary bad decisions. First heads up should always be when someone says you don't have to know anything. I'm always asking myself the question; what kind of a person would want me dumb and who profits when I'm dumb. My experience, only your mother (not even your father) will love you if you're dumb and even she will sometimes take advantage of that.

Here's a couple of well known ones:

Shun Mook – pieces of wood you hang around your room and it „sucks out“ everything negative from the sound. No such effect has ever been made possible.

All the power conditioning myth – everything between your power outlet and your audio equipment. Just think, it's about bottle neck, the power and cabling between the power company and your power outlet will not be improved by 1-2 meters of „extra-super good“ power cable.

Cryo-copper – cooling the copper down to temps at which it starts to conduct better. Just think, metal is not able to retain conductivity properties when you warm it back up again at the usual temperature. Otherwise you could make heaps of superconducters, just by freezing the metal a couple of times over.

Tubes being natural – often heard from all the vinatge and „everything used to be better“ crowd. There's nothing natural about tubes. They can sound good, they can sound bad, They do distort the sound, but some people find this pleasing.

Breaking-in the equipment – there's very little breaking in going on and even that is done within first few moments. Some pieces of your equipment which have moving parts may need the initial few moments to start working as they're meant to. If they don't they're broken (quite different). Brake-in is a code-word actually, if you translate it to an honest language it means; buy it, go home and get used to what you're hearing.

Almost all correcting equipment – external jitter corection, external CD clock, tube stage (when BS company like Musical Fidelity makes an overpriced tube preamp that you're suppose to slap between your CD player and your amp to make CD sound like vinyl)

PMPO – when you see a kitchen radio clock that states 100W PMPO, you're free to point your finger at the salemsan and start hissing as loud as you can:
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VonMagnum

VonMagnum

Audioholic Chief
To be fair, tubes produce even order distortion, which sounds very pleasing to the ear (hence the popularity in guitar amps with overdrive) whereas solid state tends to produce odd order distortion which sounds like crap to the ear. Of course, I'd go for as low distortion as possible (they make DSP simulations of tube sounds for guitars), but this is probably why tube amps still have a certain popularity with some (plus they look cool glowing in the dark). They also don't die in EMP conditions like all unshielded transistor based tech. They certainly are not in the same category as Shakti stones....
 
P

PENG

Audioholic Slumlord
To be fair, tubes produce even order distortion, which sounds very pleasing to the ear (hence the popularity in guitar amps with overdrive) whereas solid state tends to produce odd order distortion which sounds like crap to the ear. Of course, I'd go for as low distortion as possible (they make DSP simulations of tube sounds for guitars),but this is probably why tube amps still have a certain popularity with some (plus they look cool glowing in the dark). They also don't die in EMP conditions like all unshielded transistor based tech. They certainly are not in the same category as Shakti stones....
If you believe in N. Pass's finding, preference of the 2nd, 3rd and neither are evenly split. The pleasing 2nd order thing may be juat sort of the audiophile talks as well. I don't know who to believe, and I definitely prefer the lowest possible distortions of any kind regardless.

https://www.passlabs.com/press/audio-distortion-and-feedback
 
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