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What’s the worst marketing snake oil you’ve ever experienced first hand? Sales pitch, actual purchase, etc

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pandaman617
  • Start date Start date
Never spent ridiculous money like $1500 on speaker or interconnect cables. But when I first started buying equipment a salesman at a hifi shop sold me some Kimber speaker cable for $240. I also got snookered into buying interconnects for $150/pr. (I'm not an engineer.) Then I began reading posts on forums frequented by pro-recording engineers. They all use Canare, Mogami, or Belden (~.40 - .99 cents/ft) for neutrality, reliability, and durability. Reading articles from Audioholics and Blue Jeans Cables also helped me. I figured what was good enough for pros was good enough for me.
 
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I wouldn’t buy one but that’s snake [emoji216]
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oil !!!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
It's hard for me to read the forums at Audiogon sometimes. I try to read other people's opinion on certain equipment, and eventually every thread starts turning into a snake oil bragging contest. Their power cords, RCA cables, or magic bag of rocks added that last little bit of air to the soundstage....

The companies who sell this stuff are laughing all the way to the bank. Jokes on me for not taking advantage myself, I guess.

Source, amp, speakers are 95% of the equipment concerns, and where the money needs to go. Make sure your interconnects aren't faulty, your power cords are rated for the equipment load, and then get your room acoustics right.
 
Pandaman617 said:
I can tell you when I first got into home theater 5-6 years ago I had my eye on those MIT speaker cables and was literally about to pull the trigger when I read an article that I believe was on Audioholics about speaker cable tests. My first system ever was an Onkyo 7.1 HTiB and going from TV speakers to that I thought that was as good as it got, the salesman at Best Buy told me the single 10” subwoofer would “shake my house” just for fun I measured it a few months ago and it was -6dB at 35Hz.
Click to expand...

Define "snake oil"?
 
GR Research.

I had to click the "Do not recommend this channel" option on youtube to get rid of his face from my screen. Jay's Iyagi, yet another I flushed.

Soon as I see that a reviewer is desperate for sponsorship, adds click-baity intro pictures or titles, or has an ad break in the video, they get flushed.
 
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MrBoat said:
GR Research.

I had to click the "Do not recommend this channel" option on youtube to get rid of his face from my screen. Jay's Iyagi, yet another I flushed.

Soon as I see that a reviewer is desperate for sponsorship, adds click-baity intro pictures or titles, or has an ad break in the video, they get flushed.
Click to expand...
Hi!

I don't know this GR Research YT channel. But I'll be sure to avoid it.

I briefly watched a few videos by Darko Audio, but I didn't really feel like I got any valuable info from it.
 
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MrBoat said:
GR Research.

I had to click the "Do not recommend this channel" option on youtube to get rid of his face from my screen. Jay's Iyagi, yet another I flushed.

Soon as I see that a reviewer is desperate for sponsorship, adds click-baity intro pictures or titles, or has an ad break in the video, they get flushed.
Click to expand...

Yeah...I ditched those two also.
GR Research does have the world's highest markups on caps and chokes though. :)

Getting ready to ditch poor old Randy, the CheapAudioMan....20 minutes of his scruffy face in the camera holding stuff up while saying he did or didn't like the way Metallica sounded on it.
Never shows the equipment being tested...or Metallicad.
 
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isolar8001 said:
Yeah...I ditched those two also.
GR Research does have the world's highest markups on caps and chokes though. :)

Getting ready to ditch poor old Randy, the CheapAudioMan....20 minutes of his scruffy face in the camera holding stuff up while saying he did or didn't like the way Metallica sounded on it.
Never shows the equipment being tested...or Metallicad.
Click to expand...
Dropped GR too he never likes a speaker but his own. Selling his upgrades. Dropped Jay too but still watch Randy to see mostly low cost equipment and I always get a laugh. He doesn’t take himself too seriously.
 
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isolar8001 said:
Yeah...I ditched those two also.
GR Research does have the world's highest markups on caps and chokes though. :)

Getting ready to ditch poor old Randy, the CheapAudioMan....20 minutes of his scruffy face in the camera holding stuff up while saying he did or didn't like the way Metallica sounded on it.
Never shows the equipment being tested...or Metallicad.
Click to expand...

I ditched cheap guy. Don't dislike him or anything, but don't particularly have interest in what he talks about or his style of reviewing. He seems kind of newb-ish to me and I can't really learn anything from him. Not really into yet another subjective, quirky and amateur analysis of gear and speakers. The other subjective reviewer I don't believe so much is the Zeos guy, or other millennials take on just about any subject, either really.

I'm pretty much done watching equipment reviews. I can find more complete and believable info just asking here and ASR. It also doesn't help that I'm pretty much set for life with audio equipment and speakers, with the so-called technological advances beyond that, being redundant/meaningless for my use.

Pretty much all of what is being purported now is essentially snake oil to me, in an audible sense.
 
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Verdinut said:
Streaming of High definition 24 bit -96 KHz files.
www.mojo-audio.com

The 24-Bit Delusion

HD Music, HD Tracks, 24-Bit, 24/192, 24-bit 192KHz, DSD
www.mojo-audio.com www.mojo-audio.com
Click to expand...

After trying a few different HD sources, I found myself being fine with youtube and Pandora, without even remembering what the quality is, or isn't. I have the basic paid version of Pandora and it seems like it's good enough to me. I like the UI better than Prime and I like the discovery path better somehow, as well. I am a fan of the sound of even my oldest CDs. I am just not obsessive enough for the technologically superior streaming quality differences.
 
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MrBoat said:
I ditched cheap guy. Don't dislike him or anything, but don't particularly have interest in what he talks about or his style of reviewing. He seems kind of newb-ish to me and I can't really learn anything from him. Not really into yet another subjective, quirky and amateur analysis of gear and speakers. The other subjective reviewer I don't believe so much is the Zeos guy, or other millennials take on just about any subject, either really.

I'm pretty much done watching equipment reviews. I can find more complete and believable info just asking here and ASR. It also doesn't help that I'm pretty much set for life with audio equipment and speakers, with the so-called technological advances beyond that, being redundant/meaningless for my use.

Pretty much all of what is being purported now is essentially snake oil to me, in an audible sense.
Click to expand...


I think the only reason most of these videos get watched is out of curiosity...for the most part, videos of audio equipment are pretty scarce, so sometimes you have to watch these channels to see what you might be interested in....and these guys get the stuff somehow.
Of course, you have to sift through 500 eighty dollar chinese amp reviews and 2000 useless DAC comparisons most of the time. :)
 
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highfigh said:
This is the future! Embrace it, or perish!

www.tweekgeek.com

Bybee Small Copper Slipstream Purifier | TweekGeek

Bybee Small Copper Slipstream Purifier: entry-level Slipstream, copper leads. DIY internal installation. $99.
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Click to expand...

This is pure misrepresentation and attempted fraud. Where are the laws forbidding such crap? Actually, there is more bullshit in A/V marketing than in any other business.
If such laws exist, they should be applied and the fraudsters fined to the extend of putting them out of business.
 
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Kvn_Walker said:
It's hard for me to read the forums at Audiogon sometimes.
Click to expand...

Talking of AudiogoN, This little gem arrived via e-mail about a modification in there "hot Items" page. It's all about a power cord,

For the Panasonic we also offer a custom made power cord with imported plugs and a high strand cable that makes the mod even better.

The custom made Furutech power cords we make that matches that player is composed of imported copper plugs that have undergone a special process that seems to make a big difference in the sound and video quality. Combined with the floating field damper that Furutech exclusively employs to minimize magnetic field resonance and our imported silver solder with an ultra high strand count wire and you get the only power cord that we've found makes a significant difference difference to how both unmodified and modified equipment sound and look in terms of video.

My question of cause is will there power cord, if connected to an electric jug boil water faster then my two dollar cord that came with the jug. And you can't get any more scientific then that. Or are americans that gullible to believe this sort of .crap.. crosses out crap and replace with rubbish..
 
mono-bloc said:
Talking of AudiogoN, This little gem arrived via e-mail about a modification in there "hot Items" page. It's all about a power cord,

For the Panasonic we also offer a custom made power cord with imported plugs and a high strand cable that makes the mod even better.

The custom made Furutech power cords we make that matches that player is composed of imported copper plugs that have undergone a special process that seems to make a big difference in the sound and video quality. Combined with the floating field damper that Furutech exclusively employs to minimize magnetic field resonance and our imported silver solder with an ultra high strand count wire and you get the only power cord that we've found makes a significant difference difference to how both unmodified and modified equipment sound and look in terms of video.

My question of cause is will there power cord, if connected to an electric jug boil water faster then my two dollar cord that came with the jug. And you can't get any more scientific then that. Or ar americans that gullible to believe this sort of .crap.. cross out crap and replace with rubbish..
Click to expand...

Furutech is a Japanese audiophool bullshit manufacturer. Their products are to be avoided by all means.
 
Feel for people that don’t know much about audio and believe what cable manufacturers and some reviewers say about high end speaker and power cables etc. My major issue is there is usually no way to buy and try to test if it makes a difference with your equipment in your listening room. The only one I’ve found is SVS and their cables aren’t crazy expensive anyway. Have kept some and returned some at no cost and with no hassles. I won’t buy equipment I can’t try at home and return for no cost. If it’s not snake oil the manufacturer should stand behind their product. Buyer beware for sure.
 
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