Interesting topic Ralph... Yup... Been there, done that with the Stoplight pen, demagnetizer, "break in" CDs, and even the PWB Rainbow Foil. Tried sticking CD in freezer as well (you know, the poor man's cryo!).
17532 Thankfully (perhaps) I was still a poor student back when the "mania" hit as I started sucking the Kool-Aid and I was doing all that stuff above. I could not afford hundreds/thousands $$$ for expensive cables but I started making my own Cat-5 speaker cables (ouch the blisters in braiding that stuff!), tried various coaxials for digital SPDIF (soldered my own connectors), magnet cable RCA's... Thankfully (again!) I knew of some local audiophiles and had a chance to be exposed to some of this stuff without laying anything on the line myself - Nordost speaker cables, Totem "beaks", cable risers. The biggest expense back in those days was a Sony SCD-1 when SACDs hit around 2000 which would have been the peak of my obsession. I managed to convince myself that this stuff made no difference after painstakingly trying to do blind tests with the SACD player and various cables vs. CD-layer (I was almost 30 years old by this stage and couldn't hear much difference already; certainly nothing that affected my ability to enjoy the music). I recognized (with much pain and arguments with some hardcore folks) that the beliefs around much of the audiophile paraphernalia were: 17533 (RIP Leonard Nimoy) >From that point on, I started challenging myself with my own test CDs of excellent music as well as MP3 tracks burned back to CD-Rs. Since 2005, I've been comparing things like high bitrate MP3 (192kbps+) and test tones with jitter sidebands when I audition gear. I would always ask if anyone heard any difference... Guess what, never once has anyone complained about MP3 even with Grand Utopia EMs, Ravels, Sonus Faber, Wilson, B+W, mbl... There were times I could hear simulated jitter when (usually older) dealers and reps could not; reminding me of the importance of hearing acuity. All this of course lead to the blog idea when I had enough of Audio Asylum folks claiming they reliably identify 320kbps MP3. Enough nonsense! Time to get out there "in print". Compared to some folks, I guess I don't have too much of a Kool-Aid story. I feel thankful to have saved alot of money and experienced much. These days, finances would be no issue when it comes to multithousand dollar speakers and thousand dollar ethernet cables. I'm just glad the mania has passed and I hope I'm mature enough to not be swayed by this stuff any more while keeping an eye on what "works" for me and could actually be intellectually defensible. BTW: I was at the 'HiFi Center opening that Stereophile posted on' (http://www.stereophile.com/content/hi-fi-centre-opens-friday-new-vancouver-location) recently last night. Still a lot of fun checking out the gear and chatting with the reps even though my opinions might differ significantly from many around me... I'll post some pictures of the well-attended even on the blog in the next couple weeks! +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Filename: Spock1.jpg | |Download: http://forums.slimdevices.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=17533| +-------------------------------------------------------------------+ Archimago's Musings: (archimago.blogspot.com) A 'more objective' audiophile blog. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Archimago's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=2207 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=103238 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
