Audiophile

I´m sorry you laugh about your ignorance.Have you ever tried some of the tweaks you listed?I have, and many people i know .Believe or not some work or do you think the people who buy such devices are stupids idiots masoquists or rich guys?I know among this devices some are snake oil but before testing i don´t conmdened them.So for your pleasure i do a list of some i have tested:Audioprism light pen,works an ordinary pen does the same
Bedini Very good
Nespa also
Furutech RD2 idem
Cable elevator anything who put cables in the air works
Cable cooker just leave new cables connected to a FM receiver 24 hours a week and do the same job

Great list buddy, you made my day :)
And about the above poster, well i read carefully your post, so about the question
"do you think the people who buy such devices are
a) stupids idiots masoquists or
b) rich guys?"
the answer is a) without a doubt, because
1) not all the rich guys believe in ancient magic
2) there are some poor guys out there that do some really stupid things

Wow, what great products! My radio has never sounded better, and my wallet has never felt lighter! what did I ever do before I found these great products!

Thanks for the good laughs.

The light pen. A CD is a digital medium. It contains many hundreds of bytes. These bytes streamed together can be interpreted as a waveform. The Marigo Labs Signature 3-D Mat supposedly retrieves the long lost least significant bits from a single byte. If there was no other way of retrieving these cleverly hidden bits, then I am quite certain computers would not function. At all. It's like saying that if you buy my $500 pinky ring you will suddenly and for the first time ever be able to use your pinky finger! Buy two, one for each hand!

I have far better ways to blow money instead of getting suckered into any of this nonsense.

Some people believe L. Ron Hubbard's Scientology religion, too.

Is this why audiophools and their money are so soon parted?: http://www.ethanwiner.com/believe.html

Seems plausible to me.

(Note to self: Must remember to plug my interconnects in with the printed arrows pointing towards the amp. Those pesky electrons just refuse go the other way.)

Great page by the way Mr ILikeJam, it's given me a good few belly laughs! Thanks for attempting to show that the emperor really does have no clothes...

Sometimes, maybe, there might be more to this universe than our partially-evolved monkey-brains are not able to comprehend. It is difficult, for some, to think beyond what they know, and especially beyond what they can imagine.

The Emperor has no clothes, but in the case of the VD Genesis, he has a 2 meter shlong with your name on it. So while you are laughing at things that you have no knowledge of, no knowledge beyond that it doesn't make sense to you, so much so that it sounds ridiculous to you, just be careful that you don't bend over to pick up the soap.

Virtual Dynamics, you say? That wouldn't be the same Virtual Dynamics that make the Power 3 power cable, would it?
It is?
Well, in that case, perhaps you should read this:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f21/my-cat-tore-up-my-virtual-dynamics-power-3-a-293165/

The Machina Dynamica site is beyond nutty; I especially enjoyed the audiophile electrical outlet covers, a steal at only $99 for a four pack.

They remind me of P.W.B. Electronics http://www.belt.demon.co.uk/priceus.html - surprised you didn't mention them yet. They'll sell you colored pens too, but at $175 they obviously must work much better, and they treat vinyl records too. Read the description of the "Inside Foil" or, for that matter, any of their other products for more fun.

I work for a large electronics organisation as training manager. I use presentations featuring the 'products' listed on this site to demostrate how utterly absurd and disconnected from reality some sections of the audio industry are. Training doesn't always have to be serious - a presentation showing these ludicrous items is always good for a few laughs.

learn the difference between "your" an "you're" idiot.

Thank's for you're advice. You might want to get you're 'Shift' and 'd' keys looked at, though.

grammar nazi:

Learn the difference between "an" and "and", idiot.

BURN!

Not an audiophile, always was curious about the "hobby". I was floored by the wall sockets, really floored by everything. Somehow a digital medium is loosing bits left and right! And those lasers are flying around my room! Man, i never knew my stereo was such a sloppy piece of machinery. My computer must be really good since it functions so well with only 90% of its bits... its just a good guesser i guess.

Funny stuff.

I have an amplifier I built with small quantities of Jena Labs wire, but that doesn't mean I didn't choke a bit when reading their catalog entry for the Awakening Ultra RCA Absolute Statement interconnects.

http://www.jenalabs.com/interconnects/cableprice.html

$18,000 for a 3-foot nine-inch pair.

Top honors for not making absurd claims, though.

Try reading up about how the EMF decays (or persists) over distances and then you'll understand the reason for lifting the cables off the floor and carpets. Air is the best in terms of dielectrics and that's what helps when the cables are raised or put at 90 degrees when they cross each other.
This is just one example. Alsmot all the tweaks that you have listed above do have a reason behind them and work. You have to have ears to make them out and obviosly the material.

Quoto from above:

"Air is the best in terms of dielectrics"

O really?
Then please explain why electric sparks jump trough air very easy, and not trough glass or plastic.
Are you sure that you know what you are talking about.

http://www.audioholics.com/education/cables/dielectric-absorption-in-cables-debunked/

I speak to everyone from empirical knowledge (I've heard systems in all price brackets, and have been to many an AV show). My intention is to help and enlighten, not to dispute so here goes:

Room acoustics, amplifier power and speaker design are the sole contributors to the way a system sounds - the former having the most impact on sound. Additionally, the quality of a musical recording is much more important than the design of the source i.e CD player. How come? Even budget CD players/PC Soundcards perform fine with today's standards with no audible distortion - which is people worry about. Cables? Any old shielded cable will do fine (termination makes no difference, believe me, just use bare wire), and the same goes for mains cabling. Don't waste your hard-earned cash on overpriced snake-oil, the AV industry and market are designed to suck as much money out of your wallet as possible. Instead, invest in acoustically dampening your room to avoid reflections, vibrations and such distorting elements. Future-proof yourself and buy a big-ass amplifier, speakers with minimal resonance and distortion, a decent source, shielded copper cabling, a lot of well-recorded CDs or MP3s and you're set!

Caveat Emptor :)

c'mon, Machina Dynamica is clearly an amusing piss-take of everything you detest...give him some credit. that the audiophile publications take him seriously enough to bother to test and review is very funny.

Hi,

Thanks! I had some sad fun.
In Italy we have a special category of food experts called gastrogonzi. Those are the ones who will like any sort of ugly food if expensive and well put in a nice dish, they also like a lot fancy menus where the food is described with some poetry and magic (regardless of what it actually is) ... I guess is the same thing. It seems there are a lot of audiogonzi around!
Once I've been a gonzo too and bought a Monster Cable CD stabilizer (it was long ago and the product has long ago be discontinued). The sound did change and became dull, I wondered why and removed the top cover to look at the cd while spinning: with the stabilizer on it was tremendously unstable! The sound was duller because the error compensation was working much more I guess.

But, I have to admit some once strange tweaks have now a scientific explanation and works. One example: bi-wiring, under certain circumstances has a reason to be used.

A few things are more obvious: some contact cleaners may be effective on oxidated contacts (not on new clean golden ones, and if it works on them it means the connections were crap), a good cleaning and some scrubbing works as well, but good contacts cleaners are a bit oily and may prevent a new oxidation. There's no reason to pay a lot for those anyway, they are common tools for car mechanics for example.

Some things are strange: a lot of expensive cables use PVC in the external sheat, well PVC is piezoelectric, thus it may get electrostatically charged with vibrations and transmit it inside ... Thus, some may hear a difference using cable suspenders. Maybe it is easier to buy PVC free cables: it is also healthier.

I think that it is important to point out that some things are really crazy, like you're doing. I haven't seen any Harmonx products (they are really magic and thus really expensive), I think they deserve a review here.

Ending this post: it seems that a lot of audio stuff has great project and building errors (it is made for audiogonzi) and may not work properly in a variety of different environments (the reasons may be magnetic fields, electric pollution, vibrations, etc...), those gonzi instead of buyng well made equipment will try to fix major project mistakes by buying strange things, those same strange things may work (well, produce a different sound, if it is more correct is doubtful), but they work because the equipment had great problems ...

Go on

The link to harmonix, that I quoted on my previous post. This item is especially noteworthy: http://www.combak.net/roomtune/roomtuning.htm

They sell for more than 1000 euros (1500$ roughly). The claim that those little pills will affect the reproduction of low frequencies is absurd, their size is so small (one inch diameter, one tenth of an inch thickness) that the long wave lenghts will obviosly ignore them totally ... besides if they have an effect that will be on high frequencies only, they may act as diffusors and/or (mild) absorbers depending of the material they are made of, BUT only using a LOT (REALLY A LOT) of them this effect could be noticeable...
And at the end be the same as having a MUCH cheaper normal absorbing- diffusing device. And more, any, ANY, room furniture or different position of the furniture itself will affect the sound much more than those little pills.

I suggest people buying those devices to buy and hang to their walls my artwork instead, the special carefully selected and professionally used materials and the skill of the artist will clearly enance the pleasure of staying in the music room... one for just the price of 3 harmonix sets (for MUCH more wall surface covered)! In this way they may also contribute to the noble cause of an artist living and have better dreams knoving the value will increase in time.

Also noteworthy are their disc clamp TU812 (clamps on vinyl do affect the sound, for better or worse it depends) for the very high price (1000$, roughly) and their disc mat TU800 (1500$).

Price mentioned are reffered to Italy.

You've missed this: http://www.vandenhul.com/p_IXXX.aspx

The miracle bracelet! It's really worrying that someone of this reputation (and somehow also ernest, his prices are high, but not as much as others) is a magician. Wasn't he well known as an engineer?

Hey man,

Very very cool. I wish I coulda found more out there to turn you on to, but alas, you got the good ones.

And so you know....I've been involved in audio, performing, and recording since the sixties at the tipsiest-topsiest level; and yes, there have always been thieves and pretenders. The trouble is; people hear what they wanna hear. And even stranger; some folks even believe their own baloney.

Best regards, Dave

Very very good.

I am a touch surprised that you haven't got a single entry for any of Peter Belt's products.

The "quantum clip" for example. Just Google "Peter Belt". He is great entertainment and gives a valuable insight into the mind of the snake oil salesman!!!

L. Ron Hubbard made this stuff:

Behold his 'tape bleeder bar'
http://www.ronthemusicmaker.org/music/studio2.htm#bottom

A device attached to a tape recorder, it is designed to remove or "bleed" excess electrons from a recorded tape just as it crosses the recording head.

Guess I'm in the wrong business.

I wonder how much I could get for pyramid-shaped rocks to put above your DVD player. Focusing and reinforcing all the dynamic flux intensity waveforms, don'tcha know.

As a physics/math double major, some of these pages made me get up out of my chair and rage furiously. Some of those machina dynamica ones, especially the intelligent chip, were just vile offenses to my knowledge, and I had to stop reading them very quickly.

I mean, electron holes, quantum dots; are they just hoping that nobody else understands what they mean and what the implications of such things are?

I am in a position to give everyone a few answers, since I...
A) am only six months away from completing my electrical and electronic engineering degree,
B) am a musician,
C) have worked in Hi-Fi for about 7 years now.

Cable directionality:
Bollocks. Metal conducts just as well in both directions. It must, since if it were to have better conductivity in any particular direction, it would actually introduce measurable asymmetry to signals, which is against the fundamental principle of Hi-Fi.

Gold/Silver/Rhodium/Unobtainium (hahahaha. Sorry, Hi-Fi in-joke) plating:
Different metals have different conductivities, and hence affect signal propagation velocity. Silver has the highest conductivity, which is why cables are plated with (or otherwise made of) it. However, plating is also done to stop any copper in the cable from oxidizing. Gold and silver are far more resistant to oxidization over time than copper. Silver has the added bonus that in its tarnished state it has the same electrical resistivity as when it is not. Gold plating subjectively looks better, and serves the same purpose.

Connectors/ cable terminations:
The main reasons for terminating speaker cable with banana plugs are neatness and safety (against stray strands of cable causing shorts). We commonly use them in the shop, as we are moving components around all the time and nothing is permanent. Certain kinds (i.e.crimped-on plugs) also help reduce corrosion as outlined above. It is not absolutely necessary to terminate speaker cables, but it does have those benefits.

System parameters:
One of your contributors said "Room acoustics, amplifier power and speaker design are the sole contributors to the way a system sounds". This is almost correct. In my experience these are definitely the dominant factors in the overall sound. However, one must take all elements of the system into account, from the recording (which you have no control over), through the player (or transport and DAC), interconnects, to the amplifier (or pre/power amps, via more interconnects), to the speakers through the speaker cables. Each of these stages incurs some loss in various ways.
When it comes to CD players for example, I have been lucky enough to hear pieces from such diverse manufacturers as NAD, Cambridge, Naim, Linn, Exposure, Audiolab, Pioneer, Wadia, McIntosh, Musical Fidelity, Njoe Tjoeb, Shanling, Perreaux, Arcam, Primare, Yamaha, and from older gear through to what's currently available. There is no such thing as a standard CD player, by which I mean that each of these companies implements the principal function of a CD player differently. Their differing engineering approaches result in products which have unique sonic characteristics. The same applies to other components like amps, DACs, cables, etc.

Quantum effects:
I once sat in on a demonstration by a large and well-known cable manufacturer, where the demonstrator had the audacity to claim that they designed their higher-end cables to take into account quantum barrier tunneling. If you're talking about how the behaviour of single electrons is going to percetibly affect the sound, you have too much free time. Any such effects are swamped by other effects like EMI noise, and will be masked by other system parameters.

Coatings, cleaning fluids, etc:
Brasso does actually work for corroded or dirty connections BUT DON'T USE IT ON GOLD OR SILVER PLATING! The are specialist electrical contact cleaners for these metals. I have seen electrically conductive coating sprayed into the recesses of electric guitars to help earth problems, since electric guitars use inductive pickups and are susceptible to EMI noise. As the enclosures of the overwhelming majority of audio components are metal, it shouldn't be necessary under normal circumstances for home audio. If you are surrounded by Tesla coils, then maybe, but then you will have a very difficult time doing anything meaningful in this case.

Cable supports/Anti-static:
Again, unless you are running a Van De Graaf generator nearby, not necessary. Any noise from static (unless it's really bad) will be masked by other system variables.

Power conditioning:
This has two benefits, namely removing noise (such as backfeed from connected power appliances, control signals for street lighting, light dimmer noise) from the mains feeding your components, and protecting them from electrical damage from surges and spikes. They won't give protection from brown-outs (voltage sags), which can do strange and unexpected things to components, especially digital gear.
Note, though, that to properly protect your system, every access point must be protected. There's absolutely no point in plugging your TV, amp, CD player into a power filter if the aerials are not also protected. Every connected component must be isolated from the mains, aerials, phone lines and Ethernet/network. A good filter will have sockets for each of these types of connection. Subwoofers are commonly forgotten in this respect, as they often have to go on the other side of the room from the gear, and hence get plugged into a different (unprotected) power socket, leaving the whole system exposed via the subwoofer interconnect. Smaller single or two-socket power filters are available for these.

Hopefully that all made some sense.

Sadly and very frustratingly for me, there is a lot of voodoo, smoke and mirrors in the Hi-Fi industry.

My advice is this:
1. If you can't hear a difference, don't pay for it.
2. Take a few of your discs with you when you go shopping for Hi-Fi, some that you know well. This makes it easier to compare the performance of different systems. Hi-Fi shops might have a selection of music, but you can't bank on them having your favourite songs on hand.
3. The fundamental question to ask yourself is "Do I like this sound?" If not, don't buy it. I regularly get people coming in to the shop who begin the conversation with "I'm not an audiophile, but I want a good system". Just like wine, it may take a while to figure out what you do like and this is OK. Your aural palate will become more refined the more you listen.
4. Everyone's hearing ability is different, and everyone has different taste in sound. What constitutes "better" is up to you.
5. Remember that a magazine review is someone's opinion, and not necessarily unbiased. There is often a proportionality between the reviewer's impression of the product and the amount of advertising the distributor has placed with the magazine in recent times. (Stereophile at least go to the trouble of variously testing each component's performance and provide graphs and notes of the results. Not that this has any meaning to the average punter.) At the end of the day, the only review that counts is yours, once you have heard/seen the product in operation.
6. Don't let salespeople hassle you into buying something that doesn't suit you. If they try to, leave. Seems obvious, but you'd be surprised. A good salesperson will set things up to suit you (within reason of course), and be able to provide answers to your questions. Remember though that no-one can know everything, and occasionally even I will have to refer to a brochure or manual. Modern components - especially Home Theatre receivers - offer so much functionality that it's often necessary to double-check that a particular product does offer a particular feature, will work with what you already have or are planning to buy. A flexible retailer may (again, within reason) offer you the chance to take a piece home to try, as we recognise that the way it sounds in the showroom will be different to how it works in your own system and environment.
7. Cables and interconnects really do make a difference! If you're still unconvinced, I strongly encourage you to test some yourself. One need only ask a telecommunication engineer about cables, any they'll spout on about group delay, propagation velocity, voltage standing wave ratios, impedance mismatches, line reflections, crosstalk, etc. All these phenomena are present anywhere two components are connected somehow.
8. Bose are universally derided within the Hi-Fi industry, and with good reason. It's utter shit considering the prices demanded for it. If you were to put the money you'd spend on a Bose system towards real Hi-Fi, you'd have a pretty darn good system. Bose also use all sorts of proprietary connectors to stop you from attaching anything other than Bose gear to a Bose system: Not consumer friendly.
9. Accept that there is a learning curve with new components, especially Home Theatre receivers, as these systems are inherently complex by their nature. A good retailer will offer to deliver and set up (where appropriate/ possible) and to show you how to use a piece you have purchased.
10. If things get to the point where you are depositing your CDs in the freezer for half an hour before you listen, like an ex-colleague of mine, things have gone too far. This goes for the quack products listed above in the main article. Hi-Fi should be about the music, and having fun or relaxing. Unless music is the overriding passion of your life, don't take it too seriously.

This has turned into a long, rambling reply, but I just had to let all my frustrations out - sorry! Like Ann Onymous, I get really annoyed when people make these extraordinary pseudoscientific claims. Hopefully my rantings here help.

Best regards,

The Incomer

Hell some people believe their imaginary friend created the universe.

Fools and their money are easily parted.. It's just a question of finding the weak bit of their brain and a suitable lever.

Thanks for this post, it made me laugh long and hard.

Hey hey, there's a new and improved version of one of my favourites, the NESPA #1! It's called the Nespa Pro! This marvel is supposed to flash your CDs at 3 times the light intensity than the #1. Will this make it any more useful? No. In fact, it will increase the risk of destroying your CDs. It will most likely destroy any CDR or DVD-R if you accidentally put one into it, because the dye will react to the intense light. Exposing a regular CD to intense light will not do anything, except speed up the degradation of the polycarbonate and perhaps oxidize the silver layer -- if you were wondering: these are not beneficial effects.

People claim that their CDs get a wider "3D image" from this device. In order to change the 3D image of sound or achieve the other amazing effects that are claimed, you need to vastly alter the digital audio data, not just correct a few 'rogue bits'. The problem is, CDs are binary and the digital audio is encoded inside a very strong error-correcting code. The goal of this CIRC ECC code is that many bits need to be altered before the reconstructed audio will start deviating even by a single bit from the original. The code has multiple stages which cause the least significant bits to fail first. By the time that enough bits are altered to change even the most significant bits, the audio has turned into ear- and speaker-damaging noise. CD players are designed with this in mind, and will mute the audio if it becomes worthless. If a CD was already damaged to the point where CIRC started to fail, exposing it to bright light will not correct anything.

What I want to see before I will stop bashing the NESPA (or any other overpriced magic trick for that matter), is a rigorous scientific experiment. Take an untreated audio CD for which the original digital audio stream is available. Make a set-up which allows to extract the digital audio read by a good CD player (e.g. by its S/PDIF output). Extract the entire CD and store it on a hard disk under the name "stream A". Then, treat the CD with the NESPA. Re-extract the entire CD in exactly the same way and store it as "stream B". Compare both stream A and B with the reference stream sample-by-sample. Repeat the experiment for a lot of CDs. I predict that streams A and B will either have identical errors, if any, or (more likely) stream B will have more errors. If the digital audio read by the player is unchanged, the analog audio going to your speakers will also be unchanged. If the digital audio is degraded, the analog audio will be a less faithful reproduction of the original.

I am an engineer. I've had courses specifically about the audio CD, D/A and A/D convertors, digital signal processing and analog amplifiers. You can't convince me with an overly long article that is padded with irrelevant roundabouts to hide the fact that it has nothing to say. I want to see raw numbers and the complete set-up where they came from. I'm not interested in what people claim to hear. I can insist on the claim that I find my music to sound horrible when I lift my cables off the floor, nobody can verify I'm actually saying it because I want to.

Great site. I'm surprised not to see the infamous Peter Belt mentioned and the amazing collection of snake oil products he has be hawking around for decades. I first heard of him in the 70's and I'm amazed he's survived this long. I remember his amazing Electret Foil and the special bottle of oil supplied with a brush that you had to paint on things to improve the sound of your system.

Keep up the good work!

Trevor

There are quite a few good articles and projects on this Aussie site. The first of two articles about cables is: http://sound.westhost.com/cables.htm

Thanks for your recommendations. I'm going to get one of each to work with my gramophone.

thank you for the funny article. just when you think all the idiots of the world have grown up, some new and even more useless device appears.working in pro-audio taught me some very important things, like "it's called pro audio for a reason" and "you paid HOW MUCH???".
My only regrets are not selling something like this and that i always turn up to a clients house too late with the "this beautiful harbour bridge can be yours just sign here" form.
love your work :)

I am starting to believe that these products have a nice and cool placebo effect! When you are convinced that higher price means higher quality, your brain probably makes the sound better!

I am sure people who say it sounds better with $9,000 speaker cables actually hear a difference because their brain tell them "Dude, it's a $9,000 cable you got there, it's gotta make a difference! Hang on, I'm gonna add some cool effects to the sound. After all I'm in control of what you think you hear." :)

Unfortunately, it doesn't work for everything (nor for everyone): a bottle of Chivas has never made me drunker than a bottle of J&B... but the headache was pretty much the same the next day!

Anyway, thanks for the laugh ;)

You appear to have overlooked the world renowned Shun Mook. Every single item on their web site is utter shite. The spatial control system (9 blocks of wood at £495) is a particular favourite of mine. Check out the write up for the record clamp its brilliant. What wonderful imaginations some people have. The secret is the use of burr Mpingo and Gaboon ebony (proprietry treated of course). The address is www.shunmook.com, check it out its fantastic. Here a quote for the record clamp to whet your appetite.

A legendary Shun Mook product now being made in a very, very limited number. This record clamp is made from extremely rare pieces of dried ebony briar. This extra heavy century old ebony root which were immersed in the swamps of Africa has a unique power that no other wood possesses. The vibration generated by the diamond stylus in the vinyl groove besides inducing an electroflux through the phono-cartridge also excites the ebony molecules, causing it to resonate. This in turn is feed back through the stylus and is reproduced as expanded sound staging, enhanced separation, sharpened focus and enriched tonal balance of the music. Due to the rareness of this timber, there is no doubt that it will become a collector item in the future

here's a beauty:

http://www.mapleshaderecords.com/audioproducts/isobasecradle.php

Together with my HIFI friends, we have tried several of these “CD mystic” improvements with various result, but the Stop light pen was actually the one which could improve almost every CD it was tried on. We have done several blind tests with two equally CDs and, and always got close to a 100% score.

Our tech guy has even measured a difference by measuring the error correction control signal in the CD player while playing the CD with and without the green paint.

But some Cd-players could have a better error correction than others and be less sensitive to how much it’s in use doing playback. This test was done many years ago on an old Denon DCD3520. I have to admit I haven’t tried it on a newer CD-player, because I haven’t been able to locate the Stop Light Pen in my country for years.

From the Shun Mook website. Some record clamp I think:

"A legendary Shun Mook product now being made in a very, very limited number. This record clamp is made from extremely rare pieces of dried ebony briar. This extra heavy century old ebony root which were immersed in the swamps of Africa has a unique power that no other wood possesses. The vibration generated by the diamond stylus in the vinyl groove besides inducing an electroflux through the phono-cartridge also excites the ebony molecules, causing it to resonate. This in turn is feed back through the stylus and is reproduced as expanded sound staging, enhanced separation, sharpened focus and enriched tonal balance of the music. Due to the rareness of this timber, there is no doubt that it will become a collector item in the future".

To think I wasted 25 years studying acoustics and electronics, when all I needed was some excited ebony molecules and something called electroflux and I could toss all the laws of physics out the window! What a fool I've been! I must have nodded off when they covered electroflux in engineering...

Here is one that just tops the list. I got this in an email today from The Cable Company. They actually call it a magic wand! Here is the text for the Artkustik as written by the Cable Company.

"We were intrigued by a new name to us, Artkustik from Austria. The Artkustik line, though new to North America, has been present in Europe for at least 10-15 years. Their quartz crystal -filled "Ultra Animator" is a magic wand of sorts: just wave it over a CD and be amazed at the improvement. Or at least we were!

We were told that DVD’s and Blu-Ray reproduction is also improved, with better color fidelity and image depth.

How does the Animator work? (Buckle your seat belts:-)
It was explained that natural Quartz crystals along with proprietary materials cause a molecular restructuring of the discs, which reduces stress, and significantly improves its mechanical, acoustic, electric, and optical characteristics.

The device also works on speaker drivers and cables. In fact in addition to the aforementioned full size "magic wand," a smaller version to is also available to attach onto audio cables - 12" from the IEC for AC cables and interconnects, and in the center of speaker cables).

We were told that the Ultra Animator has found uses in high end kitchens, where it can be kept in the refrigerator to keep food fresher, and we were also told to pour two glasses of whisky or wine, leave the Animator next to one, and then do a taste test. Still got to try that - didn't seem to work at Starbucks!"

This is the text they are using to sell this crap at $599.00! It enhances food, wine and whiskey too. I ordered four so I would have three in the fridge and one for my CD collection.

But that isn't the only good news. Our beloved CD demagnetizer now comes in a two cycle version. An upgrade must at only $399.00. Got to get that aluminum demagnetice twice you know.

Well, everyone knows (or should know) there are many products in the audio industry that are very overpriced. The worst are the ones that does not deliver what promissed at all and/or is very system dependent. I have bought a few of those.

As for Virtual Dynamics cables, I can say that you're absolutely wrong. The Genesis is the flagship of their product line and are very expensive but not overpriced. At least not anymore. Their priced already dropped about 60% from the price you listed above.

As for the performance of the cables, they're simply one of the very best, if not the best in the market. Despite the tecno bable that seems like hot air blowing, the results are undeniable. They simply work and often exceeds any expectations you might have by a looong mile. Having a Genesis XLR in my system for a while now I just can't listen to music without it anymore. It's just not fair to judge and publicize something based only in its price, especially if it's out of spite because it seems you can't afford it.

You wouldn't be the same Cristiano from here:
http://www.virtualdynamics.ca/shock-and-laughter/?id=123
would you? Either way, may I recommend the HeadFi cat vs Virtual Dynamics thread again:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f21/my-cat-tore-up-my-virtual-dynamics-power-3-a-293165/
Looks like quality stuff to me.

It's perfectly fair to judge something based only on its price. The only reason I can't afford them is because they're so hilariously over priced - if they could drop the price by 60% and presumably still make a profit, what does that tell you?

"do you think the people who buy such devices are stupids idiots masoquists or rich guys?"

No! I think they are "stupids idiots AND masoquists AND rich guys"

I always find these fights interesting. Assuming I except the scientific evidence, and assuming I except that some people can hear the difference, is a speaker cable worth $33,000? Seriously, how much improvement can a cable that has the same cost of a very nice car make? (Don't forget you need a pair, so that's $66,000) If a $10 pen makes a difference, great! You skip a pizza for a week. The audiophiles can claim that these, in my opinion usually absurd, products work, but they always leave out the price consideration. They seem to always forget that the main problem that non-audiophiles have is the ridiculous prices. Now for all that, I really don't care because I'm half deaf since I have a permanently ruptured eardrum. However, it's only going to cost about $3000 to have it repaired, and I'm pretty sure that's going to make a whole lot more difference than a $33,000 wire.

Here is some more snake oil. Only $3000.00 for the Synergistic Research Acoustic ART System. Some wood, plastic cups and spikes all smaller in size than a CD is just the fix for the poor sound of your top of the line Hi-Fi that you already spent thousands on.

http://www.synergisticresearch.com/?p=195

Do some Googling and read the posts of the believers and defenders.

Try this thread out:

http://www.audiojunkies.com/blog/1571/synergistic-research-acoustic-art-system

I have a decent stereo system that I've put some money into and I'll be the first to admit I've probably spent more than I should have on decent cables and interconnects but it escapes me how anyone can buy into this crap.

That's hilarious. A bass sound wave won't give a shit about that tiny little cup mounted on 3 blocks of wood. At a wavelength of say 3 meters (i.e. 110Hz), anything the size of a CD jewel case (or smaller) is just transparent.
Maybe the cups need to be filled with snake oil to make them truly effective?

Go to the CD Sound Improver page.
Go to the references.
See the two Japanese men?
If two Japenese men are buying this product, I am convinced.
Of course, I do not see them with the product. I don't see the product anywhere in the same picture, actually.
Nor do I have any idea who they are. Or why thier opinion matters.
But if there are Japenese guys, it's got to be good!
Hey, I've seen Japanese fetish porn. You don't necessarily want what two Japanese people are offering.

Here is the page link:

http://www.audiodesksysteme.de/index.php?kat=10_23

that's some of the funniest sh!t i've read in a long time. Audiophiles make me laugh.