During recent visit to Acoustica’s Chester Show was, as previously, much impressed by the Chord cables demo, even if their prices are beyond me.
The demo jogged memory to recollect a Naim/Linn demo 40 odd years ago when I was asked to place digital watch on one speaker which appeared to degrade sound quality! Was this fact, BS or is foggy memory playing up?
At the time, we were hard wiring fuses and cables into mains adapters and some were even fixing “pillows” over TV speakers to avoid interference with hifi.
Apparently listening to music with your mouth open is supposed to improve the sound quality. Something to do with jaw resonance. It’s the easiest thing to do an A/B comparison with as well
I’d need a lot of persuasion with properly blind testing to be convinced about the effect of a digital watch on any part of a hifi. A mobile telephone, on the other hand…
Yes, I heard the digital watch demo (and have soldered a couple of fuses in my time). I think the size of the speaker, and therefore the vibration frequency, probably contributed to its notable effect whereas bigger speakers eg in TV’s are probably not as offensive or noticable
Some cable companies are still selling similar devices, but now they put a lot more gubbins inside as:
1 The majority of people are now more cynical
2 More people have a greater degree of scientific and engineering understanding (so it takes more to fool them)
3 Consumer legislation makes the obviously deceptive approach more risky.
I remember a great Audioquest demo at Earls Court in 1995. The handed 50 quid to someone and asked the to dash out and buy whatever boombox they could get for it from Dixons or wherever. It had those natty detachable speakers hardwired on. They set it up, gave it a play. It was rubbish. They then ripped it to pieces and replaced every internal cable and speaker leads with Audioquest stuff off a drum. FrankenBox! It was 50 quid of boombox tethered with about 2k of cable.
