Another fascinating category are the bioresonance devices that are on the market:
“Bioresonance is a type of therapy used in holistic or complementary medicine. It uses a machine to measure the frequency of energy wavelengths coming from the body. Those measures are then used to diagnose disease”
An extensive list of devices can be found on the bottom of the page here, some of them look really exotic and they can cost up to €30.000,-:
What’s interesting is that it covers the voodoo aspect with a high-tech / pseudo-scientific veil, to increase it’s credibility.
Well there are even studies that the placebo effect is still making 30% of people feeling better and less pain even if the bottle says “placebo pills”. The force is strong. Of course the mind can make any cable or product sound better if you want it too, most often related to cost, packaging, material, story telling, weight, brand ambassadors (they are here too of course) etc. For those developing products there are lots of efforts spent on making a product convince you it’s great not only by the performance itself. Just look at the Morgana packaging and cable itself. Would you think it sounded as good if came in a plastic bag and the cable was less thick and pink even if the inner wires were the same? Most likely not. If the sum of all that makes you satisfied then so be it just as with the placebo pills. Just saying that there might not be any science to back it up because everything that happens is happening inside your brain.
A lot of dealers also state that the difference, for example, between two expensive power chords is ‘huge’. Hyperbole is not uncommon.
I am comfortable that burn in is a thing. Especially where heat is involved. An amplifier being on for 100 hours, having previously spent a very short time switched on in the factory, I can accept this having an impact on the electrical gubbins. I’m not so convinced about external cables, but even there I can accept a level of change as they acclimatise to the environment humidity and temperature. (If cables really change that much, how can anyone be confident that one cable of a particular type is exactly the same as another?)
The lovely speakers I bought recently (October) have changed… as far as my mind is concerned that is
I asked my intelligent, analytical and open minded wife to read this thread and give me her opinion of its contents.
A verbatim account would be pretty much unprintable. Suffice it to say she believes we’re a bunch of sad gits who should just get on with life and listening to music!
Our current situation is different though. It can be objectively disproven that the earth is flat, but we cannot ever disprove someone hearing a difference after running in their speaker cables. That will always be a subjective claim, no matter our advancements.
Most women talk with their girlfriends about topics that completely elude us as well. For instance if the €80 face cream with hyaluronic acid from Garnier hydrates better than the €110 retinol-infused one from Vichy.
Hearing a difference is considered subjective because we cannot, today, objectively measure what people are hearing. It doesn’t mean we won’t be ale to in the future, at which point the difference would no longer be considered subjective.
Theres still a big difference between making claims about general reality and about subjective experiences ofcourse’, at least in terms of verifiability.
I know it was in jest…but most women I know talk about life experiences, relationships etc rather than product. The latter seems more a male topic to me…
The specific cable yes, however ‘the cable’ as a manufactured product can be compared with another that the same withIn whatever may be manufacturing tolerances, and whatever time may have passed stored in ambient conditions, and that can be done blind fairly easily (double blind less so, but at least carefully done simple blind can be far more objective than not). It does of course require people to be willing to do that and to accept that they may be as susceptible to psychological influences as others, and willing to spend the time doing thus, and understandable not everyone is. Without some reasonable attempt to make objective confirmation, instead relying purely on subjective assessment, there is nothing to mitigate against psychological effect, some of which are well known.
For years my uncle has been adamant that ale through a tap or plastic bladder tastes revolving. He has wowed many folks in pubs across Devon in blind taste-tests, and asks for a pint straight from the barrel wherever we go. Last year at a wedding (remember those!) I carried him over a pint and lied that I specifically asked for it to be poured from a barrel, whereas it was through a tap. ‘There you go!’ he exclaimed, ‘now that’s a proper pint!’. Once I was done laughing he buggered off.
Hardware “burn in” is real. We do it in industry, not really to improve performance but to confirm that a device and components are out of the infant mortality period. I expect a manufacturer to burn in equipment mainly to ensure they don’t send duff items to customers. Extended running / “burn in” for performance on the electronics would seem reasonable to me, I can sort of get my head round it.
I have seen measurements for cables which have changed impedance once installed. However I am not talking about Hi Fi cables but ones installed into deep water at significant lengths. So they are subject to a lot of external pressure and carry a lot more power. Crushing the conductors, insulation and if used armour will cause measurable changes. I am far less convinced that cables installed in hifi change sound (which implies a change to physical properties) over time when installed in a house. However I do maintain an open mind.
When my 500 power amp returned after being DRd there was an obvious improvement and it just got better over time, quite a time as well.
When I added a second 555DR power supply to my CD555 installed by my dealer early in the day it was a keeper. Later in the evening I was much less impressed and went to bed thinking it was a bad decision. Stayed with it and as time passed by, and not that long either, I revised my opinion.
When NAC5 was replaced by Super Lumina L/S cable I was less impressed by it. Still better but not to a massive extent.
When I had my LP12 fitted with the new Karousel bearing one suggestion was leave the TT running for a few days for it to bed in.
The observation that being tired can effect your attitude to music I find very true. Sometimes its just too much; other times you can be on a roll till 2AM!
I see that’s enough “whens” for now.
(but please don’t ask me to bet on it) 