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I don't know why you're being downvoted, this has been said over and over for more than a century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good https://en.wikiped

by ratww 5y ago

I don't know why you're being downvoted, this has been said over and over for more than a century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

robonerd 5y ago
I think there's a difference. A Lamborghini is an extremely expensive car that people buy to show off how rich they are; they touts performance numbers nobody has a real use for.. but as far as I'm aware those cars really do perform as advertised. The specifications of those cars aren't flagrant lies. A luxury handbag isn't much better at holding things than a cheap handbag, but a luxury handbags (as far as I'm aware) aren't advertised with fraudulent capacity numbers. A very expensive swiss watch won't tell time better than a cheap quartz watch, but I wager they have as many gears in them as they claim. Audiophile stuff seems to be different. If Lamborghini sold cars like audiophile companies sell cables, they'd be claiming their cars had 50 million horsepower and could fly to the moon.
- ratww 5y ago
  I don't really agree. Those audiophile companies aren't exactly lying in their product specs. At least not this one. These people aren't claiming that their 20A cable supports 200A, for example. The claims are always subtle and about things you can't measure, like "that your system can deliver maximum performance without losing sound subtleties due to irradiated noise" in this case. Which sure, might also be the case for the €3 cables I just bought yesterday for my TV. So, these cables are most certainly better than my €3, but of course they aren't 1833 times better. But that's just how the law of diminishing returns work. This is, of course, an extreme case. Also, I feel like most of the "lying" that happens within this specific industry is perpetrated by the consumers themselves: "I can hear things with this cable that I couldn't hear before" on forums and so on. I'm not really into this world (I still only use Airbuds...), but as an electrical engineer I often see this claim, but I rarely see any manufacturer outright-lying. Confusing marketing? Exaggerated claims? Sure... but nothing close to "Lamborghini [...] claiming their cars had 50 million horsepower".
- airbreather 5y ago
  There is a real chance that at some point a lambo might get you sex you otherwise wouldn't have participated in, can't see these cables doing that, probably the opposite.
RajT88 5y ago
I also don't know why. Perhaps the people downvoting can share their though process as to how my post goes against comment guidelines, or perhaps how they disagreed with it: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

by ratww 5y ago

I don't know why you're being downvoted, this has been said over and over for more than a century. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veblen_good

robonerd 5y ago

I think there's a difference. A Lamborghini is an extremely expensive car that people buy to show off how rich they are; they touts performance numbers nobody has a real use for.. but as far as I'm aware those cars really do perform as advertised. The specifications of those cars aren't flagrant lies. A luxury handbag isn't much better at holding things than a cheap handbag, but a luxury handbags (as far as I'm aware) aren't advertised with fraudulent capacity numbers. A very expensive swiss watch won't tell time better than a cheap quartz watch, but I wager they have as many gears in them as they claim. Audiophile stuff seems to be different. If Lamborghini sold cars like audiophile companies sell cables, they'd be claiming their cars had 50 million horsepower and could fly to the moon.

ratww 5y ago
I don't really agree. Those audiophile companies aren't exactly lying in their product specs. At least not this one. These people aren't claiming that their 20A cable supports 200A, for example. The claims are always subtle and about things you can't measure, like "that your system can deliver maximum performance without losing sound subtleties due to irradiated noise" in this case. Which sure, might also be the case for the €3 cables I just bought yesterday for my TV. So, these cables are most certainly better than my €3, but of course they aren't 1833 times better. But that's just how the law of diminishing returns work. This is, of course, an extreme case. Also, I feel like most of the "lying" that happens within this specific industry is perpetrated by the consumers themselves: "I can hear things with this cable that I couldn't hear before" on forums and so on. I'm not really into this world (I still only use Airbuds...), but as an electrical engineer I often see this claim, but I rarely see any manufacturer outright-lying. Confusing marketing? Exaggerated claims? Sure... but nothing close to "Lamborghini [...] claiming their cars had 50 million horsepower".
airbreather 5y ago
There is a real chance that at some point a lambo might get you sex you otherwise wouldn't have participated in, can't see these cables doing that, probably the opposite.

RajT88 5y ago

I also don't know why. Perhaps the people downvoting can share their though process as to how my post goes against comment guidelines, or perhaps how they disagreed with it: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html