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I assume you meant "audiophile", not audiophool, right? If so, I wonder what makes an amplifier to be an audiophile amplifier in your opinion? Objective and me

I assume you meant "audiophile", not audiophool, right? If so, I wonder what makes an amplifier to be an audiophile amplifier in your opinion? Objective and measurable parameters of the amplifier in question are phenomenal.

rasz 4y ago
There is a picture of special, braided IEC power cable on there.
- aquarium87 4y ago
  Geometry. Rigidity. It's POTENTIALLY legit. Here is a pretty science based primer on some of the things going on in the cable world. https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/why-power-cords-are-important/ https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/why-power-cords-are-impo... One thing to understand about this niche high end cable market is that intellectual property just isn't a thing. There isn't enough money to fight lawsuits and wage war against copycats. Everyone loses throwing money away. The end result is that only large companies like AudioQuest can afford to "give away" the science behind their products by patenting them. Other companies have to talk around and obscure what ACTUALLY makes their cable sound good. This is a pretty raw deal for consumers who are left exposed and vulnerable to bad designers, fraudsters, and tricking themselves into thinking something sounds better when it's not. And that's not even getting into value judgements about what a cable is worth based on how much closer to perfection it gets the user! The system does seem to be working as intended by small niche cable makers who spend lifetimes accumulating arcane knowledge and handbuilding quality cables while keeping the bar for entry to the market high. Another neat tidbit about cables is that the product lines and price points are not linear. They just can't be in reality from a design perspective. The people that say a cable is a cable are half correct. It's impossible to have a cable lineup of 7 levels and improve on the induction, capacitance and resistance all at the same time in each level. So there are tradeoffs, and occasionally a cheaper cable from the same company will sound better than a more expensive cable because one or two of the parameters were improved while another got worse. Depending on the interactions between the connected equipment and their deviation from perfect, if the parameter that took a step backwards in a more premium cable happens to be the weak point of the equipment as well, then an objectively better and more expensive cable can sound the same or worse.
  - rasz 4y ago
    _power cable_, the one you plug into wall socket - thats how you recognize audiophool scams. You maaaybe could claim some speaker cables are better in theory, but then no one cashed out Randi foundation 1Mil for coat hangar speaker cable challenge https://gizmodo.com/updated-journalist-accepts-1-million-challenge-do-7-311034 https://gizmodo.com/updated-journalist-accepts-1-million-cha... spoilers they didnt get the money, they didnt even participate :)
    - aquarium87 4y ago
      The problem with this is that it's way too easy to to tell the difference between power cables. Even non audiophiles can hear the difference. This is also 15 years ago. Manufacturing has taken such a leap between then and now that even if it was in doubt then, it's certainly not now. Now it's simply a matter of taste, and the better way to represent the reality of cables is that it's subjective, they do sound different, and even though everyone has their favorite cables, no one can agree on what sounds good, much less what makes them sound good. But in general, an better cable will sound "more agreeable" to more people. I also agree there are a lot of garbage overpriced cables. I think it's important to remember cables are not measured under appropriate loads, and they aren't measured connected to real equipment. The measuring equipment falls far far short in the Audio world. Take for example the Audio Precision APx555B. It's the best audio analyzer in existence, and if you go to audiosciencereview, there are now DACs that have measurements that are below the measurable threshold for this machine in certain regards. Power cables are the same. Not measurable in a meaningful way.
      - rasz 4y ago
        You wrote a lot of nonsense. Randi was willing to pay $1mil to Anybody able to tell the difference between normal speaker cable from Circuit City vs audiophool product. Nobody EVER took the challenge. Saying Power cables are also better, but just not measurable puts you square with the rest of magical scam audio crowd.
        4y ago
milleramp 4y ago
I assumed it was intentional, as in “fool”. It’s a shame because Class-D has come a long way, there seems to be a natural opposition to anything digital. Class-A is great but is expensive, heavy and a big electricity bill.
- aquarium87 4y ago
  It's also free in the winter if used in place of a space heater
- squarefoot 4y ago
  > It’s a shame because Class-D has come a long way, there seems to be a natural opposition to anything digital. The funny thing being that Class D has nothing to do with digital. A Class D amplifier is say to a class A one what a switching power supply is to a linear one, although the amplifier works on current rather than voltage, but the principle is essentially the same: they're 100% analog, and sound wonderful.

rasz 4y ago

There is a picture of special, braided IEC power cable on there.

aquarium87 4y ago
Geometry. Rigidity. It's POTENTIALLY legit. Here is a pretty science based primer on some of the things going on in the cable world. https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/why-power-cords-are-important/ https://www.gcaudio.com/tips-tricks/why-power-cords-are-impo... One thing to understand about this niche high end cable market is that intellectual property just isn't a thing. There isn't enough money to fight lawsuits and wage war against copycats. Everyone loses throwing money away. The end result is that only large companies like AudioQuest can afford to "give away" the science behind their products by patenting them. Other companies have to talk around and obscure what ACTUALLY makes their cable sound good. This is a pretty raw deal for consumers who are left exposed and vulnerable to bad designers, fraudsters, and tricking themselves into thinking something sounds better when it's not. And that's not even getting into value judgements about what a cable is worth based on how much closer to perfection it gets the user! The system does seem to be working as intended by small niche cable makers who spend lifetimes accumulating arcane knowledge and handbuilding quality cables while keeping the bar for entry to the market high. Another neat tidbit about cables is that the product lines and price points are not linear. They just can't be in reality from a design perspective. The people that say a cable is a cable are half correct. It's impossible to have a cable lineup of 7 levels and improve on the induction, capacitance and resistance all at the same time in each level. So there are tradeoffs, and occasionally a cheaper cable from the same company will sound better than a more expensive cable because one or two of the parameters were improved while another got worse. Depending on the interactions between the connected equipment and their deviation from perfect, if the parameter that took a step backwards in a more premium cable happens to be the weak point of the equipment as well, then an objectively better and more expensive cable can sound the same or worse.
- rasz 4y ago
  _power cable_, the one you plug into wall socket - thats how you recognize audiophool scams. You maaaybe could claim some speaker cables are better in theory, but then no one cashed out Randi foundation 1Mil for coat hangar speaker cable challenge https://gizmodo.com/updated-journalist-accepts-1-million-challenge-do-7-311034 https://gizmodo.com/updated-journalist-accepts-1-million-cha... spoilers they didnt get the money, they didnt even participate :)
  - aquarium87 4y ago
    The problem with this is that it's way too easy to to tell the difference between power cables. Even non audiophiles can hear the difference. This is also 15 years ago. Manufacturing has taken such a leap between then and now that even if it was in doubt then, it's certainly not now. Now it's simply a matter of taste, and the better way to represent the reality of cables is that it's subjective, they do sound different, and even though everyone has their favorite cables, no one can agree on what sounds good, much less what makes them sound good. But in general, an better cable will sound "more agreeable" to more people. I also agree there are a lot of garbage overpriced cables. I think it's important to remember cables are not measured under appropriate loads, and they aren't measured connected to real equipment. The measuring equipment falls far far short in the Audio world. Take for example the Audio Precision APx555B. It's the best audio analyzer in existence, and if you go to audiosciencereview, there are now DACs that have measurements that are below the measurable threshold for this machine in certain regards. Power cables are the same. Not measurable in a meaningful way.
    - rasz 4y ago
      You wrote a lot of nonsense. Randi was willing to pay $1mil to Anybody able to tell the difference between normal speaker cable from Circuit City vs audiophool product. Nobody EVER took the challenge. Saying Power cables are also better, but just not measurable puts you square with the rest of magical scam audio crowd.
      - 4y ago

milleramp 4y ago

I assumed it was intentional, as in “fool”. It’s a shame because Class-D has come a long way, there seems to be a natural opposition to anything digital. Class-A is great but is expensive, heavy and a big electricity bill.

aquarium87 4y ago
It's also free in the winter if used in place of a space heater
squarefoot 4y ago
> It’s a shame because Class-D has come a long way, there seems to be a natural opposition to anything digital. The funny thing being that Class D has nothing to do with digital. A Class D amplifier is say to a class A one what a switching power supply is to a linear one, although the amplifier works on current rather than voltage, but the principle is essentially the same: they're 100% analog, and sound wonderful.