Interesting reading...and some myths exposed.

[Coilte]

Came across this while doing a search.


http://blog.ovnilab.com/category/snake-oil/

[skidder652003]

Good Old Ovni Labs, Top Bloke and if you're after a new compressor?.....

[Happy Jack]

It was all good until he got to the bit where he suggested that those pills and potions that promise a larger manhood maybe don't work.

Now that's nonsense ... those pills work just fine.

No ... wait a minute ...

[Luulox]

Good read that, thanks.

[wateroftyne]

SImilarly: Monster Cables vs. Coathangers. No-one could tell the difference.

[Coilte]

I was particularly intrigued by the article on tubes.

[tinyd]

This guy is similarly interesting on some people's magic belief in expensive digital cables:

http://www.mcelhearn.com/audiophile-hi-fi-journalist-defends-expensive-cables-admits-he-believes-in-magic/

[ezbass]

[quote name='Coilte' timestamp='1477992507' post='3165720']
I was particularly intrigued by the article on tubes.
[/quote]I once 'upgraded' all the valves in my old Fender Hot Rod, I think there was a difference, but it was minute and just different (a tiny bit), not better. The biggest and best improvement was made by replacing the speaker with something less generic than the Eminence it came with. I once asked amp guru and guitarist Brinsley Schwartz about the difference between the tone of 6L6s and EL84s, commonly found in Fender and Marshall amps respectively. He told me that the real difference was not actually the valves, but the placement of the tone stack in the circuit - so resistors, caps, VRs, etc. He had no axe to grind and can't think he would just make stuff up and this article adds weight to that argument.

[chris_b]

I notice he provides no evidence of his testing methodology.

[Rocker]

[quote name='chris_b' timestamp='1477998027' post='3165789']
I notice he provides no evidence of his testing methodology.
[/quote]

I noticed that too. But the cynic, that is me, wonders why the guy expends so much energy into just proving that something does not perform as the manufacturer claims. If buyers believe it works, then it works for them. If not, it doesn't. I believe that the so called 'retail therapy' can make us feel a lot better about ourselves. The new suit theory... What is wrong about feeling better about ourselves? There are enough problems without someone adding to the list and calling us liars if we believe something works, even if it can be 'proved' that it does not.

[TimR]

[quote name='Rocker' timestamp='1478005076' post='3165884']


I noticed that too. But the cynic, that is me, wonders why the guy expends so much energy into just proving that something does not perform as the manufacturer claims. If buyers believe it works, then it works for them. If not, it doesn't. I believe that the so called 'retail therapy' can make us feel a lot better about ourselves. The new suit theory... What is wrong about feeling better about ourselves? There are enough problems without someone adding to the list and calling us liars if we believe something works, even if it can be 'proved' that it does not.
[/quote]

That's a different thing though.

One of the posters here is a PHD researching the Placebo Effect. He was on Horizon? a couple of years back.

It's certainly real and researchers have to go a long way to eliminate it from their experiments.

[Coilte]

[quote name='Rocker' timestamp='1478005076' post='3165884']
I believe that the so called 'retail therapy' can make us feel a lot better about ourselves.
[/quote]

Agreed...unless the item does not come up to the expectations we have gleaned from the retailer's hype. A little "all round" knowledge is never a bad thing when making an "educated guess" on something we will be spending our hard earned money on.

[Happy Jack]

[quote name='TimR' timestamp='1478005544' post='3165891']

One of the posters here is a PHD researching the Placebo Effect. He was on Horizon? a couple of years back.

[/quote]

Chris Beedie (The Beedster).

[SubsonicSimpleton]

[quote name='Rocker' timestamp='1478005076' post='3165884']
I noticed that too. But the cynic, that is me, wonders why the guy expends so much energy into just proving that something does not perform as the manufacturer claims. If buyers believe it works, then it works for them. If not, it doesn't. I believe that the so called 'retail therapy' can make us feel a lot better about ourselves. The new suit theory... What is wrong about feeling better about ourselves? There are enough problems without someone adding to the list and calling us liars if we believe something works, even if it can be 'proved' that it does not.
[/quote]
He is trying to do potential buyers a favour - there are plenty of things that you could spend your money on that really would make a difference if you want to indulge in retail therapy or philanthropy.

[chris_b]

[quote name='hiram.k.hackenbacker' timestamp='1478000440' post='3165815']Does he have to? [/quote]

I would have thought so.

So why would you believe one unsupported statement rather than another unsupported statement?

[SubsonicSimpleton]

If you are refuting the benefits of megbucks power cords on the basis that you are connecting them into much longer lengths of 20p/meter flat twin and earth cable between the wall socket and meter, proof isn't really necessary because magic that can bend the laws of physics and circumvent ohms law doesn't exist - if it did, then the technology in these magic cables would be being employed in much more interesting technologies which are currently theoretically possible, but not possible to implement in practice because they require things like superconductors that don't need to be at 0 degrees Kelvin to function properly.

[chris_b]

You must have noticed that I haven't agreed with, disagreed with or refuted anything.

Just asking the question. Doesn't "myth busting" require some factual backup?

[Telebass]

Just like so called pro hifi speaker cables, it's all garbage. So long as you have the current capacity you need, your cables will work just fine. Hifi buffs go on about skin effect at high frequencies. This certainly exists. At hundreds of MEGAhertz frequencies, not audio. I've made perfectly good high current speaker cables out of Flymo cable, which is easily enough.

[Dan Dare]

Hilarious, all this super cables nonsense. As Telebass observes, It's spilled over from hi-fi, where the deluded spend thousands on bits of wire, capacitors made by virgins out of myrrh, etc, etc. The companies who market this tosh appear to think musicians are similarly gullible. Whilst I support peoples' freedom to waste their money on whatever they choose, it's fun to debunk the garbage. Hopefully, Bill Fitzmaurice will be along shortly to add his four penn'orth - he's always good value (and correct) on this sort of thing.

Edited November 3, 2016 by Dan Dare