High End Audio Bullshit!

[300Z]

I don't think I have heard this much bullshit about audio before.

[billfitzmaurice]

I didn't bother to look at the link, just the mere mention of AudioQuest is all I need to know that the manure is going to be spread deeper than on a Nebraska corn field.

[Geoff Millar]

Huh??

Our PC has two different brand hard drives with different speeds and one new SSD, and we have back ups on external hard drives, plus my iPod. Music sounds exactly the same to me on any of them.

Geoff

[fpitas]

I'm sort of surprised the "audiophile" crowd would use a computer. Isn't all-analog the purists' nirvana? I figure if my dad threw it away 40 years ago, they want it!

[devnull]

I've got to get a $5000 one meter power cable from AudioQuest, I know I'll hear a difference in how my K-Tel karaoke machine sounds.

[KEtheredge87]

I would love a VU "BS" meter that looked like that! I don't even own anything that uses a VU meter, but i'd throw it on a box just for novelty's sake.

[tomzarbo]

I actually watched the whole video last night in bed waiting to fall asleep.

Wonder who the audience is. People looking to get into high-end audio? or those already into it somewhat and want to know more probably.

It's a shame, sometimes the least knowledgeable people seem to be allowed to have a voice on stuff like this.
I heard a lot of things that just didn't make any sense and I'm not computer savvy or audiophile-y in any way.

Basically, as long as the "1's" and "0's" are flowing without being interrupted to the digital to audio converter, it should be pretty much only the DAC that makes a difference in the quality of the sound, all things being equal that is, and assuming good source material.

If it were a spoof video, then it would be kind of funny.

TomZ

[fpitas]

I actually watched the whole video last night in bed waiting to fall asleep.

Wonder who the audience is. People looking to get into high-end audio? or those already into it somewhat and want to know more probably.

It's a shame, sometimes the least knowledgeable people seem to be allowed to have a voice on stuff like this.
I heard a lot of things that just didn't make any sense and I'm not computer savvy or audiophile-y in any way.

Basically, as long as the "1's" and "0's" are flowing without being interrupted to the digital to audio converter, it should be pretty much only the DAC that makes a difference in the quality of the sound, all things being equal that is, and assuming good source material.

If it were a spoof video, then it would be kind of funny.

TomZ

Unfortunately, the more knowledgeable people don't have the requisite knowledge of unicorns and fairy dust.

[charlielaub]

I don't think I have heard this much ******** about audio before.

Thanks for posting the link to that ! ! ! I haven't laughed that hard in awhile.

One favorite part is when he said that he found that adding mechanical isolation to the hard drives (this is after he says you MUST use an SSD) improves the "breath and speed" of the music. Wha? I guess because (he says) the drive is like a little "turntable". Hmm, maybe just a rumble filter would do? ? ?

This guy should be shamed out of the business.

[Wolf]

In terms of the isolation or damping of the 'turntable mechanism' changing the 'breath' of the sound, that is utterly crap. However, in terms of noise-floor, everything that vibrates can induce or contribute to the noise floor in your room. I know my BD player can be a bit noisy. I know the desk my daughter studies at vibrates a bit with louder music playing. Damping the desk and the player's chassis to reduce the buzzing of these is not any different than room treatment via damping or diffusion- but it's not to make the sound/source better. It's to make the environment around them less of a contributing source or contributor to the noise floor and the room induced distortion. There is sooo much snake oil due to proclaimed 'fixing' of a cause that has no bearing on what they are trying to improve.

Later,
Wolf

[charlielaub]

Sure, I have known many a "noisy" hard drive. But this is a solid state drive he is talking about ! ! !

Those aren't all that noisy...

In my home, it's the rattling of things (those old windows, pictures on the wall, etc.) that are the main annoyances.

[300Z]

I actually am not sure about what surprised me the most, him or the audience who didn't really call him out on his crazy claims.

[wogg]

The funny thing is that the first few minutes are generally decent computer advise for performance, it all falls apart when he relates it to sounding better. It's like he read stuff about recording workstations, had no idea what any of it meant, then decided that was related to sound quality.

I got bored by 7 minutes though and skipped to the end a bit... clueless bugger.

Also, some of the steam was taken off the video text rebuttals when they can't spell worth a damn.

[Wolf]

Sure, I have known many a "noisy" hard drive. But this is a solid state drive he is talking about ! ! !

Those aren't all that noisy...

In my home, it's the rattling of things (those old windows, pictures on the wall, etc.) that are the main annoyances.

I don't have any SS drives, so I know nothing about them.
Wolf

[Geoff Millar]

I'll try to be charitable about the video and think that the presenter might be confused because hard disk drives look a little like a turntable, with the arm sweeping across a spinning disc to retrieve information. But the information stored on a hard drive is digital, not mechanical, so the alleged analogy doesn't work.

Hard drives make noise when they spin, but that's not the same as turntable rumble, which affects the music. SS drives are much faster and have no moving parts, but they store the information in the same manner as hard disk drives, i.e. in digital form.

What's not mentioned in the video, and to me is far more relevant, is that the sound chip or sound card in the PC will affect the sound. High quality sound cards, such as SoundBlaster, will make a difference to the sound and come with various software to let you do cool things.

Our PC and SoundBlaster card are old, and maybe things have changed, but when we bought the PC the 'on board sound' was poor. The SoundBlaster improved the sound, and of course exactly the same information was coming from the disk drive.

Geoff