Sound Science Corner Pub

[bigshot]

Gregorio is one of the most valuable posters in this forum. Audiophools belittle themselves without knowing it. They don’t need his help.

Semantics is a big problem. When I see it going that way, I just say OK and move on. I don’t try to explain any more. I know we both agree even if the other person doesn’t.

 

[XTF1]

As much as gregorio likes to claim how big of an audio engineer he is, I then don't understand why he seems to live off of belittling audiophiles who post here.

I react exactly the same way! The only difference is, I’m not an audio engineer… But, when somebody comes with an arrogant, absolute, claim about something they obviously have no clue—what is actually my narrow field of knowledge/expertise—I blow a fuse !!!

Patience has its limits and I understand Gregorio reaction…

 

[2leftears]

… But, when somebody comes with an arrogant, absolute, claim about something they obviously have no clue—what is actually my narrow field of knowledge/expertise—I blow a fuse !!!

Not an audiophile fuse I assume

 

[bigshot]

We aren’t the problem here.

 

[colonelkernel8]

We aren’t the problem here.

It's really just money interests. Look at Head-Fi's sponsors. Some of them are legitimate, some blend legitimate with nonsense (to make the nonsense more palatable), and many are pure snake oil brands (literally all the companies selling $1000+ IEM cables). Their needs will always supercede our needs and so by default we're considered trolls.

 

[BS5711]

It's really just money interests. Look at Head-Fi's sponsors. Some of them are legitimate, some blend legitimate with nonsense (to make the nonsense more palatable), and many are pure snake oil brands (literally all the companies selling $1000+ IEM cables). Their needs will always supercede our needs and so by default we're considered trolls.

Trolling is the exact term used by our friendly moderator to me when he deleted my post in response to our mate where he said he didn't believe a word that came out of your mouth and I went back with simply "Snap", obviously inferring that I didn't believe a word that came out of his.

At least our mod friend had the decency to delete the post that I was replying to but there is an obvious bias around HF to avoid anything that approaches the truth with audio equipment and obvious encouragement for people to keep believing they hear all sorts of stuff that is near certainly only due to perception because it keeps selling advertisers products.

 

[colonelkernel8]

Trolling is the exact term used by our friendly moderator to me when he deleted my post in response to our mate where he said he didn't believe a word that came out of your mouth and I went back with simply "Snap", obviously inferring that I didn't believe a word that came out of his.

At least our mod friend had the decency to delete the post that I was replying to but there is an obvious bias around HF to avoid anything that approaches the truth with audio equipment and obvious encouragement for people to keep believing they hear all sorts of stuff that is near certainly only due to perception because it keeps selling advertisers products.

Apparently you can’t criticize shoddy, very easily dangerous DIY work that objectively could only make the sound worse either. If he managed to short the lithium battery he could easily end up with horrifying burns on his legs when it cooks off in his pocket. Hopefully no one bricks their $1600 Sony DAP (or burns their damn house down) trying to solder in magical decoupling capacitors with a framing nail, a pair of pliers and a lighter.

Story time: back in 2007 I was on this forum heavily in the DIY section. I had designed a board for the “Kwak Clock” which was a high performance TCXO clock source for “upgrading” CD players. This was high school for me, so before I learned anything about digital circuit design and I didn’t know any better. I put it in my Rotel RCD-02 and immediately felt I noticed that it sounded “way better”. I said as much at the time and back then, you could actually push back on stupid claims (at least on the DIY forum) and I got flack for it. It wasn’t until much later that I realized I had dramatically increased the distortion of the device by a factor of at least 20. I found that out by simulating the clock circuit, the long wire I used to connect it to the main CD player board, and the DAC section of the player in Ansys in college (I had long since parted with the CD player at that point, so direct testing wasn’t possible but I really wanted to know what I was experiencing). Moral of the story is getting pushback on this forum made me LEARN.

Edit: FOUND IT. I’m cringing now. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/kwak-clock-mod.222603/

 

[BS5711]

Apparently you can’t criticize shoddy, very easily dangerous DIY work that objectively could only make the sound worse either. If he managed to short the lithium battery he could easily end up with horrifying burns on his legs when it cooks off in his pocket. Hopefully no one bricks their $1600 Sony DAP (or burns their damn house down) trying to solder in magical decoupling capacitors with a framing nail, a pair of pliers and a lighter.

We need a laughing reaction option

Amazing how a flat cable improves note weight and imaging yet that dogs breakfast of electronics assembly had no adverse effect at all !

Some folks lack of self awareness and common sense is astonishing.

 

[colonelkernel8]

We need a laughing reaction option

Amazing how a flat cable improves note weight and imaging yet that dogs breakfast of electronics assembly had no adverse effect at all !

Some folks lack of self awareness and common sense is astonishing.

Those flat cables (and all the capacitor leads) are acting like big old antennae, piping noise directly into the unprotected, unfiltered pins of what I believe is probably the analog amplification stage of the DAP. Also, I added a big old story to my post above if you want a chuckle. I’m going through all my posts in that thread and I’m actually surprised how well-spoken I was for a 17 year old little punk. You can see my DIY work in there too…

 

[BS5711]

Those flat cables (and all the capacitor leads) are acting like big old antennae, piping noise directly into the unprotected, unfiltered pins of what I believe is probably the analog amplification stage of the DAP. Also, I added a big old story to my post above if you want a chuckle. I’m going through all my posts in that thread and I’m actually surprised how well-spoken I was for a 17 year old little punk. You can see my DIY work in there too…

Very cool but above my pay grade.

My audio "electronics" building experience is limited to basic stuff that was inspired and encourage by my grandfather when I was young. He died when I was 10 so it was pre 1977, showing my age He was into audio and ham radio back in the pre-transistor era with a great little shed full of valves and all manner of boxes of components. Of course he adopted transistor technology well before I was around. He made our families first "record player" in a nice case using a single speaker and hand made amplifier.

Thinking that stuff was all pretty cool, and with his encouragement, I built a series of crystal set radios with one of those single ivory coloured earpieces as the transducer of choice. That extended to various extensions of the crystal sets with an increasing number of components and a power source by way of a 9V battery if I recall. The final incarnation was a transistor radio with a small transformer proving power and a small speaker.

I recall sitting at night in my childhood bedroom with the crystal set on the window sill connected to about 20m of copper wire aerial and remember this great new track that was just released called Hotel California which would have made me 9 at the time.

 

[JamoBroGuy]

Maybe I should replace my DC Elite’s stepped attenuator with an overpriced “audiophile” one to open up the soundstage. Also, the Effect Audio Centurion ($5.5k cable) will surely improve the timbre by quite a bit.

Heck, why stop there?! I’m gonna DIY Sonion EST drivers into my Cantor to bring out the micro details! The ultimate audiophile upgrade!!!

On a more serious note, I saw someone in the DIY Ground Box Thread saying that you should put neodymium magnets on top for more punchy bass. My goodness…

 

[2leftears]

Maybe I should replace my DC Elite’s stepped attenuator with an overpriced “audiophile” one to open up the soundstage. Also, the Effect Audio Centurion ($5.5k cable) will surely improve the timbre by quite a bit.

Heck, why stop there?! I’m gonna DIY Sonion EST drivers into my Cantor to bring out the micro details! The ultimate audiophile upgrade!!!

On a more serious note, I saw someone in the DIY Ground Box Thread saying that you should put neodymium magnets on top for more punchy bass. My goodness…

The DIY Ground Box Thread is one I don't know whether to laugh or cry about.

In both the DIY Ground Box Thread as well as the Audio Grade Fuses thread they are making and advocating hazardous DIY modifications to the mains electrical supply. I pointed this out to the moderators, but apparently it is not a problem... . Civil liability?

 

[JamoBroGuy]

The DIY Ground Box Thread is one I don't know whether to laugh or cry about.

In both the DIY Ground Box Thread as well as the Audio Grade Fuses thread they are making and advocating hazardous DIY modifications to the mains supply. I pointed this out to the moderators, but apparently it is not a problem... . Civil liability?

Agreed. Apparently advocating for dangerous DIY projects that could potentially burn your house down is perfectly fine, but being an advocate of science is considered trolling everywhere but here?

I guess it’s pretty obvious why Head-Fi is like this…

 

[Ryokan]

but being an advocate of science is considered trolling everywhere but here?

You're contained because it's a place which company's support with funds, so they're not going to have them upset. If an audiophool says - 'hey this sounds great' then you come along like the Spanish Inquisition with a valid reason why it makes no difference, and spoil everyone's wa.

 

[2leftears]

Agreed. Apparently advocating for dangerous DIY projects that could potentially burn your house down is perfectly fine, but being an advocate of science is considered trolling everywhere but here?

Yes, something like that. The posting guidelines are very explicit about not posting political content or content that could lead to civil liability. I actually agree with those two guidelines, but I have found moderation in these two areas to be ... interesting. Which (also according to the guidelines) is not allowed to be discussed. So even this post in theory has me walking on thin ice. We'll see.