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Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

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Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#231

Post by hwillis »

sjwright wrote: post #152
reaperducer wrote: post #139

The 82-year-old lawyer already had a $60,000 American-made amplifier, 1960s German loudspeakers that once belonged to a theater, Japanese audio cables threaded with gold and silver, and other pricey equipment. Meanwhile, my wife plays her Dean Martin records through her own personal 15-watt AM radio station in the closet, picked up on vintage tube radios scattered around the house so the music sounds like it was inte…

At least your wife's perspective makes sense—it's treating music as deeply experiential and contextual.

Not to mention that any recorded music is going to:

1. sound quite different because it was recorded by several point microphones instead of your actual ears

2. Already have distortion introduced by the microphone and recording equipment.

That distortion will obviously be quite small, but higher end audiophile setups will often be easily smaller. It does not make sense to spend $XX,XXX to get to .03% THD from .03000001% THD.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#232

Post by naikrovek »

remcob wrote: post #9

$100k in equipment, but I bet none of that went to an oscilloscope to actually quantify the problems they are imagining.

Even if it did, the results would be questioned, and ultimately ignored.

There is no rationalizing with an audiophool.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#233

Post by Dylan16807 »

ttflee wrote: post #230
Dylan16807 wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HDMI doesn't have packets. It's largely digital VGA. It's very easy to flick individual bits, and the effect is basically the same as analog noise. The only difference is the threshold.

> very easy to flick individual bits Is there any error correcting code/protocol in HDMI spec to fix individual bit flips?

No. There's an 8b/10b encoding to balance current but that doesn't help you fix much of anything.

Displayport has packets with a checksum but I don't think there's any resending, only discarding.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#234

Post by hwillis »

andrewvc wrote: post #16

Even if you buy into this theory, how is this cheaper or better than using batteries to power your gear?

Batteries have significant and unavoidable source impedance. When the current goes up and down, as it does once per cycle, tens of thousands of times per second, the voltage of the power bus would move up and down slightly. You can obviously regulate it, but the whole point of what these guys want is an absolutely clean input.

The voltage of the grid will fall MUCH less when you pull current.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#235

Post by naikrovek »

pcurve wrote: post #194

"It’s completely beyond my understanding,” says his wife, Reiko, 57. “But if I take it away from him, he will lose the motivation to live.” LOL! I love it. God bless his wife.

The thing about that is that it isn't beyond her understanding. It's beyond his.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#236

Post by computerex »

hwillis wrote: post #228
thaumasiotes wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do $1,000 aftermarket wooden knobs (with no detectable physical effect) differ from, say, a $1,000 bottle of wine (which cannot be distinguished in a blind taste test from a $5 bottle)? They're just class signifiers. The difference I see is that audiophiles are less prestigious than oenophiles, but I don't see how you get from there to "audiophiles have a mental illness".

> say, a $1,000 bottle of wine (which cannot be distinguished in a blind taste test from a $5 bottle)? Well for one thing, that's wrong- distinguishing wine is easy. Even people who are just pretty into wine can identify different vinyards etc. and actual sommeliers can nail wine down to the year it was bottled and the conditions it was stored[1]. The thing you're referring to is that when you line up regular people…

Hilarious that you posted a clip from Uncorked as some form of evidence, because no one has ever lied on reality tv to make things more dramatic.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#237

Post by reaperducer »

themodelplumber wrote: post #217
reaperducer wrote: post #139

The 82-year-old lawyer already had a $60,000 American-made amplifier, 1960s German loudspeakers that once belonged to a theater, Japanese audio cables threaded with gold and silver, and other pricey equipment. Meanwhile, my wife plays her Dean Martin records through her own personal 15-watt AM radio station in the closet, picked up on vintage tube radios scattered around the house so the music sounds like it was inte…

Would love to hear about the hardware she's using for this! It's very cool.

Nothing crazy geeky. She picked up the transmitter at Goodwill for $5. It’s one of those “talking house” things that real estate agents use to tell people about houses when bobody’s around.

http://talkinghouse.com

Looking at that web site now, I think I misremembered the 15 watt figure. That seems way too high. But whatever it is puts out a clean signal across the neighborhood.

It came with just a long wire for an antenna, but she found something on the internet to augment or change or replace it or something to improve the clarity in the backyard.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#238

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

fyfy18 wrote: post #227
stcredzero wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know people that work in IT and still pretend that audio transmission over USB can add jitter to music and that a DAC can "open" or "close" "the stage" by low quality processing of the signal. Audio transmission over USB with cheap converters and poorly chosen levels can result in loss of sound quality. I'm pretty sure you can tell the difference between 8 bit, 12 bit, and 16 bit sound. Choosing levels poorly can r…

Regarding your usage of 'cheap', I would read this as the difference between a 50c or $5 component. I can understand spending more to get a reputable brand compared to buying the cheapest no name item from AliExpress. However audiophiles are a whole different level. People spend tens of thousands of dollars on items that have questionable difference in quality. I guess people do the same with cars though, a Toyota Co…

Wine might be a better comparison (at least a Rolls and a Toyota look different). Many could tell the difference pretty well between a $5 and $20 bottle (hint: the $20 one is the one not loaded with sugar), but not a whole lot of people can tell the difference between a $20 bottle and a $200 bottle. The law of diminishing returns kicks in pretty quick with both wine and audio. I think with audio once you’re in over a few hundred bucks for your set that wall comes up pretty quickly.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#239

Post by SOLAR_FIELDS »

kakarot wrote: post #222
stcredzero wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know people that work in IT and still pretend that audio transmission over USB can add jitter to music and that a DAC can "open" or "close" "the stage" by low quality processing of the signal. Audio transmission over USB with cheap converters and poorly chosen levels can result in loss of sound quality. I'm pretty sure you can tell the difference between 8 bit, 12 bit, and 16 bit sound. Choosing levels poorly can r…

It's almost as if there's a middle ground to be had somewhere. There are definitely things which can perceptually detract from audio which people just don't think about. I'm about to buy a couple power conditioners for my electronics because the wiring in my new apartment is garbage and every little spike in voltage comes through as a loud pop in my speakers and headphones. But more subtly, my audio is constantly bei…

Wow, that is pretty bad wiring. I can hear an audible hum from my subwoofer when my wife runs the vacuum or blow dryer but that’s about it. And those are about the highest pulling appliances you could have in a household and the sub is pretty big with pretty powerful amp.

Re: Audiophiles in Japan Are Installing Their Own Power Poles

#240

Post by robdachshund »

AdrianB1 wrote: post #95
bayindirh wrote: post #59

I don't understand this type of audiophiles. I also have a fairly high end, vintage audio system at home, but I'd never do anything like that in the name of audio quality. There's a quote I love about these people: A normal person uses the audio system to listen music, while an audiophile uses music to listen to his audio system.

You don't understand the power of naivety, placebo effect, dreams and stupidity composed (multiply all). Not in any way intended to insult these people, I know a few (not as rich) and they simply do not want to understand the basic principles behind digital signals, error corrections etc. I know people that work in IT and still pretend that audio transmission over USB can add jitter to music and that a DAC can "open"…

There are degrees here. Jitter is real, so are ground loops, and the difference between compressed and uncompressed audio. I can tell an mp3 from a cd. However I don't think there's anything to gain from "hi res audio." 44/16 is all we need. I think these people would be fine with some noise filtering on their house house wiring. I'm not about to drop 60k on equipment, but 1k would do wonders.
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