Snake oil confessional

[InductionRoar]

We have all done it. Haven't we?

I have worked my way through three different speaker cables, although I have never actually lost any money on them, but my biggest snake oil purchase relates to everybody's favourite contentious topic. Power.

Initially, I bought a Russ Andrews 4 way extension block (yes I know), but having subsequently read numerous posts on the Naim forums, I discovered that they recommend star-wiring and unsurprisingly Russ' blocks (like 99% of the market) are daisy-chained. Spending a few days googling the various star-wired options, I decided to go with the option that looked the prettiest (oak carcass) because after all, power is power, right?

Did I notice a difference in sound? Of course not. Did I expect to? No. Am I glad I bought it? Well, yes, as it tidied up the cables (the previous block had the IEC input on the right-hand side, so the cables were either under tension or unsightly) and it matches the décor in the room.

Sometimes it is as simple as that. Paying extra for something which does the same job, but looks better whilst doing it can sometimes be worth it to the buyer.

Come on. What is your snake oil confession? Don't be shy.

[ruggedscotty]

Hi-Fi power..... this is snake oil at its finest !

gold plated this silver stranded that zero phase shift metal oxide protection hubba bubba....

wiring to a hi fi ? its all wiring. as soon as it plugs into the wall your at the mercy of all sorts of disturbances affecting the quality of the power.

they dont tell you that though do they ?

So you want top notch power, if you do then you need to install an on line UPS. You need the mains taken in and rectifed and and connected across a battery before being converted back to AC. 500w should be enough.

https://www.ebuyer.com/144023-apc-smart-ups-500-wa...

This gives you perfect power out. Now you can have all your perfect cables from that point to your precious HiFi

[anonymous-user]

InductionRoar said:

Sometimes it is as simple as that. Paying extra for something which does the same job, but looks better whilst doing it can sometimes be worth it to the buyer.

That ebuyer UPS would be ripe for repackaging - stick it in a case made of some fancy material, add a sprinkling of fairy dust, audio-woo and some bold claims and it could then be sold on for at least a grand. £250 is just too cheap for an audiophile component.

[mp3manager]

Green pen.

[vxsmithers]

I would say anything I have bought from Russ Andrews - all relatively inexpensive, but all a complete waste of money as they made no difference. With the exception of a £10 plug in power 'mains conditioner' - it actually worked to stop the washing machine creating a buzz through the stereo - this probably could have been fixed by actually seeing what was causing the noise in the first place.

(In trying to remember the name of the mains conditioner I went on the RA website - £60 for a kettle chord now, and I feel embarrassed that I paid a tenner for one! I also see the mains conditioner is £55!!!)

[TonyRPH]

ruggedscotty said:

<snip>

So you want top notch power, if you do then you need to install an on line UPS. You need the mains taken in and rectifed and and connected across a battery before being converted back to AC. 500w should be enough.

https://www.ebuyer.com/144023-apc-smart-ups-500-wa...

This gives you perfect power out. Now you can have all your perfect cables from that point to your precious HiFi

No it doesn't actually....!

The sine wave is quite distorted, and if you look at the spec:

Output power capacity 300Watts / 500VAMax
Configurable Power (Watts) 300Watts / 500VA
Nominal Output Voltage 120VOutput Frequency (sync to mains) 50/60Hz +/- 3 Hz
Topology Standby
Waveform type Stepped approximation to a sinewave
Maximum Output Current 10

[Biker 1]

Speaker cable. I bought some snake-oiled bi-wired stuff at £20/metre, can't remember brand etc. Made absolutely no difference whatsoever to the sound - unless my ears are totally shot...
Another top purchase was a QED HDMI cable with gold plugs & some fancy braiding. £60 special offer, if memory serves. Again, absolutely no difference compared with the freebie that came with the Freesat box.

[Tony1963]

Speaker cable isn't snake oil. Sometimes you won't hear a difference, but that could well be because there's a bottleneck elsewhere in the system.

[Toltec]

TonyRPH said:

ruggedscotty said:

<snip>

So you want top notch power, if you do then you need to install an on line UPS. You need the mains taken in and rectifed and and connected across a battery before being converted back to AC. 500w should be enough.

https://www.ebuyer.com/144023-apc-smart-ups-500-wa...

This gives you perfect power out. Now you can have all your perfect cables from that point to your precious HiFi

No it doesn't actually....!

The sine wave is quite distorted, and if you look at the spec:

Output power capacity 300Watts / 500VAMax
Configurable Power (Watts) 300Watts / 500VA
Nominal Output Voltage 120VOutput Frequency (sync to mains) 50/60Hz +/- 3 Hz
Topology Standby
Waveform type Stepped approximation to a sinewave
Maximum Output Current 10

It is also line interactive not online so unless the mains drops or spikes it just gets passed through.

[Alucidnation]

Tony1963 said:

Speaker cable isn't snake oil. Sometimes you won't hear a difference, but that could well be because there's a bottleneck elsewhere in the system.

Indeed.

There isn't much point spending a reasonable amount on decent cable and connecting it to a shyte system.

[Laurel Green]

Alucidnation said:

Indeed.

There isn't much point spending a reasonable amount on decent cable and connecting it to a shyte system.

Was just about to say the same thing.

My SO confession; buying Siltech digital interconnect between CD player and decoder.

[Gecko1978]

Onkyo Ipod doc was like £100 did nothing more than £15 one.....used it twice

[Crackie]

Alucidnation said:

There isn't much point spending a reasonable amount on decent cable and connecting it to a shyte system.

There isn't much point spending a reasonable amount on a cable full stop irrespective of whether its attached to a shyte system or a great one.

Couple of interesting articles here.

http://matrixhifi.com/ENG_contenedor_ppec.htm

The cable test in the attached link is worth a look http://www.audio-forums.com/threads/the-cable-test...
You don't have to listen to any files, just read 'til the read of page 3.

[Tony1963]

The written English in the matrixhifi link is so bad that I ended up skimming through. Self-proclaimed experts in a slightly worrying scenario.

I couldn't be bothered with the second link. Maybe later.

[TonyRPH]

Crackie said:

<snip>

The cable test in the attached link is worth a look http://www.audio-forums.com/threads/the-cable-test...
You don't have to listen to any files, just read 'til the read of page 3.

Link doesn't work?

[Laurel Green]

TonyRPH said:

Link doesn't work?

Must be using an inferior connection cable.

Doesn't work for me either.

[Crackie]

Apologies gents......

This link is working. https://www.audio-forums.com/threads/the-cable-tes...

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/testing-audiophile...

My confessional was being sucked in to to the 10% rule, regarding cables, in my youth and paying for various different audiophile interconnect ( Sonic Link, IXOS, DNM ) and speaker cables ( QED, Kimber ). None of which made the slightest difference to my system's sound. Working in the industry from 1995 to 2015 gave me opportunity to listen to many more cables and to speak with many different designers ( speaker designers in particular ). Cable contribution is close to irrelevant.