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Do you use any 'snake oil' in your system?

R

richardycc

Diamond Member
saw a group buy of this Predator-6 Power Strip Noise Trap at http://mitcables-buyersclub.com/collections/predator/products/predator-6-power-strip-noise-trap

saw the video of the demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-tArut8E_M,

and also a mini 'review' in this thread here http://lhlabs.com/force/groupbuys/3059-mit-power-predator-6-noise-trap

now I am wondering what it might do to my system? anyone using this noise trap already or anything else that make their system sound better? I might get one if the price drop to 50-60% off.
 
MIT’s Predator Series Power Strip Noise Traps are a simple and affordable way to increase both audio and video performance in your system and headphones, bringing you more enjoyment from your music, movies and video games. Sources of extraneous noise will affect both your audio and video signals, as well as slowing down the digital data streams on your networks, and can manifest itself as subtle grainy distortions, compressed imaging, and unnatural or harsh timbre. Similarly, video picture quality will suffer in the form of slight graininess or snow, especially in darker pictures. The level of contrast and depth of field are affected, as is the natural detail that comes from accurately passing very high frequencies. In extreme conditions, line noise can create visible hum bars and color shifts. The Predator Power Strip Noise Traps are perfect for all headphone accessories powered by 110- 220V AC.

MIT’s Patented Parallel AC Filterpoles include specially tuned networks for eliminating reflected noise, converting it to harmless thermal hand discharging it to the ground. This is done by creating a very low impedance across the load at a variety of frequencies corresponding to sources of unwanted noise. By using MIT’s Predator Series Power Strip Noise Trap, you will experience better black levels and color saturation as well as a lower noise floor, giving your audio enhanced dimensionality and a more natural timbre. Just plug it in, and let the Predator take your audio and video quality to the next level!
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OP, I really hope you don't waste 1 cent of your money on this.
 
🙄 maybe even get some of those cable/wire elevators. To keep the wires off the floor to increase the mid bass and sharpen the video signal.......
 
richardycc said:
Do you use any 'snake oil' in your system?
Click to expand...

Yes, I use this:

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Proved by science:

5197zyVj1NL._SY344_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg


Before(bottom) and After(top) pictures:

attachment.php


I have used it in the computer, I am typing this forum post on. It has increased system stability considerablyjw90efj034jg308h89h8eh238ie8i3298huri23hroi2h34r29u43itjf fj34jf3j4jf34oigj3o4jg3ij4g 2 2t4t24t24t BDOS err0r 8766
 
richardycc said:
saw a group buy of this Predator-6 Power Strip Noise Trap at http://mitcables-buyersclub.com/collections/predator/products/predator-6-power-strip-noise-trap

saw the video of the demo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-tArut8E_M,

and also a mini 'review' in this thread here http://lhlabs.com/force/groupbuys/3059-mit-power-predator-6-noise-trap

now I am wondering what it might do to my system? anyone using this noise trap already or anything else that make their system sound better? I might get one if the price drop to 50-60% off.
Click to expand...

I've only had a quick glance, but it appears to be talking nonsense (at least as regards the video).

E.g. It seems to be saying that it can improve the video quality (by reducing noise/interference) on the video signals. Most/many video signaling systems these days, are DIGITAL, i.e. noise will NOT matter to them (unless there is a hardware fault or unusually large noise for some reason, in which case something is probably wrong anyway (e.g. hardware fault)).

Because they seem to be saying false things about the video, I would not trust what they say about the audio improvements.

tl;dr: Yes, probably Snake Oil.
 
Not exactly snake oil, but I do use Caig deoxit products on my audio gear.
Pro-gold, faderlube and deoxit work really well for removing corrosion and protecting audio connections. Fader lube is great for linear and rotary pots.
Don't take my word for it, see what audio pros say about it, and no I don't work for Caig.
 
Yes, a headphone amplifier...made no difference outside of a nifty and overly large volume knob.
 
HeXen said:
Yes, a headphone amplifier...made no difference outside of a nifty and overly large volume knob.
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If you didn't notice a difference with a dedicated headphone amplifier, you have either the wrong headphones or the wrong amplifier.

No snake oil in my systems. Just real, quality components and high quality cables (Mostly monoprice, in the highest quality version they offer).

I've considered Blue Jeans Cable multiple times, but their prices always get me. Why bother paying them $30 when I could get it from Monoprice for $7 shipped?
 
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Audiophiles are some of the most dumbest people on this planet. My former chemistry lab has atomic absorption spectrometers that can consistently detect metals to the part per billion ranges (0.0000001%) from samples with "crappy" AC power from a normal power socket yet somehow these guys can claim they can hear the difference because they changed a 3 foot power cable connected to hundreds of miles of other AC mains cables and transformer stations.
 
StrangerGuy said:
Audiophiles are some of the most dumbest people on this planet. My former chemistry lab has atomic absorption spectrometers that can consistently detect metals to the part per billion ranges (0.0000001%) from samples with "crappy" AC power from a normal power socket yet somehow these guys can claim they can hear the difference because they changed a 3 foot power cable connected to hundreds of miles of other AC mains cables and transformer stations.
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Typically how I feel for the most part. Even people with the "golden ears"...which apparently is all of them, can't agree on opinions between various audio equipment.
Some of them try too hard to focus on the science that says a speaker must do this or worry about what their Oscilloscope says but if audio was a pure scientific calculation then every audio maker would produce the exact same thing. It's not expensive at all to produce accurate frequencies and been done for many decades. It's how we hear or listen that tends to be more subjective.

As I mentioned before I didn't notice anything special with 600ohm high end HP's and fancy amp over 32ohm decent HP's direct to output, whatever is or isn't there seems quite irrelevant and that to me is snake oil all the same. I bought into it thanks to all the overly obtuse geeks on AVS forums but no matter their suggestion I was always left with a ...wtf? moment. Even comparing at the local HT store near me, although I hear differences in how they sound, none actually sounded bad at all and some of these were high dollar and some lower end.
All in all, I think the $250 Andrew Jones soundbar sounds excellent for what it is as does my Astro A40 headsets for gaming..screw the dumb shit.
 
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HeXen said:
Typically how I feel for the most part. Even people with the "golden ears"...which apparently is all of them, can't agree on opinions between various audio equipment.
Some of them try too hard to focus on the science that says a speaker must do this or worry about what their Oscilloscope says but if audio was a pure scientific calculation then every audio maker would produce the exact same thing. It's not expensive at all to produce accurate frequencies and been done for many decades. It's how we hear or listen that tends to be more subjective.

As I mentioned before I didn't notice anything special with 600ohm high end HP's and fancy amp over 32ohm decent HP's direct to output, whatever is or isn't there seems quite irrelevant and that to me is snake oil all the same. I bought into it thanks to all the overly obtuse geeks on AVS forums but no matter their suggestion I was always left with a ...wtf? moment. Even comparing at the local HT store near me, although I hear differences in how they sound, none actually sounded bad at all and some of these were high dollar and some lower end.
All in all, I think the $250 Andrew Jones soundbar sounds excellent for what it is as does my Astro A40 headsets for gaming..screw the dumb shit.
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Did you use a discrete DAC with the "high end HP's and fancy amp", or did you use the built in source from your computer? Amplifying a source that isn't so great doesn't magically make it better, you need a good source to begin with. I also don't believe the difference between low resistance and high resistance headphones of the same or similar model is an improvement worth much. It might lower the noise floor, but you've got to already like the sound of the cans, otherwise you're in for disappointment when it sounds the same.
 
These do lower noise (equipment actually dumps noise back into your line), but that's way too expensive and they're clearly selling it as some wonder device. You can make your own for like $20 probably.

The thing is, your audio equipment (and likely other stuff) should be removing noise on its own. That's what they do is convert electrical signals. So if you have a noisy system you'd be better served by buying better equipment or shielding the equipment you have. For instance if you're using a computer based system you'll likely do well to have external audio equipment (sound card/DAC) as computers can be pretty noisy and it wasn't until recently that they put much effort into isolating and/or shielding audio.

Oh, and I also thought it actually isn't a good idea to use power conditioners and especially UPSes on audio equipment. I seem to recall Rubycon explaining why, but it can actually limit your stuff.
 
HeXen said:
Typically how I feel for the most part. Even people with the "golden ears"...which apparently is all of them, can't agree on opinions between various audio equipment.
Some of them try too hard to focus on the science that says a speaker must do this or worry about what their Oscilloscope says but if audio was a pure scientific calculation then every audio maker would produce the exact same thing. It's not expensive at all to produce accurate frequencies and been done for many decades. It's how we hear or listen that tends to be more subjective.

As I mentioned before I didn't notice anything special with 600ohm high end HP's and fancy amp over 32ohm decent HP's direct to output, whatever is or isn't there seems quite irrelevant and that to me is snake oil all the same. I bought into it thanks to all the overly obtuse geeks on AVS forums but no matter their suggestion I was always left with a ...wtf? moment. Even comparing at the local HT store near me, although I hear differences in how they sound, none actually sounded bad at all and some of these were high dollar and some lower end.
All in all, I think the $250 Andrew Jones soundbar sounds excellent for what it is as does my Astro A40 headsets for gaming..screw the dumb shit.
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Shame you feel that way as I don't think that's the case at all. Knowing the science is imperative I think. People have different needs from their equipment. While there's no "absolute right" way for audio equipment, but being technically sound should have absolute benefits. The science will make it so that you can produce a hefty bass tilt that doesn't distort and doesn't overpower the rest of the spectrum. Or you could help compensate for your own hearing deficiencies, or add whatever you like. In my opinion, leave it to the music or whatever you're listening to to add the "fun" and "magic" that people are looking for so often.

If it sounds good to you then good, but please don't let personal ignorance make you think scientific objectivity is "dumb shit". Not saying there isn't a lot of ridiculous BS, but there's a weird pushback against objectivity by people who are being fueled by people trying to sell their snake oil beliefs. It's gotten stupid (and even worse is the "nice guy" stupidity). And yes not everyone has the ability to find what sound they like, but that's why there should be a baseline quality to aim for, it'd make that a lot easier.

I do actually think we're on similar points in that differences are often massively exaggerated, and there's a lot of equipment that's plenty enjoyable (and it's easy to overlook lackluster equipment when listening to good music or something) to the point that it's good enough for you to settle for. But I think you're dismissing a lot of things that have made that possible (although that might be because your post focused more on criticizing that aspect when you might actually dislike the other subjective/highly opinionated way much more). Scientific objectivity is literally inherent to audio/video. It was necessary for it to exist, and it's been necessary for it to improve, and that will continue into the future.

As with anything. Know yourself and what you like first. Maybe educate yourself and see if that changes. Then you can decide what opinions match up with your own (or don't) and how valid those should be in helping you decide on what to buy.
 
Interconnects, speaker wire, line conditioners, etc. are a waste of money. To me it's all about the source, amplification and good speaker placement. You also have to take into account the listening area. I took some old, very average speakers and hooked them up to a good amplifier and they sounded phenomenal. Now would an audiophile think so? Heck no. But I don't base my happiness on what others think. In the end, I look for accuracy and listener fatigue.
 
I've been able to easily hear the difference between the basic $2 inter connect cables and $30 cables. Going from $30 and up less so. So I would definitely recommend investing in some cables instead of using stock. But you don't need to invest insane amounts, those $ are better spend on equipment. 5-7% of the total cost of my setup is cables, so it's not a lot.
 
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