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The world of "High-end audio" has changed....

B

blahblah99

Platinum Member
This year at CES, I happened to stay at the hotel plaza where all the high end audio exhibits where staged. I was surprised (and dissapointed) at the amount of utter crap that are being sold in the "high-end audio" market. Some examples of that crap are:

1. Compact Disc Demagnetizer.
2. $1,500/ft speaker wires.
3. $200/pair RCA connectors (just the connector itself, no wiring).
4. GOLD PLATED <insert your connector/plug here>
5. Gold plated AC cable.
6. Room tuning dots (little dime sized felt pads) that they claim helps "tune" your system to the room.


And the best one of all.....

A huge poster with the following:

COME HEAR A $500,000 AUDIO DREAM SYSTEM!

<lists their equipment>

and at the bottom, has

"...listen to all this with an apple IPOD!"
 
:roll:

High-end audio buyers don't believe me when I tell them that dictionary.com doesn't include a listing for the definition of "gullible."
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
:roll:

High-end audio buyers don't believe me when I tell them that dictionary.com doesn't include a listing for the definition of "gullible."
Click to expand...

It doesn't!?!?!?!?

But I was just reading it...but...oh noes.
 
No way, I installed monster cables and I get 67.45% better sound.

I installed one on my coffeemaker and saw a 43% increase in caffeine yield.
 
Originally posted by: SampSon
No way, I installed monster cables and I get 67.45% better sound.

I installed one on my coffeemaker and saw a 43% increase in caffeine yield.
Click to expand...

Yet another smart @ssed remark that results in my laughing out loud at my desk at work.
 
Who cares? Let the buyer beware. Besides, if they like it (even if there's no real improvement) then more power to them.
 
Monster should start selling underwear. They could make huge amounts of money by promising that Monster Underwear has special qualities that increase the size and potency of your johnson.
 
For the most part, the people who are buying this crap are not interested in accurate sound reproduction, they're interested in the "bling-bling" factor of gold-plated stuff, and the loudest volume they can get out of thier escalade.
 
A gold plating costs next to nothing to put on. There's usually less than a cent worth of gold on the damn stuff.

But that one was great... $500k audio system hooked up to an iPod.
 
Originally posted by: Apex
Transparent Opus MM is $29,750 for 8 feet.

It's $15,000 for a 1 meter balanced interconnect.

http://www.transparentcable.com/news/opus_mm_new.html
Click to expand...

I love this from their website. They are just preparing you for when you actually get to see the price.

Complex cable geometry and the hefty stranding employed in OPUS MM designs add significantly to the manufacturing and assembly costs

In OPUS MM, Transparent spares no expense in achieving the most complete damping and suspension systems possible
Click to expand...

 
Originally posted by: blahblah99
I was surprised (and dissapointed) at the amount of utter crap that are being sold in the "high-end audio" market. Some examples of that crap are:

1. Compact Disc Demagnetizer.
2. $1,500/ft speaker wires.
3. $200/pair RCA connectors (just the connector itself, no wiring).
4. GOLD PLATED <insert your connector/plug here>
5. Gold plated AC cable.
6. Room tuning dots (little dime sized felt pads) that they claim helps "tune" your system to the room.
Click to expand...

Maybe a dumb question, but how does that suggest that high-end audio changed? I can't think of a time in the past several decades when high-end audio wasn't full of things equally absurd. I still think the Spartus LED alarm clock treated with gamma rays and sold by Tice for $500 beats anything. (In case you don't remember that one, all you had to do is plug it into any outlet and it would automatically "organize" the electrons in your house wiring so you'd get cleaner power.)

Got plenty of the stuff on the "absurd audio stuff" list myself, anyway. People ask, "why" sometimes, and I explain it's like plastic horses. That always confuses people more, but I knew someone years ago who made good money picking up certain models of Breyer plastic horses at thrift stores that collectors worldwide would pay hundreds of dollars for. Having a biwired set of Wireworld Eclipse cables or a Nakamichi Dragon tape deck may be silly, but it's no sillier than collecting plastic horses--and if you get tired of collectable stereo gear, you can always sell it to another collector.

 
2. $1,500/ft speaker wires.

No way, there is no way on the earth that there is $1500/foot speaker wire. The blood of christ would have to be flowing through it for that.
 
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