Extremes of snake oil selling

This description has been cut & pasted from an E-bay ad for Ixos 6003
speaker cable , biggest bottle of snake oil ever presented ?


"Please note, the cables are cut to an exact and scientifically measured
length for best reproduction, so do not cut them or they will not sound as
they should! "

"Nathan Higgins" -spam wrote in message
...
They're either both tuned around a base frequency or they're just cut to
the
same length as each either. The statement is true but I can never tell the
difference between different length speaker cable, sound the same to me!
Whats the current price? Is it some rediculous amount of money ?

--
Nathan D Higgins

Website: http://nathan.link9.net/
Email: nathan[at]link9[dot]net
Hosting: http://www.link9.net
WAP: http://wap.link9.net
[dot]NET: nathan[at]link9[dot]net



Russ Andrews has convinced him to buy Kimber , says it all I suppose.

See here :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...category=15 0
67

Difference in lengths isn't really a problem unless you're talking excessive
lengths, a 10ft difference in length would be around a delay of 0.003mm
displacement, which is basically nothing. If you could hear the difference
of that then you must be sub-human.

As for tuning, you could only tune to one specific frequency as the
difference in wave lengths within audible frequencies is so large, 2khz
baseline would be 150km and 5khz would be 60km, thats a hell of alot of
cable for full wave tuning.

--
Nathan D Higgins

Website: http://nathan.link9.net/
Email: nathan[at]link9[dot]net
Hosting: http://www.link9.net
WAP: http://wap.link9.net
[dot]NET: nathan[at]link9[dot]net

In article , Paul
wrote:
This description has been cut & pasted from an E-bay ad for Ixos 6003
speaker cable , biggest bottle of snake oil ever presented ?


"Please note, the cables are cut to an exact and scientifically measured
length for best reproduction, so do not cut them or they will not sound
as they should! "

I am wondering how the lengths were "scientifically measured". Was this
using a "scientific metre rule" as opposed to a "wooden stick with
scratches at intervals along its length", or what? :-)

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

In article , Nathan
Higgins -spam wrote:
Difference in lengths isn't really a problem unless you're talking
excessive lengths, a 10ft difference in length would be around a delay
of 0.003mm displacement, which is basically nothing. If you could hear
the difference of that then you must be sub-human.

As for tuning, you could only tune to one specific frequency as the
difference in wave lengths within audible frequencies is so large, 2khz
baseline would be 150km and 5khz would be 60km, thats a hell of alot of
cable for full wave tuning.

Bear in mind that the system where the cables would be used is probably far
from being impedance matched. Hence the actual delays may differ from the
above. For the same reason, it may be that the source/cable/load might then
resonate well below the frequencies at which the cable is a full- or
half-wave in matched terms. I doubt a foot or so difference would matter
much, though. Not done the calculations, but I'd suspect that 10 foot
differences might be audible in some cases.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

"Please note, the cables are cut to an exact and scientifically measured
length for best reproduction, so do not cut them or they will not sound
as they should! "

I like it how in the ad he never mentions the actual length of the cables.

Maybe it's some top-secret super-length.

Then again, they could just be 3cm offcuts, So long as they're
scientifically measured offcuts.

Btw, what's is the third wire for? It doesn't seem connected to anything at
the end shown so I'm guessing a grounded shield, or some H/E -field voodoo
canceller.
--
Jim

The conductors
repeatedly cross each other achieving a significant noise cancelling
effect.

Suppose this is a resonable claim, decent quality twisted pairs would cross
more, but at less of an angle. What effect this has on the sound is
questionable, but I suppose it's marginally more than just pretty wire.

There's certianly worse snake oil out there, try
http://www.improb.com/news/2000/june...c-2000-06.html

--
Jim H

Hi,

In message , Nathan
Higgins -spam writes
Difference in lengths isn't really a problem unless you're talking excessive
lengths, a 10ft difference in length would be around a delay of 0.003mm
displacement, which is basically nothing. If you could hear the difference
of that then you must be sub-human.

.... And you've got your head in a very, very, precisely positioned vice.

I suppose one could always buy them, then wait for the temperature to
rise by a couple of degrees so the conductors expand, then send them
back and say they have become 'out of spec'.

--
Regards,
Glenn Booth

In article ,
Glenn Booth wrote:
I suppose one could always buy them, then wait for the temperature to
rise by a couple of degrees so the conductors expand, then send them
back and say they have become 'out of spec'.

And they'd only be in spec on mono. Any difference in a stereo signal
would cause differential heating, and alter the lengths.

--
*How come you never hear about gruntled employees? *

Dave Plowman London SW 12
RIP Acorn

In article , Chris Isbell
wrote:
[snip]

The latest issue of the excellent High Fidelity magazine, where the most
amusing page is not in the editorial, but in the advertising:
Silvertech,the Dutch maker of precious metal cables, is claiming a noise
level of -180dB for its new generation of cables.

Do we know, -180dB w.r.t to what?

Assuming that it is possible to measure at -180dB (This means having an
available resolution of -200dB wide band or -140dB narrow band) is it
possible to verify these claims?

Not sure what you mean above. (Mind you, I'm not sure what their ad is
supposed to mean, either! :- ) The wideband SNR is usually poorer than
the narrowband. e.g. 32k point FFTs where a 90dB wideband SNR converts to
around 120dB per frequency bin. (Forget the precise value.)

Anyway, what about the theory?

Assuming a resistance of the order of 0.5 ohms, a temperature of 25
degrees C and a pass band of 100kHz.

Let's read two or three references, like "Thermal agitation of
electricity in conductors", J. B. Johnson, Physical Review, vol. 32, pp.
97-109 and "Thermal agitation of electric charge in conductors", H.
Nyquist, Physical Review, vol. 32, pp. 110-113, both of them from 1928.

Let's take the accepted formulas and calculate the intrinsic noise level
of the said cables.

Is this what they mean?

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html