More Amazing Technology - Alter Electromagnetic Ambient Conditions

At least this gadget doesn't cost $10K, but who are they kidding? For only $959, this black piece of metal in a relatively nice frame is suppose to improve the sound of your audio system. How does it work? It seems like magic. You just place it near your gear. You don't even have to plug it in. At least it doesn't waste any power. The Blackbody from LessLoss (I think they also sell high end cables), "greatly enhances your audio playback experience by addressing the interaction of your audio gear's circuitry with ambient electromagnetic phenomena..." and, "The Blackbody takes advantage of the quantum nature of particle interaction, and is therefore able to permeate metal, plastic, wood, and other barriers to affect the circuitry inside your components. This altered electromagnetic influence results in profoundly improved sound quality." These quotes are right off their webpage.

Who buys this stuff? After reading the rest of their webpage which explains how it works, I'm certainly not convinced. They try to imply that there's some real science behind this, but that's laughable. They even suggest several Blackbodys can be used to maximize coverage and effectiveness. Yes, of course, the more, the merrier. I only wish they were selling it on Amazon, so I could read some humorous comments and reviews.

Denon's Amazing CAT6 Ethernet Cable

I've subscribed to a thread dedicated to advanced topics in HD audio on AVS Forum where someone brought the Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable to our attention. This is a $500 ethernet cable. Now that's outrageous. Somebody please explain to me the benefits of such a thing. Anyhow, what's really hilarious are some of the customer reviews. Here are some of my favorites:

"A caution to people buying these: if you do not follow the "directional markings" on the cables, your music will play backwards. Please check that before mentioning it in your reviews. I was disappointed. I consider myself an audiophile - I regularly spend over $1000 on cables to get the ultimate sound. I keep my music-listening room in a Faraday cage to prevent any interference that could alter my music-listening experience. Sending any signal down ordinary copper can degrade the signal considerably. While ordinary listeners might not notice, to somebody with even a rudimentary knowledge of sound, the artifacts are glaring. Denon should have used silver wiring (hermetically sealed inside the rubber sheath to prevent any tarnishing, of course), which has a significantly higher conductivity than copper. Furthermore, Denon needs to treat the wires they use in the cable with a polarity inductor to ensure minimal phase variance."
- Michael McKinley

"If I could use a rusty boxcutter to carve a new orifice in my body that's compatible with this link cable, I would already be doing it. I can just imagine the pure musical goodness that would flow through this cable into the wound and fill me completely -- like white, holy light. Holding this cable in my hands actually makes me feel that much closer to the Lord Jesus Christ. I only make $6.25/hr at Jack In The Box, but I saved up for three months so I could have this cable. It sits in a shrine I constructed next to my futon in Mother's basement. I only gave it four stars in my review because I can't find music that is worthy enough to flow through this utterly perfect interconnect."
-G. P.

"As excited as I was to open my new Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable, I was much more dissatisfied by Denon's customer service experience. Apparently the result of an improper connection and the cable's high data transfer speed, I mistakenly caused the collision of a pair of positrons (i.e. leptons) at several hundred GeV. While the resulting mini black hole theoretically proved the validity of superstring theory and may result in endless new perpetual energy sources, it also stained our Berber carpet. When I phoned Denon customer support, the representative I spoke with--whose English was horrible, by the way--was discourteous and unhelpful. Regardless of my data transfer or particle acceleration needs in the future, I will not be shopping with Denon again."
- Mark E. Putnam

"Like an idiot I didn't follow the instructions that came with the cable. Instead, I "accidentally" ground them up in a blender along with a pile of Monster cables. What came out was a green, glowing, runny substance. I wasn't sure what I could do with it, so I threw it out of house and onto the garden. What happened, no one could have expected. Apparently most of the ooze found its way onto a family of turtles. It began to physically change them. It has been two weeks now and I have four teenage turtles in my house constantly breaking things with their martial arts. I'm about out of pizza and would like Denon to explain how these seemingly flawless cables could have caused such a problem. I read all of the warnings and didn't find anything in them about not blending them up and pouring it on turtles. I would like a full refund, or at least, Denon to cover my pizza bill."
- C. Whalen

"My wife and I have been trying to conceive for almost a decade. We've tried every form of therapy, artificial insemination, and some other, more questionable methods. Then I saw this product. The Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable. I just KNEW that it was the answer to our prayers. When they arrived my wife gave me the look of a defeated woman with nothing but a feigned hope. But I had faith! That night we wrapped ourselves in the Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable and tried one last time for a child. Nine months later our daughter was born. Thank you SO MUCH Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable. I'm only giving the product a 3-star rating, however. I was hoping for a true heir and I don't feel like buying a new cable."
- Steve O

"I got these cables to pull my Audi out of the ditch with Jed' pick-up, and they broke all up on the first pull. I knows it wasn't cause he was drunk and popped the clutch, these cables jest aint no good."
- Robert Cole "Jed's friend"

Never knew Amazon's customer reviews could be such a great source of entertainment. Learn something every day...

Michael Fremer Takes the Million Dollar Challenge

Last Thursday, I wrote a post about James Randi's offer to pay anyone $1 million if they can prove that a $7,250 pair of Pear Anjou speaker cables sound different than their Monster Cable equivalent. It looks like Michael Fremer, a Stereophile Magazine writer, has decided to take up the challenge. To learn more, read this post in Gizmodo. This should be fun.

Teleportation Tweak

Machina Dynamica's Teleportation Tweak

The Teleportation Tweak is the phenomenal new product from Machina Dynamica. The Teleportation Tweak is an advanced communications technique discovered and developed by Machina Dynamica for upgrading audio systems remotely -- even over very long distances. The Teleportation Tweak has a profound effect on the sound and is performed during a phone call to Machina Dynamica; the phone call can be made via landline or cell phone from any room in the house. The tweak itself takes about 30 seconds.

Remarkably, the Teleportation Tweak is independent of distance and signal transmission medium and will work anywhere in the world. The "signals" transmitted over the phone by Machina Dynamica remain robust even over great distances. It is not necessary for the system to be ON at the time of the telephone call; however, if A/B comparison of the Teleportation Tweak before and after the call is desired, the customer's audio system should be turned ON and warmed up prior to the call.

The effects of the Teleportation Tweak are instantaneous and the improvement to sound quality will be audible immediately. The Teleportation Tweak excels in 3-dimensionality, lushness, inner detail and air. Bonus: The picture quality of any video system in the house will also be improved - better color and contrast! Customer should pay via Paypal or check/MO (payable to Geoff Kait) prior to calling Machina Dynamica via landline or cell phone. Machina Dynamica's Teleportation Tweak $60.

Amazing huh! And you probably thought the Bedini Quadra-Beam Ultra Clarifier was the most phenomenal tweak available. This one, which was also from another comment in the Slashdot post, takes the cake so far. I'll let you know if I discover anything that tops this.

BEDINI - QUADRI-BEAM ULTRA CLARIFIER

BEDINI/QUADRI-BEAM ULTRA CLARIFIER

New! Featuring four beams, nearly twice the rotation speed and improved timing processing, the Quadri-Beam is an ultra cool disc treatment. This patented process reduces the noise floor allowing far more information to be retrieved from the disc. It also works great on DVDs, giving you a picture that is brighter, sharper, crisper and cleaner. For those of you who have never experienced the sonic benefits of the Bedini Clarifier, it significantly reduces high frequency glare and increases retrieval of information, enhancing dynamic range. Detail and resolution are improved dramatically.


This is one of the great audiophile tweaks listed on the website that I linked to in my previous post. I also discovered this after reading some of the comments from the Slashdot post. I couldn't resist sharing this.

The $1,000,000 Challenge

James Randi is offering US $1 million dollars to anyone who can prove that a pair of $7,250 Pear Anjou speaker cables is any better than the equivalent Monster Cables. He offers a personal invitation to Dave Clark, Editor of the audio review publication Positive Feedback Online, who provided this rave review:

"…way better than anything I have heard…Simply put these are very danceable cables. Music playing through them results in the proverbial foot-tapping scene with the need or desire to get up and move. Great swing and pace – these cables smack that right on the nose big time."

"…simply way better than anything I have heard prior to their audition."

It looks like he made a similar offer to John Atkinson of Stereophile Magazine, but it was never accepted. Unfortunately I can't find any specific information on that challenge.

I probably shouldn't write anything that either pokes fun of or challenges the credibility of these writers, since who knows, maybe I'd like them to evaluate or review one of our products in the future. Oh well... these outrageous claims drive me nuts and I really enjoy it when someone challenges their credibility.

I first discovered Mr. Randi's offer on Slashdot. I don't know if I've ever made this clear, but I'm not a big fan of some "audiophile" tweaks. Especially since I think a lot of them are just snake oil. Here's a list of some pretty humorous products.

James Randi has an international reputation as a magician and escape artist, but today he is best known as the world's most tireless investigator and demystifier of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims. Randi has pursued "psychic" spoonbenders, exposed the dirty tricks of faith healers, investigated homeopathic water "with a memory," and generally been a thorn in the sides of those who try to pull the wool over the public's eyes in the name of the supernatural.

Prototype Sketch

OK, so maybe this isn't really a prototype sketch, but I thought it was a pretty cool illustration and that readers of the blog might appreciate it. I came across the drawing on Audio DesignLines article "Amazing Hi-Fi' cartoon/illustration from 1950s". It was drawn by Roy Doty for the April 15th, 1958 issue of Look Magazine. Click on the Audio DesignLine article link to download a copy of the original image.

Do they know it's Hallowe'en?

Check out this video:



This single features a star-studded ensemble (Beck, Sum 41, The Arcade Fire) known as the NORTH AMERICAN HALLOWEEN PREVENTION INITIATIVE. Both a trick and a treat, this song is a satire - as well as a charity-benefit song with all proceeds being donated to UNICEF.

Damn Spammers

I think some spammer has hijacked our domain name this past week. I registered the domain name through Yahoo! Small Business. As you can probably tell from our website at www.amplioaudio.com, we decided on the low-budget deal. All I wanted was the domain name and a few email addresses with @amplioaudio.com. Actually, I wanted www.amplio.com, but that domain name was taken even though nobody seems to be using it. So the amplioaudio website is really just a placeholder until we get closer to selling our products.

During the last week or so, I've been getting lots of "undeliverable mail" messages, saying the message from 'someweirdname at amplioaudio dot com' could not be delivered, etc. Each message has some different email name like 'nzogo at amplioaudio dot com'. None of them are accounts I set up with Yahoo!'s mail service. A lot of the undeliverable messages show that the messages were trapped by some spam filter. Obviously, some spammer is sending out thousands of messages using the amplioaudio domain. Now lots of people will probably block amplioaudio and legit messages will all get dumped in their spam folders. This pisses me off!! Does anyone know if there is any way to stop this? I contacted Yahoo!'s tech support several times, but they haven't responded. Any ideas???

PSA: "Don't Download This Song"

Every so often I'm moved by something that I think would make a good public service announcement. Here's an important message (in the form of a song) warning of the dangers of illegally downloading music from filesharing sites.