Black Cable Tie Tweak. Just in time for Christmas!
Here's a fun little project. Count the number of drain spouts on your house or apt building - drain spouts are the long, 6" diameter vertical metal pipes that run from the roof gutters to the ground. You might know them better as waterspouts, downspouts, roof drain pipes or some other arcane word or terminology so don't bust my chops.
Obtain enough 14" black cable ties from Home Depot so you'll have one black cable tie for each drain spout. IIRC 14" black cable ties come in a pack of 10 which should be plenty unless you live in Buckingham Palace. If you encounter a drain spout that's too wide for the 14" cable tie, use two cable ties per drain spout. First, freeze the cable ties.
Place all cable ties in the freezer overnight (about 12 hours). Remove them the next day and allow to thaw to room temperature. Secure one black cable tie snugly around each drain spout at a point approximately one foot up from the bottom opening of the pipe near the ground.
After all cable ties are in place go listen to some favorite recordings.
Just another reminder of why I’m glad that he’s gone.
Is there a slight possibility that his humor was over your head? I agree with oregonpapa who mentions above "Personally, I miss Geoff. He was a laugh-a-minute kind of guy."
Geoff Kait -- Aerospace Engineering (theoretical fluid dynamics and propulsion, statistical thermodynamics, nuclear physics, indeterminate structures). Undergrad thesis: Preliminary design of low-thrust engine for interplanetary travel utilizing momentum transfer mechanisms in highly magnetic metal crystal bombarded by high-energy ions. Work experience: satellite operations; radar data analysis; aerodynamics of high-performance aircraft; reentry vehicle dynamics; radio communications; satellite communications; spread spectrum communications.
You guys knock Geoff, but some of his tweaks really worked. Take the cable tie tweak on the downspouts for example. I tried it. Unfortunately, I forgot to put the cable ties in the freezer before installing them on the downspouts. This caused the system to sound too warm. Way too tubey. I had to remove all of the ties and start over. At that point, everything fell into place. I found it sounded even better with a light application of PPT TC placed on one side of the cable ties.
Personally, I miss Geoff. He was a laugh-a-minute kind of guy.
I had fun reading some of his posts. I get the impression he really does not like audiophiles and built his whole persona to take advantage of them. I can sort of see the justice in that :-)
I have a feeling Geoff is experimenting not with the technical side of sound reproduction, but the perception side. “Listening” to music, at its highest level, is primarily a function of two things:
1. The pressurized waves of air in the room 2. The ears and brain decoding the waves
Geoff’s tweaks are not related to #1. Ties on spouts are not going to change the waves. BUT, that’s not to say that ties on spouts or photos in freezers can’t affect factor #2, how those waves are perceived. If you expect something to sound better, and you then perceive that it does sound better, then yes it actually DOES sound better! All we have is our own perception, which makes up the entirety of what each of us experiences as “real.” This kind of perception tweak won’t work for everyone...but then again some tweaks to actual components also don’t make an audible difference some of the time for some people. This is a different kind of snake oil. If Geoff were making outrageous claims based on science, it would be far more disingenuous. But as it stands, he’s saying “hey do these weird things and then listen to music and LOOK FOR changes,” which is a really good way to alter your end of the function of listening.
"You're not seriously hoping for a positive feedback? I don't believe you'll find my name on the list. If you put a just born piglet in an eagle's nest and it didn't get eaten but nurtured instead, would it fly when it jumped if you believe it would?"
Good point. One that demonstrates folks believe what they choose to believe. Of course you can come up with ridiculous examples to make it appear you're a fellow who cannot be easily fooled.
You're not seriously hoping for a positive feedback? I don't believe you'll find my name on the list. If you put a just born piglet in an eagle's nest and it didn't get eaten but nurtured instead, would it fly when it jumped if you believe it would?
Ok Bander. I might be dumb but you don't know how dumb until you try colored ties for your self. Take that boy. Now here is a tweek I just learned for systems that are to cold and sterile. At about 35 degrees and below outside, take your shirt off and go outside. Walk around for about 5 minutes until after you can't take it anymore. Come straight to your sound system and listen. Just see how much warmer you stuff sounds and feels. Trust me thats a winner, works every time. Discalimer-I am a dealer for that tweek. Notice there is a 100 percent guarantee behind it that it will work. So if you feel like paying me for it just let me know and I will tell you all the solid scientific principles involved and give them fancy names so you know you will be getting more than your monies worth.
The Photos in the Freezer Tweak is a controversial audio tweak first described by Peter and May Belt of PWB Electronics. The Photos in the Freezer Tweak is often used by your common garden variety troll or tweakaphobe as the epitome of a tweak totally without merit, a tweak so unrelated to the audio signal and so preposterous anyone who would even consider such a tweak must be one desperate son of a bitch.
The way this works is you get two photos of yourself, a recent one and an older one, say from 20 years ago or whatever. Place each photo in a separate clear ziplock bag. Using any fine point Red pen, e.g., Sharpie, write the following three messages on BOTH sides of each ziplock bag:
Your name - first initial + last name - as you would write it on a check. Example: G. Kait > O.K.
Then below that write exactly,
'x = Present Time
Then below that write exactly,
'x26'x
After writing the three messages on both sides of each ziplock bag and BEFORE placing them in the freezer, pick out one or two tracks you are very familiar with and listen to them to get a feel for how they sound. Then place the ziplock bags in the freezer. Listen to the tracks again, no need to wait until the photos are frozen. Keep the photos in the freezer as long as you want. Amaze your friends -- taking the photos out of the freezer will degrade the sound, putting them back in will improve the sound.
Geoff, I don't want to talk myself into anything here. Do black socks on the drain pipes work or no? Brand new, never worn. Should I wear them first? How long? Should I wash them? What's the photo in the freezer tweak?
I'm psyched.Can't wait for the Home Depot to open.To think that changing the colors of the plastic ties might make a difference is plain dumb, but it makes sense that doubling up on the ties could have an additive affect. I'm of the more is better camp. I'll get back with the results after a good 48 hours of burn in. YMMV.
"OK so a plastic non-conductive device placed around a non-related, non-electrical object is an audio tweak?"
Here we go again. Geez, so now you're going tell me that only conductive devices in the signal path can be defined as real audio tweaks? Have you by any chance been living in a cave in Borneo for the last twenty years? By your "logic" all the mossback tweakaphobe scamps out there would dismiss out of hand tiny bowl resonators, any kind of resonator, SteinMusic Harmonizer and Magic Stone, Shakti Stone, Mpingo discs, anything with the word Quantum in the name, electron microscope stands, things that are just too damn small to do anything (like fuses), anything with the word Magic in the name, Schumann frequency generators, anything even remotely involving crystals, anything not in the signal path, anything you can't DIY with something from Home Depot or sand and things you can't find out all about on Wikipedia or Electronics 101.
"How many people do you think have actually put a photo into the freezer???"
More than you would think. In fact, Art Dudley, the conservative old school reviewer over at Stereophile Magazine, tried a long distance version of the photos in the freezer tweak with Mike Fremer earlier this year as part of his article on the Belts. The long distance version of the PITFT is based on an article I wrote 10 years ago. Carl Clark reported on the photos in the freezer tweak in Positive Feedback quite a few years ago in her article on freezing CDs. Now, if you're asking how many pseudo skeptics who don't believe anything they didn't learn in high school have put a photo in the freezer then I susepct you're right - nobody! Geez, people must be afraid cameras are going to steal their souls. HA!
In my early twenties my friends and I were enjoying a party about this time of the year, nice and cold with about a foot of snow on the ground. One of my inebriated friends was told that if he would strip down and run around the house buck naked one time he would receive a specific pharmaceutical somebody had. He removed his clothing and out the back door he went. We locked the door. By the time he got back around he was pretty damn cold, and now getting angrier by the second. It didn't take him long to go around front and try that door...which was locked also. Now he's really pi$$ed and is starting to yell at us, not thinking about the neighbors, who are now becoming aware of the situation. I almost pi$$ed my pants I was laughing so hard. We finally felt sorry for him and let him in. Talk about pink! He didn't think it was very funny. Oh yeah, he didn't get that pharmaceutical he was after. True story.
What does this have to do with anything? Nonsense.
"It is common in debates about controversial tweaks for "believers" to say to "skeptics" something like "you can't say it doesn't work if you haven't tried it."
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