"Be open minded, but not so open minded that your brains fall out" - Groucho Marx
What is the Silliest Accessory You Have Ever Seen.
I was flipping through the accessory pages at the Cable Company and came up with this https://www.thecableco.com/hallograph.html You have to be kidding me. Of all the dumb, idiotic, profoundly stupid things I have ever seen. The marketing is even better! Have you seen anything worse! It is up to us to uncover these things for what they are, SCAMS.
Mike
Mike
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«If your mind dont open up the brains spills inside»- The real Groucho Marx 😁😊 «Brain without spirit is soup»- the real Groucho Marx « What is spirit anyway Groucho?» -Harpo Marx « The real ghost in the illusory rainbow»- Groucho Marx « I look at the world and my brain sieve a tree or a fruit, but it is not free lunch»-Groucho Marx «Epistemology is like salad but you need a cook»-Groucho Marx «How can i imitate you Groucho?»-Chico Marx «Try to think while sleeping and dont wake up»-Groucho Marx «You cannot think sitting on a branch»-Groucho Marx «And eating my banana?-Zeppo Marx «Thinking is the prisoner walk inside or the jailer walk outside, pick your choice but dont sit»-Groucho Marx « Laughter replaces the brain only in hiccups»-Groucho Marx «Too much bananas»-Zeppo Marx |
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I fell for the Walker Audio Talisman mainly because I read stellar review from what I thought were reputable sites like 6moons, Positive Feedback, Dagogo, etc At least for me, it does absolutely nothing. It doesn’t even eliminate static. Oh well live and learn. At least I could return it. https://walkeraudio.com/product/talisman-magnetic-optimizer/ |
Dear friends : Due to its not justified high price this could be part of the " silliest..... " because the seller took advantage of the very poor knowledge levels some audiophiles have. Of course that an owner that already spend that kind of money needs to justify one way or the other his " silliest " item utility. Is silliest because if we own 2 or even 3 tonearms the best alternative is 100 dollars MINT LPprotractor that is a custom made to specific tonearm we own. Nothing beats the MINTLP and that " silliest " accesory neither. I think that in some time all of us bougth " silliest " accesories that just were a scam ( like what happened with @aj523 with that Talisman item. ) and many of us did it/lived that kind of experiences more than once and the only advantage with those kind of experiences is that we learn the lessons. Regards and enjoy the MUSIC NOT DISTORTIONS, R. |
aj523215 posts01-24-2021 10:55amI fell for the Walker Audio Talisman mainly because I read stellar review from what I thought were reputable sites like 6moons, Positive Feedback, Dagogo, etc At least for me, it does absolutely nothing. It doesn’t even eliminate static. Oh well live and learn. At least I could return it. My wife is reading a book right now that explores this concept of how humans tend to default to assuming "true", i.e. default to assuming what they are being told is true. Absent the knowledge to know otherwise, it is not surprising to see how people react to things. |
Rauliruegas, you have never made more sense and you are absolutely right. I certainly have fallen for a few things over the years. The best teacher is experience. Audio2design, also true. The default mode is trust vs not trust. That is why big tech and the media have become so dangerous. Our default mode has to be "not trust." Humans are just too dangerous. Just look at your email in the morning. How much of it is people trying to scam you. How many people do you trust with your wallet, your car, your kids. A hand full maybe, mostly family. Otherwise it is safe to assume every human is out for themselves. In the words of Layne Staley. " Why does it have to be this way." |
My wife is reading a book right now that explores this concept of how humans tend to default to assuming "true", i.e. default to assuming what they are being told is true.Incredible coincidence indeed... My wife read a book about the fact that human always think "absolutely" true what they think is true, coming from others or not.....Imagination for most people is equated with untrue or impossible or ficticious...The human brain frame itself in jail....This framing comes from education but is reinforced by ourself .... Almost all inventions were reputed impossible before being created... Almost all so called common sense of human life are contradicted by some fact also... Is it possible to live without eating? Is it possible to levitate? Is it possible to read the future? is it possible to ressuscitate? Can we think about mathematic all our life almost without brain matter (hydrocephalus case)? Is human memory could be virtually without limits? Is the infinite a possibility or an imagination of some fool? Imagination is the ground of poetry and science and the mother of invention.... The father is a reason open to an infinite reality and not closed to it.... Religion and most of what people call "science" is business faith or institutional dogmas....Money and power indeed.... True science is creativity.....True spirituality is absolute freedom..... How much of it is people trying to scam you.This is ridiculous and even more pathetic philosophy indeed...Being cautious dont means we must eliminate most of humanity for being unreliable and all tweaks because they are a priori unreliable also ....😁 In regard to "tweak" or any audio product, if i dont create one for myself i read about and decide or not to try it....It is not much a question of trust, more of convenience.... All audio products are not inspired by monster scammer exploiting credulity....They are sell in good faith and for me most of the times they are too costly anyway.... The real question then is : the ratio increase in S.Q. /price for a specific audio system.... But deciding a priori to mistrust everyone and everything is ridiculous.... The real scams in audio are most of the times very easy to spot....The problem of tweak is not the idea behind the tweak most of the times, it is the high price in money which is asked for... I replicate and improve probably at peanuts cost a very interesting "tweak" the Argent roomlens in one hour.... And some here without even knowing what it is dump it in the useless file tweak.... I replicate what i could replicate and guess what: my audio system is completely transformed at no cost..... I prefer to sell creativity at no cost than fears and stupidity at all cost...... «The greatest deception come from our fears not from our neighbours»-Anonymus Smith |
In part what I posted on the Thiel thread. Not this part though.. If you want to understand how waves interact check out the link below..and yes this does totally relate to the not silly but smart Hallograph and The not silly but smart Argent Room Lens and to an overdamped room and foam and fiberglass and any floor material and dry wall and glass Oh and all the bad that 90 degree angles inflict on our ears. Any single material boundary can swamp and overwhelm the sound of another material and its boundary.. From the International Atomic Energy Agency below. I found this years ago and forgot and found it again recently. I want to post this on other threads as it will describe how particle waves react with each other and their material boundaries. https://www.ndt.net/forum/files/ut--.pdf Look to pages 38 to 41 or so. What is described is how and what we hear and how different materials and shapes sound the way they do. I want to thank a lady Debbie Miles, a seismologist for 40 years, she has greatly influenced my venture into how materials and shapes interact and their influence on what we hear.. Tom |
Oh and all the bad that 90 degree angles inflict on our ears.One of my acoustic controls recommendation is the use of polihedral flowing surface for each corner of the ceiling.... 😁 The room lens worked indeed for me and inspire me one of my best idea about the Helmholtz Fibonacci organ or room tuner and that work very well.... ... Thanks to you.... I must wait to replicate the hallograpgh tough.... Great post thanks.....I will read the info....Wow the book look very good.... Hundred thanks! |
@roxy54 Your ability to focus on music improves when you have no visual input. It is why we have had so many totally blind fabulous musicians. You transfer sonic interpretation to the visual cortex at the back of your brain. Proven fact. If your system does not sound better with your eyes closed you have work to do. |
"If your system does not sound better with your eyes closed you have work to do." mijostyn, I truly have empathy for your past coworkers and friends. You are the archetypal inflexible know-it-all. Just because science favors lights-out doesn't mean others can't process musical input just as effectively with the lights on. |
Narrow mind are unable to understand subtleness of phenomena... Music is easy to focus on eyes closed for all people, but opening eyes modify the relation we entertain with imaging....I said modify not necessarily improve... Then listening eyes opened can make sense ....To accentuate not the perception of timbre (eyes closed is better) but for modifying our relation with imaging, in particular our relation between sound and our body location .... It is not science, i will let narrow mind think they speak for science itself, it is only my experience in my listenings experiments.... |
I agree with myself twice.. eyes open and eyes closed. Eyes Open gives you a sense of space and proportions to other objects in the room When I sense that my stage is slightly left or right and then adjust the balance the vocalist in the center ...half of that image is taller than the other half. Strange but true. I then re center the balance control the center image comes together in height. Tom |
Dear @mijostyn : ""
Music always sounds better with the lights out "" That could means that when you attended to a music hall where always ligths are on at the stage and you are listening say the Beethoven 9th are you listen all the score with your eyes closed? If yes, then you are very well trained about but please tell me which specific and critical differences for the " better " can we achieve and listen in true if any? Human been brain is almost unknowed in its whole " operation " and how " react " against any single every kind of stimulation to any of our senses. If we close the eyes inmediatly our brain " produce " several kind of " images " that could me different every time we do it and depends on our age and all the information the brain has in " stock " information accumalated at each single milsecond of all those aged years. How can we avoid those facts for the brain can't do that and concentrates only and only in what we are listening/music when we are so sensitive to any stimulation even other kind of very tiny noises that always exist at our place? Btw, scientific evidence says no one knows not even 20% of the human been brain. We can't predict its behavior. R. |
Rauliruegas, you bet. Most of time my eyes are closed. Some people are entertained by watching the musicians. I am not. I prefer to take in the musical event. This is at classical concerts only. At rock concerts the sound is mono at best and very loud. There is now usually a light show worth watching not to mention the antics of the musicians. Roxy 54, you have no understanding of the neurosciences. I do not know it all. I just usually know my limits unlike some people so, it seems like arrogance but it is not. You can pick out audio details better without visual interference. It is just the way we are wired. This explains some of the brilliance of some musicians like Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles and Art Tatum. You can argue all you want but the sun rises in the east and sets in the west and there is not a darn thing you or anyone else can do about it. Now, you can listen to music with your eyes open all you want, most people do, but if you want to tune your system to the highest level you need to close your eyes and concentrate on exactly what the system is doing down to minute detail. Many people do not know how good a system can get because they have not heard high end systems set up correctly. They have no basis for comparison. Many if not most concerts are not a good comparison. Classical concerts and acoustic jazz quartets make wonderful comparisons. Concerts where you are close up to acoustic instruments. String quartets are perfect. Beethoven's early and middles Quartets by the Quartetto Italiano are perfect for comparison to the real thing. Another favorite is Cherubini's Quartets by the Melos String Quartet. Some popular music can be recorded as if the instruments were naturally layered out in front of you but most are surrealistic and can not be used for critical evaluation of a system. When listening to a live string quartet my eyes are closed for most of the concert. I am listening to the individual instruments and the interplay between them. Listening to a string quartet is like watching great figure skaters. You can't keep your eyes closed at a Nine Inch Nails show. Your eyelids are blasted back over your ears. No, really you would miss half the show with your eyes close. At home there is nothing to see. You need to put on something like Weather Reports Mysterious Travelers, turn off the lights and let it wash over you at 95 dB. Quite an experience, an event in your own home. |
Like usual you miss the point.... Nobody contest the fact that listening with closed eyes improve concentration... You are contested about negating the fact that listening sometimes eyes open, VARYING the closing or the opening of the eyes made us perceive the imaging differently, especially in the dark... I listen eyes open in my dark room and it is better for imaging perception because in this way you own the advantage linked to the fact of not being distracted and you perceive the imaging better because you eyes are open in the dark room and you are more conscious of your body location in relation to the music... Reality is always more subtle then what we can proclaim or negate.... I just listen, writing this now eyes open, Haydn quatuor, my imaging is so good i dont even need to close the eyes... «Sometimes dark, sometimes light, always colors»- paraphrasing Goethe |
Raul, with modern imaging techniques we know a lot more about the brain's function than you think. Most of the research is centered around Alzheimer's disease. When you stimulate the brain a certain way specific areas of the brain light up showing they are functioning at a higher rate than other parts. We have known what areas of the brain usually do under normal circumstances for a long time. It is what happens under unusual circumstances that is interesting like what happens to your hearing when your eyes are closed. If you have been blind from a young age almost your entire visual cortex, the occipital lobes in the back of your brain are donated to hearing. These areas are three times larger than the area usually used for hearing in the left temporo-parietal lobe. Obviously most musical geniuses have their vision but there are blind musicians that are just extraordinary like Stevie Wonder. You need to listen to him when he was 12 ears old! He was called Little Stevie Wonder back then. There are recordings of his early performances. Amazing. |
