Rickresource Rickenbacker Forum

rickfan60 wrote:Yeah. The one-size-fits-all harmonic compensator. If that was that simple the folks from Santa Ana would have done it themselves. It is snake oil, plain and simple. Just like cold fusion and Teflon engine oil treatments. Bunk.

I definitely am in agreement on this. (somebody posted not too long ago that you could sell anything to golfers and guitarists.

Back then, you made claims, offered a money-back guarantee, and banked the lion's share. Mail order was slow, feedback slow to nonexistent due to no internet.

This really hasn't changed...but what has changed is the level of so-called "documentation" or "research" required. You could probably sell quite a few of these today, with a skewed "scientific report", not that Mr. Pittman would do this.

As we've discussed before, the area of high-end consumer audio is still filled with this sort of stuff. Want to spend $52K for a pair of speaker cables? They're glad to take yer cash, and tell you that your ears will be able to tell the difference immediately.

I felt a bit skeptical when I paid $157.00 for some Mapleshade speaker wires for my tube system. There was a palpable difference in response and soundstage width and depth. But, would a $52K pair of cables make that much of a difference in my $5K system? I doubt it, but it would make a fun test!

The previously-weird in high-end audio tweaks, gradually moves into the mainstream. I notice lots of cable elevators in listening rooms, and my own tube amp rests on a 12" X 18" X 4" thick black granite slab. This would have been unheard of a generation ago.

Anyway, I'm off to NAMM to look at some real high-end tweaks, and tweakers, too...

jingle_jangle wrote:

rickfan60 wrote: As we've discussed before, the area of high-end consumer audio is still filled with this sort of stuff. Want to spend $52K for a pair of speaker cables? They're glad to take yer cash, and tell you that your ears will be able to tell the difference immediately.

A sucker is born everyday, and everyday he gives up his money. I have worked in professional audio/video/film all my adult life. I have never seen a high-end studio go for these over expensive cables. Monster cable! What a waste of money. Gold plated ends...what the ƒ#(&. People will spend the money if they perceive a value even if it's actually not there. Smoke and mirrors and snake oil. That's all it is.

This forum is a great place to ask questions to find the truth about these things.

beatlefreak wrote:

rikk wrote:I remember these things. They were all the rage, but I can't recall anybody actually using one of them.

Yeah - I've never seen a bass that had one installed.

I saw a P-bass with an appropriately shaped one of these in a dealer's used inventory in the mid-80s. My immediate question was: how messed up is that bass to need one of those brass things? It did look kind of cool, but in an '80s way...

Yes, gold plated ends are another bit of snake oil. I did structured video cable systems for a few years. The pro stuff (i.e. what the cable companies use in their own cable plants) is almost always iridium plated. None of the cabling I have seen (even at the head end) is gold but yet it is marketed to consumers all of the time.