Audiophiles are a very gullible bunch. In search of the last bit of fidelity, they will spend stupid amounts of money on absolutely ridiculous accessories and useless tweaks. They will believe the techno babble passed off as fact and science on website and forums. There are hundreds of these products and many dozens of websites selling audio enhancement products. And somewhat surprisingly, there are major websites, record companies, audiophile societies, and magazines providing bogus reviews and testimonials in the hopes of getting a piece of the action. <\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there are far less sites reporting on these rip offs. The fundamentalists and true believers continue to spend their hard earned dollars on things that have absolutely no scientific basis or sonic benefit. As someone that has spent the majority of my life trying to actually move the recording arts forward, it’s very disturbing when I read reviews and product announcements for things that are total BS.<\/p>\n
Why are the people promoting and selling these things still in business? Are audiophiles just that blind that they refuse to see the foolishness behind virtually all audiophile accessories?<\/p>\n
This topic came back around because I belong to a few Linked In groups concerned with High-End audio. There was posting there by the thread starter asking members to share a little bit about themselves to the group. Many individuals did so…including Geoff Kait, the CEO at Machina Dynamica, a company the sells audiophile tweaks online. You can get an idea of the types of products he sells by visiting his website or just typing in Machina Dynamica in a Google search. While you might think this is a joke, it’s not. It would be funny if not for the fact that there are real people spending real money on his products including the Animal Magnetism Cable Collars for ICs and Power Cords at $80 for a set of 8, Brilliant Pebbles for only $14.50 (Half price sale), and the highly reviewed Intelligent Box and Intelligent Card (shame on you 6 Moons!).<\/p>\n
The techno babble that accompanies the Intelligent Chip is worth the read, “The Intelligent Chip works quantum mechanically via coherent quantum superposition and quantum entanglement. Two coherent light sources (the CD player laser and the quantum dots in the Intelligent Chip) interact with the atoms in the CD’s polycarbonate layer to produce long-lasting, superior optical transparency for better optical signal to noise ratio during the laser-reading process. The active material in the Intelligent Chip is quantum dots – artifical [his spelling] atoms grown in the lab tuned to emit photons of a pre-determined wavelength.<\/p>\n
In the case of the original Intelligent Chip, CD laser light escapes the player through a number of small holes and narrow gaps in the CD player case. The emitted photons from chip commingle with the CD laser light that is everywhere in the room and inside the player; the commingled light resonates with the CD’s polycarbonate material, improving its optical performance. In the case of The Super Intelligent Chip, the process occurs entirely inside the CD player where all the interactions are more intense.” <\/p>\n
Is there anyone on the planet that would buy this explanation? <\/p>\n
This is the world of Bybee tweaks, spray on “enhancers”, and lots of other “snake oil” products. Can’t we just get past this stuff?<\/p>\n
When questioned by a music technologist about reviewing the products, Mr. Kaitt replied, ” All testing information is proprietary. Performance data is also proprietary. All information that we deem relevant is published on Machina Dynamica’s website.”<\/p>\n
Geoff Kaitt is a member of the same Linked In group as me. Here’s how he describes himself:<\/p>\n
“Geoff Kait
\nCEO at Machina Dynamica
\nMachina Dynamica, founded 1998, snake oil a specialty. We started off with a Sub Hertz Iso platform with resonant freq. around 0.5 Hz, followed by the Clever Little Clock, Teleportation Tweak, infrared light absorber, intelligent chips, things in that vein. Latest product is the Particle Accelerator negative ion gun for CDs and cables.<\/p>\n
I got this charming paragraph from a 6 Moons review of the Intelligent Chip:<\/p>\n
The Buddha already said it: “Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense”. There are now two things we do know from personal experience. Both the Nespa and the Intelligent Chip work. Both can enhance the enjoyment of beautiful music on CD or CD\/R. We recommend you investigate these ‘tweaks’ as we did and discover their effects for yourself.”<\/p>\n
It reminded me of the item I heard on the radio the other evening about the success of Discovery’s Shark Week extravaganza. It was the highest rated in the history of the shows. And it turns out the best of the best was complete fiction. They had a real research scientist on the show and he pointed out that everything he said was taken out of context and made his statements sound like they were agreeing with the falsehoods in the show.<\/p>\n
I had the same experience with my NPR interview. I was interviewed for over an hour by their reporter…they pulled a single quote and put it right after a statement by Cookie Marenco (the piece was all about her and the high cost of her downloads) making it seem that I endorsed her approach to making recording (analog tape, DSD etc), which I don’t.<\/p>\n
Just say no to BS tweaks, avoid companies that endorse and promote this stuff and start insisting on better sounding recording. That would be money well spent\u2026and maybe put these charlatans out of business.<\/p>\n
PS The Machina Dynamica website is so poorly done, that it should be a clue to this guy’s motives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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