Capacitor Sound

[km6xz]

Where do you find all these scams?
Well, at least this guy's caps...surely he does not make custom caps but only rebrands mass production caps....he has not kept up with the high end esoteric market, instead of whole kits of 6-10 caps for various amps for $20-50 he could get more believers if they were $2000-5000 a kit. The big advantage to snake oil with amp parts is that no one can do AB tests with substituting the magic parts in place of the terrible factory parts since it takes a while to make the switch and humans can't remember sounds more than fractions of seconds. Of course the golden ears claim otherwise but what they remember is their impression of the sound, not the sound. The further fallback is that now everyone is convinced that they have to burn in the caps for 100 hours or more which gives enough time to cash the checks and have the money in their accounts.
Little do the true believers realize is that moving the listeners head a couple inches changes the sound a couple orders of magnitude more than any cap or magic resistor could possible impact the sound. Just bizarre I say...

The worst part is that these people are missing the whole point of music. It is like visiting a museum or gallery and viewing a oldmaster at 1 inch with a magnifying lens and arguing about brush fibers. For the price of just one of those interconnect cables they could fly anywhere in the world for the best live performances in real human experienced acoustic spaces. But those hi-fi and guru guitar amp guys never really listen to real music I suppose because no reproduced music could be confused with the real thing. Place a unsuspecting 5 year old behind a curtain and 100% they would easily pick out which music was produced by instruments in the room versus by any sound system ever built.
I do not even have a stereo system anymore....I have 54 world class concert and opera houses within walking distance of my apartment, several top flight jazz clubs filled with really knowledgeable jazz fans, 7 nights a week, for 200 rubles a ticket($6). Hi-fi systems are really lame compared to the actual experience. I would much rather listen to interesting but not polished live rock or blues than any recording, so don't have time for the impersonation of reality. I would rather listen to blasting DJ sets from the dance floor, surrounded by dozens of beautiful girls, working on a sweat for hours than all the fine classic pop or rock every recorded on a $1,000,000 sound system. The sound is not important on the dance floor, the act of being, is.

I do not watch TV either, there is too much to do that is making life than watching, passively, some Hollywood hills writer's interpretation of life.
Ever notice how those who stress over insignificant details of "their sound" have nothing interesting to express musically? It is a dodge to get out of being evaluated for things they are not confident in or skilled in. Real players, play. What or with what makes little difference to them or their audience. None of the top guitar players I've worked with in the studio stressed as much about gear as their wannabe neighbors. Their "tone" is in their expression, and their style(s).

[tedmich]

Where do you find all these scams?

I search them out, I am a scientific professional and get my fill of quantification and regimented practices at work, thus I revel in the experiential and freeing nature of music and cooking and am perplexed and amused by those who NEED to put these experiences through an ill fitting model. Even scientists (good creative ones at least) can't be as dogmatic as these people! Life is for living, not (just) theorizing, although sometimes there are bills to pay...

Happy is the goal; congratulations on your quest!

[soundguruman]

The people who bash using high quality parts, and say there's no difference...
are generally tone deaf, have no musical experience, and can't tell the difference (could not hear it if they wanted to).

This is why it's such a shame that there are so many techs, fixing guitar amps, who have no clue what a guitar amp is really supposed to do. It turns on, passes a sine wave, that's good enough. All parts and tubes are the same, etc...etc...no difference between them.
(you tone deaf tech guys keep me in business, thanks)
Except that the real guitar players can tell the difference. The real hi fi enthusiasts can hear the difference too.

[Steve Conner]

Here's a $65,000 pair of speakers while we're boggling. Vivid Audio G1Giya loudspeaker | Stereophile.com

Stan I think you are preaching to the choir here. As an engineer, I like nice toys, especially if I can claim they are "tools". I can appreciate something that looks great, has awesome build quality, or whatever. (Of course as a Scotsman it has to be value for money too! )

But as an amateur musician and music lover, I have to agree that it doesn't really matter. Music is a kind of language, and obsessing over the reproduction quality of it is a confusion of levels, because the real message isn't on that level. Or maybe it is, depending on the genre. If I went to a club for some house or drum'n'bass, I'd be disappointed if they didn't have a monstrous sound system that shook the place. But "amount of bass" is a real measurable parameter, it has nothing to do with cast silver capacitors and so on.

The last gig I went to was a Scottish post-rock band who shall remain nameless. They managed to be stunningly loud with an expensive line-array PA rig and two mountains of bass bins, and yet the experience was pretty dull. I mainly went because the Smashing Pumpkins were sold out.

[J M Fahey]

soundguruman said:

(you tone deaf tech guys keep me in business, thanks)

Sure, thatīs why thousands of our dissappointed clients are filling miles long queues at your shop (sorry .... shrine) door for you to correct our errors.
Last time I googled your town, heard that the City was building a new International Airport and 4 new Hotels to handle all those Overseas Customers.

Thanks, you made me laugh.
Happy 2012 for you too.

[hasserl]

The people who bash using high quality parts, and say there's no difference...
are generally tone deaf, have no musical experience, and can't tell the difference (could not hear it if they wanted to).

This is why it's such a shame that there are so many techs, fixing guitar amps, who have no clue what a guitar amp is really supposed to do. It turns on, passes a sine wave, that's good enough. All parts and tubes are the same, etc...etc...no difference between them.
(you tone deaf tech guys keep me in business, thanks)
Except that the real guitar players can tell the difference. The real hi fi enthusiasts can hear the difference too.

Well, I play regularly, and have for a few decades, I think I have some experience, and I am a real guitar player. And I can still hear quite well and I know various classic amp circuits and have fine tuned quite a lot of them. I think I know good tone. But I am squarely in the skeptics corner when it comes to mojo caps and other high end audio parts. I think skepticism is the wise and healthy approach to take with all of this, and so far the mojo parts supporters have been exceptionally weak on providing any objective evidence to support their claims. Instead of insulting people, why don't you be the first and do it?

[km6xz]

I think you should do quite well if all us tone deaf techs and engineers can't satisfy the lofty sensibilities of REAL guitar players.
But the wall of gold and platinum records awards and top talent clients, for 45 years, that apparently do not have your refined taste, seems to do just fine pleasing a more important audience, the fans who are moved by, inspired by, or emotionally energized by the results.
What keeps you in business is snake oil and gullible people who are looking for easy ways to avoid needing to be talented and having something worthwhile to say. Remember, we have all read some of your posts and pronouncements and probably more than a few of us laughed or at least chuckled at the non-sense.
When your clients succeed in testing in real double blind tests they might find that belief and suggestion are powerful, but easily deluding things. Hi-end parts gurus, cult religions and patent medicines all trade on the same gullibility of susceptible people. The only differences are the buzz words and goal of extracting as much money as possible from their vict......clients.

[J M Fahey]

The funniest part is that the most important amplifiers in the World, the ones that radically changed Music and the way we perceive it forever , namely Fender, Marshall and Vox, which rightfully carry the highest MOJO of them all, properly earned, were commercial amps which used regular, off the shelf parts.
In fact, "the cheapest ones which would adequately do the job" , go figure.
NONE , NONE , NONE of them used "premium" parts. Period.