Tweaks, rip-offs and snake oil in high-end audio

Posted by Daniel Stout on Sat 22 Dec 2007 at 11:33 PM

Music has always been a part of me. Starting with piano lessons in the third grade, I’ve always enjoyed making and listening to music. In the fifth grade, I started buying LPs (Weird Al and Herbie Hancock mostly) and have always enjoyed the vinyl format. With the analog production of music – whether coming from a piano or a turntable – there is a lot one can do to improve the sound. When you’re used to playing on upright, studio pianos, and then suddenly you’re playing on a Steinway concert grand, it blows you away. And less significantly, switching to a higher grade moving-coil cartridge on a turntable can make significant improvements in the sonics.

The one thing that has disappointed me about high-end audio though is the amount of snake oil out there. In junior high, I used to go to this shop called Salon One Audio. They specialized in American manufacturers. I used to love going there. At some point, I discovered an area in the front of the store where they had “tweaks,” that is, little devices, gadgets and whatnot that had the express purpose of improving the sound of your audio equipment. That’s when I first came across Sonic Circles, or whatever they were called in the ’80s.

As you can see from that link, they’re still sold. Ten rings for $10. It’s a thin plastic ring that adheres to the top of a compact disc. What do they claim the rings can do? Well, you will hear “added clarity as well as deeper, more natural, bass and mid-range.” And here’s where I’ll make a significant distinction. While some tweaks for analog reproduction do have a little effect, audio tweaks purveyed from high-end audio retailers for digital formats are pure snake oil. That these rings have been sold for 20 years doesn’t indicate that they work, it indicates that there are a lot of stupid people out there.

I say that simply because there is only one metric to measure a tweak for a compact disc. That is, because it’s a stream of bits (0’s and 1’s), the only possible tweak is one that enables the disc to be read with higher accuracy. The sound of a CD is affected by the quality of the D/A conversion process (digital-to-analog). The notion that adding mass to a CD will produce more natural bass, etc. is inherently false and deceptive. If they said, it reduces read errors by 0.005%, I might say it has some effect. But you know what? There is no effect from these rings. They won’t reduce read errors, and there is no data that proves they do.

It’s a clear misrepresentation of how digital formats work. The compact disc is read by a laser. Either that data stream is accurate or there are errors. And in terms of minor errors the stream is self-correcting – there are checksums built into the spec. More major read errors result in skipping, which I’m sure you’ve heard from a CD player at some point.

For our second exhibit, we increase the price tag considerably. Instead of spending $10, how about spending $1,800 for a Furutech DeMag Demagnetizer. You can use it on LPs, which I suspect has no effect on playback. But they also bill it for demagnetizing your CDs and DVDs. (I am suppressing laughter.) First of all, have you ever noticed a magnetic effect from your CDs? Small metal objects attracted to your CDs? No, of course not. Doesn’t happen. Anyway, let’s play along.

So what will the Furutech do? It will produce “great increases in clarity, transparency and extension” on your demagnetized CDs. If you haven’t noticed, those are meaningless words. They use words of imprecision because it has no effect. Again, we have to ask the question: does demagnetizing your CDs cause them to be read more accurately? Remember, it’s one’s and zero’s floating through – there’s no physical contact of the media coming through. Another approach is to ask the reverse: does a magnetized CD (if such a thing were to exist) cause the CD transport to read the disc less accurately? That is, what effect would a magnetic field have on the laser?

As another example of this I offer you the Acoustic Revive RD-3. On this CD demagnetizer they claim that you will hear “better tonality, a wider, taller and deeper soundstage and more air between instruments.” This one costs only $389. (Sarcasm.) Again there is no language that it will improve the accuracy of the laser reading the disc. You will hear more “air” – specifically, in your wallet.

Despite these clear abuses of the buyers of high-end audio gear, there is still a lot to like. As I’ve mentioned before on this blog, I’m thrilled by the revival of the LP and turntables. I upgraded my turntable about five years ago, and I’m glad I did that because there is so much more software available to play on it.

The only real measure of audio gear though is how it sounds. If it sounds good to you, that’s the important thing. Once in a while, you’ll find a salesperson in a high-end audio store who won’t sell you snake oil, but in the end, even the nicest guys are there to make a sales goal. It pays to do research, and definitely don’t do your research in the store. If the shop you go to allows it, get a loaner, and bring it home and listen to the gear yourself. That’s the only real test. With the salespeople ready and eager to walk off with thousands of your dollars, it’s good to be skeptical.

Tags: demagnetization · digital formats · high-end audio · snake oil · stereo equipment · tweaks

This weblog is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
Validation: XHTML 1.0 Strict • CSS 2.1 • Atom 1.0