£400 USB cable

I'm not sure what's worse, the fact that people are taking advantage of others by selling this crap or the fact people are gullible enough to buy it. I'm well into audio and I've spent a hefty sum of money on it over the years, but the amount of snake oil out there is shocking.
 
I remember back in the day buying expensive interconnects (well, about 75 quid) then taking the lid off my audiolab 8000a (about 500 quid) and there was literally a ribbon cable connecting the inputs to the input selector.

Total nonsense :)
 
ASA Adjudication on The Chord Company Ltd : mislead customers
  • 12 November 2014
Ad description
A website ad on www.chord.co.uk for the advertiser's audio cables, included a product description for a "Chord Sarum Tuned ARAY streaming cable". Claims included "Tuned ARAY cables appear to dramatically reduce noise levels within the systems they are used in. The result of this is music with extraordinary levels of detail, dynamics and coherence ... because of the way Tuned ARAY works; connecting a Tuned ARAY cable to the streaming device will have a dramatic effect ... Music is simply so much more coherent and involving. This can transform the sound of both WAV and FLAC files and the results with high resolution downloads are simply stunning".

Issue
The complainant challenged whether the claims about the performance capabilities of the product were misleading and could be substantiated.

Assessment
Upheld

The ASA considered that the claims in the ad were presented as objective claims that The Chord Company's cables provided better sound quality compared to other cables. Whilst we acknowledged the positive reviews from consumers and industry representatives, we considered that objective claims, such as "connecting a Tuned ARAY cable to the streaming device will have a dramatic effect" and "This can transform the sound of both WAV and FLAC files and the results with high resolution downloads are simply stunning", must be supported by objective testing which demonstrated that the cables provided better sound quality than other cables. Because we had not seen such evidence, we concluded the claims had not been substantiated and were therefore misleading.
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not, apparently, fined though
 
Was really into audio, 90's and the internet killed it for me.

Problem was it was not all Foo but so much faf went on, cottage manufacturers, cheap dvds re-cased as high end etc, sure there were some re-modelled items but so much misinformation and anger in forums.

I used, still have Mana tables, had Chord Signature, Krell, Theta etc.
Had a superb room brick walls, concrete floor n ceiling and a well balanced system. Went to the dogs when I moved to a modern house with suspended chipboard floors, plasterboard walls, L shaped room.

Wish I had a custom Quadraspire 3 wide rack but they dont have those for US width equipment. Regret a lot of cable purchases. Peeved at my krell that has all failed while spending 10 years in storage and barely being used.
Should have stuck with Japanese integrated amps n direct drive turntables etc.
 
roccles said:
This one won "cable of the year", only 800 quid and £200 per additional half-metre

https://www.audiotherapyuk.com/product/tellurium-q-black-power-cable
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It's the mains leads that really make me cringe. £800 for that but what about the many metres of cable running around the house? Connected from a consumer unit via relatively flimsy terminals, maybe even looped through half a dozen socket outlets on the way. How can the final few feet of cable make such a difference?
 
paintguy said:
How can the final few feet of cable make such a difference?
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I'm sure the way they would justify it, would be to say something like; it filters out unwanted electrical stuff, just as a Brita water filter, filters out unwanted stuff from tap water. :p

I know that is what a mains conditioner is supposed to do, but I'm sure Chord etc, could convince plenty of people with more money than sense, that a power cable can do that...
 
Dervious said:
"high-speed PTFE insulation"

:confused:
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As a chemist, I can confirm this is real. The fluorine atoms in the polymer are a special form of fluorine. They form their carbon bond incredibly quickly, leading to the polymerisation being almost instantaneous, improving upon regular PTFE's chemical properties and in turn allows for higher speed data transfer. Think of aviation fuel lines to normal fuel lines.

*The above may be 100% ****, I've had a beer. :D

Fools and their money, marketing and their bs terms.
 
Bluecube said:
Errrrr... why? That’s just plain obtuse.
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Probably because it ruins most of the "audiophile" hobby, which seems to involve investing heavily in kit, asserting some critical listening skills and then going a bit Emperor's new clothes over stuff that actually has no meaningful effect on what you can hear.

It isn't just the more obviously silly stuff like USB cables or speaker wires, it has been demonstrated for years that (given sufficient power, low THD and a linear response) most modern amps (once level matched) can't be distinguished from each other either, when it becomes apparent that all the extra money spent on say expensive DACs, Amps, CD players was in many cases for nothing then people will probably get upset and instead attack the idea of blind testing.
 
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