Audiophiles
There is no limit to the ignorance of people who, it seems, can be persuaded that speaker cables work better in one direction than the other, and that power leads give better sound quality when run in.

A friend of mine proudly told me that he'd just spent a few hundred ona connecting lead which was ... shock! ... Oxygen Free High Conductivity Copper. Wow. He was a little disappointed when I, doing research in copper conductors at the time, pointed out that OFHC copper is used to make all electrical conductors.
(ubergeekian, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 7:24, 22 replies)

I like this!
I loke this so hard I wish I could marry it and have its babies!!! The audiophile market seems to have come about just after those guys who made the Emperor's new clothes went out of business. I have heard enough half-assed technobabble from these idiots to last me three lifetimes.
*Clicked*
(Captain Placid 24/7 ball gags, brownie mix and clown porn, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 7:50, closed)

my favorite is the £50 gold plated HDMI cable
As if you could transmit bad quality 1s and 0s without a gold plated connector
(tyrellsOwl, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 8:36, closed)

See my previous comment...
I used to work on military hardware/software so have some idea about data transfer.

I must admit that a very poor cable could introduce cross-talk, and high impedance could slow down transmission rates on two-way systems, but you'd have to make a really shitty cable to notice on something as undemanding as HDMI.
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 8:43, closed)

My very favourite audiophile piece of equipment
was a set of LEDs that you attached to your cables. They would blink on and off because they were sucking out the noisy electricity that caused hiss through your speakers and turned it into light. By magic. Or because I guess the LEDs just KNEW which bits of the electric were bad.
(Spleep Shit, or get off the internet., Fri 31 Aug 2012, 8:50, closed)

Maybe
The pretty lights distract you from listening to the music properly - so you can't hear the noise!
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 8:58, closed)

wow
I must see this. Link?
(tyrellsOwl, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 13:16, closed)

My favourite was a set of knobs for an electric guitar
that claimed to reduce noise and improve the sound in various unlikely ways.

It could be believable except that they weren't electronics, they were just the [normally plastic but in this case] wooden knobs that sit on top of the actual control.

£500.

I can't find them now but I did just come across this quote about another set, to give you some perspective: "they look amazing but are a tad on the pricey side. £35!"
(MrChimp previously Monsieur, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 20:14, closed)

This. Exactly this.
Xbox 360 is hooked to my telly with an HDMI lead I got from Poundland. The picture and sound quality are both amazing.
(Penguinbert killed Ken Dodd's dad's dog, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 19:25, closed)

At an audio equipment trade show...
... I saw a gadget that took the bitstream from the CD player and sharpened up the leading and trailing edges of the pulses. "Oh yeah! Sharpening the leading edge made the high notes clearer and squaring off the trailing edge deepened the Bass response."
Had it set up with a couple of scopes and everything.
(karnuvap, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 8:02, closed)

You're supposed to say
that it "really opened up the sound stage, bringing new depth to the bass and new clarity to the treble". This applies to anything expensive.
(ubergeekian, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 10:33, closed)

I put my foot in it a few weeks ago
Telling a chap at work that someone I knew wasted money on an expensive HDMI lead. A recent test showed a £5 lead was as good as a £50 one.

He had recently bought a £50 one.
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 8:04, closed)

I'm sorry
but you can't deny that things sound better if you use Monster cables.
(username failed moderation, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 8:16, closed)

Yeah - but only
If you connect them the right way round.
(karnuvap, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 8:32, closed)

True, but...
...only if the "things" in question are actually monsters. Fact.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 17:07, closed)

How much?
I recently saw a CD player with "all silver internals" and "custom oil-filled resistors" being sold for the princely sum of £192,000. That isn't a typo, it reall is nearly two hundred grand. I imagine then you could justify £10K speaker cables...
(ScousersPet, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 9:34, closed)

Snake oil in the resistors, was it?
Good luck to them, if they can get money out of idiots that way.
(Kliper Filllets Getting noticed by twats on the internet since, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 9:44, closed)

THE OFHC guy had a friend
who in 1991 spent £20k on a pair of interconnects to link his CD player to his amplifier. That's twenty grand for two 30cm lengths of coax and four phono plugs. For that money I'd expect it to be marinated in the Pope's spunk.
(ubergeekian, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 10:35, closed)

For that money I'd expect it to be marinated in my own
naturally harvested by the ten most beautiful woman on the planet.
( The Light in Chains don't touch the Pope's boner, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 12:04, closed)

I had to buy a replacement remote for my receiver last week
It sounds twice as good now.
Trufact.
( P-MONKE We're all fucked, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 9:42, closed)

Wonderful.
Among my favourites are the bags of pebbles, the wooden volume knob, the cable elevators and The Tice Clock.
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Fri 31 Aug 2012, 17:15, closed)

The problem with all this is that all the HIFI mags know it's bollocks.
But can't prove it through a double-blind test for fear of getting blacklisted from the manufacturers.
( Slippery Mick ‏, Sat 1 Sep 2012, 0:12, closed)

And the magic pen
For drawing round the edge of CD's to stop the sound leaking out or some such bollocks
(unclestinky, Mon 3 Sep 2012, 23:43, closed)