Magic cables?
 

In article ,
Laurence Payne lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote:
Here's what happened
http://www.laurencepayne.co.uk/cables.html

I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me. Journalist for the likes of What Hi-Fi
rarely seem to want to conduct any form of even vaguely scientific testing.
The 'ears are all you need' brigade.

BTW, I've never seen any equipment sold with bell wire as speaker wiring.
Genuine bell wire is single core. Some *are* sold with cable of a similar
cross sectional area, though.

--
*I want it all and I want it delivered

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Magic cables?
 

I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me. Journalist for the likes of What
Hi-Fi
rarely seem to want to conduct any form of even vaguely scientific
testing.
The 'ears are all you need' brigade.

No, it's worse than that. It's possible to create a reasonable
environment even for subjective listening tests - careful AB
comparisons with equal volumes, switching between A and B at the
discretion of the listener, warm up period before critical listening,
comparable parts (bell wire - what a joke) etc etc. It seems that the
demonstration went out of its way to police the listening tests so that
none of the above were possible, therefore worthless even in terms of
subjective listening, which was no doubt the intention.

Magic cables?
 

Laurence Payne wrote:
Here's what happened
http://www.laurencepayne.co.uk/cables.html

...and lectured on the complete independence of journalists and advertising department. This
wasn't really something I cared about, but it seemed very important to our hosts, who kept
returning to the subject.

I have come across this as well. My reading of the situation is that
the many who read nonsense promoting a cable in a review may jump to
the conclusion that the magazine is being paid by the particular cable
company for the positive review. The potential downside of doing this
is pretty large and I strongly doubt it is done in any mainstream
magazine. What the magazines are doing, of course, is providing a
positive vehicle for all cable manufacturers to advertise and reaping
the advertising income by doing so.

We were treated with courtesy. Thank you for the tea. If What Hi-Fi? (or anyone else) feels like
setting up a more structured session in the future I would be very interested in taking part.
But my verdict from this session is a definite Not Proven. Worse, there was no stuctured attempt
to demonstrate cable differences. I was offered travel expenses. I think I deserved a fee for a
wasted afternoon.

Why the despond? Surely what was interesting about the afternoon was
how those with a vested interest in magic cables maintain it. I wish I
had been there. It will be interesting to see their report of the
afternoon if it appears in print.

Did you get the impression the magazine staff were being truthful or
that they were doing their job and supporting their employer at a
public event? Were they believably emotional and/or enthusiastic?

Magic cables?
 

On 8 Oct 2006 11:05:19 -0700, "Andy Evans"
wrote:


No, it's worse than that. It's possible to create a reasonable
environment even for subjective listening tests - careful AB
comparisons with equal volumes, switching between A and B at the
discretion of the listener, warm up period before critical listening,
comparable parts (bell wire - what a joke) etc etc. It seems that the
demonstration went out of its way to police the listening tests so that
none of the above were possible, therefore worthless even in terms of
subjective listening, which was no doubt the intention.

I don't think they were being devious. They just hadn't thought about
it. And the bloke detailed to set it all up couldn't care a monkey's.

Magic cables?
 

In article ,
Laurence Payne lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote:
I don't think they were being devious. They just hadn't thought about
it. And the bloke detailed to set it all up couldn't care a monkey's.

Forgot to ask - was it at my old stomping grounds, Teddington Studios?
Haymarket have taken over most of the site - although the studios are
still there.

--
*Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Magic cables?
 

On 8 Oct 2006 12:27:36 -0700, "andy" wrote:

Did you get the impression the magazine staff were being truthful or
that they were doing their job and supporting their employer at a
public event? Were they believably emotional and/or enthusiastic?

They seemed to be believers.

Magic cables?
 

On Mon, 09 Oct 2006 00:46:16 +0100, "Dave Plowman (News)"
wrote:

Forgot to ask - was it at my old stomping grounds, Teddington Studios?
Haymarket have taken over most of the site - although the studios are
still there.

Yes.

Magic cables?
 

Laurence Payne wrote:

Here's what happened
http://www.laurencepayne.co.uk/cables.html

Bloody typical.

Graham

Magic cables?
 

On 2006-10-08, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Laurence Payne lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote:
Here's what happened
http://www.laurencepayne.co.uk/cables.html

I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me. Journalist for the likes of What Hi-Fi
rarely seem to want to conduct any form of even vaguely scientific testing.
The 'ears are all you need' brigade.

BTW, I've never seen any equipment sold with bell wire as speaker wiring.
Genuine bell wire is single core. Some *are* sold with cable of a similar
cross sectional area, though.

Isn't What HiFi's "this [the bell cable] is what is provided with many
systems" a clasic piece of non-sequitur misdirection? Since when were
good bits of kit (kit good enough to *potentially* benefit from "better"
cables) sold with bell-wire-type speaker cable?

--
John Phillips

Magic cables?
 

On 2006-10-08, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Laurence Payne lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote:
Here's what happened
http://www.laurencepayne.co.uk/cables.html

I'm afraid it doesn't surprise me. Journalist for the likes of What Hi-Fi
rarely seem to want to conduct any form of even vaguely scientific testing.
The 'ears are all you need' brigade.

Indeed. In fact it's more like "*our* ears are all you need".

--
John Phillips