googe
10-04-2007, 03:46 PM
Haha, if you haven't heard of James Randi, he's a scientist and skeptic that's been doing paranormal research for quite a while. He's had a $1 million dollar bond stashed away for anyone that can demonstrate any kind of paranormal activity or abilities when they arent with their camera crew or other "helpers". Many have tried, all have failed. Now he is extending the offer to the extreme "audiophiles" that claimed a $7000 cable sounds better...
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/10/01/james-randi-calls-ou.html
http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-09/092807reply.html#i4
"Nothing amuses me more than a dust-up with an audiophile. (I still haven't mustered the gumption to ask MSNBC columnist Gary Krakow to give me a nugget of the stash he was sampling when he suggested the original Playstation is a world-class CD player after you leave it on for three days to warm up.) Now famed bullshit caller James Randi has put the screws to "Positive Feedback Online" editor Dave Clark, who claimed the "Anjou" cables from Pear Cable—just $7,250 for 12-feet!—are "very danceable."
Randi has offered his now-mythical Million-Dollar Prize to anyone can prove the Anjou are any better than wires from Monster Cable, a company that also spews plenty of audiophilic marking dreck to hawk its cables, but at least sells products at a modest ten- or twenty-times mark up, instead of Pear's hundreds."
It is a strange day when Monster Cable, that venerable high-margin profit center of audio and video retailers everywhere, seems like the the fair-minded, reasonably priced alternative :-)
In the case of the Pear Cables that Giz posted about, Kevin Lee (son of Monster founder Noel Lee) stopped by an earlier thread to comment. Rather than being critical of Pear and their outrageous BS cables, Kevin actually commiserated with them, saying "Hey Pear, welcome to the firing line :)"
Kevin generously offered to come to a San Francisco area Gizmodo reader's home and let them audition fine Monster speaker cables, but when asked said that offer was not to include the opportunity to double blind test the Monster Cables, adding:
"Scientifically, we know audible differences in cables are difficult if not impossible to measure. That's what started the whole idea in my father's head to make the first Monster Cable. As an engineer he was taught they don't make a difference beyond gauge and as an audiophile he knew it did."
While this could represent the triumph of the lone genius over the orthodoxy of science, I take it to represent someone who realized that he could leverage the fact that audiophiles think they can hear a difference even when engineering science says they can't by providing audiophiles with a range of high quality, vanity-priced products that audiophiles will "know" sounds better.
The only difference between Pear and Monster is one of degrees. They are both in the overpriced, over-hyped cable business. Pear, however, is completely shameless. But, neither Pear or monster will go anywhere a proper double blind test.
http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2007/10/01/james-randi-calls-ou.html
http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-09/092807reply.html#i4
"Nothing amuses me more than a dust-up with an audiophile. (I still haven't mustered the gumption to ask MSNBC columnist Gary Krakow to give me a nugget of the stash he was sampling when he suggested the original Playstation is a world-class CD player after you leave it on for three days to warm up.) Now famed bullshit caller James Randi has put the screws to "Positive Feedback Online" editor Dave Clark, who claimed the "Anjou" cables from Pear Cable—just $7,250 for 12-feet!—are "very danceable."
Randi has offered his now-mythical Million-Dollar Prize to anyone can prove the Anjou are any better than wires from Monster Cable, a company that also spews plenty of audiophilic marking dreck to hawk its cables, but at least sells products at a modest ten- or twenty-times mark up, instead of Pear's hundreds."
It is a strange day when Monster Cable, that venerable high-margin profit center of audio and video retailers everywhere, seems like the the fair-minded, reasonably priced alternative :-)
In the case of the Pear Cables that Giz posted about, Kevin Lee (son of Monster founder Noel Lee) stopped by an earlier thread to comment. Rather than being critical of Pear and their outrageous BS cables, Kevin actually commiserated with them, saying "Hey Pear, welcome to the firing line :)"
Kevin generously offered to come to a San Francisco area Gizmodo reader's home and let them audition fine Monster speaker cables, but when asked said that offer was not to include the opportunity to double blind test the Monster Cables, adding:
"Scientifically, we know audible differences in cables are difficult if not impossible to measure. That's what started the whole idea in my father's head to make the first Monster Cable. As an engineer he was taught they don't make a difference beyond gauge and as an audiophile he knew it did."
While this could represent the triumph of the lone genius over the orthodoxy of science, I take it to represent someone who realized that he could leverage the fact that audiophiles think they can hear a difference even when engineering science says they can't by providing audiophiles with a range of high quality, vanity-priced products that audiophiles will "know" sounds better.
The only difference between Pear and Monster is one of degrees. They are both in the overpriced, over-hyped cable business. Pear, however, is completely shameless. But, neither Pear or monster will go anywhere a proper double blind test.