Awesome Audiophile Snake Oil

lololololol

"The very best sound was obtained when I slightly loosened the screws on the Duplex Covers. And they sound great!!.

8]

lolololol

every product on the site is like New Hope for the Ape-Eared

i love that website! check out this fancy table: http://machinadynamica.com/machina25.htm

it's supposed to isolate your amplifier from vibrations, "especially the 0 -10 Hz variety produced by Earth's crust movement, traffic, subways, tides, etc. "

how a spring could cancel out waves slower than 1 Hz?

but the best is this "teleportation tweak"
http://machinadynamica.com/machina60.htm

everything on there is great but I'm still standing by the Tru-Tone Duplex cover as the most balls-out

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volume_12_3/marigo-labs-signature-3d-mat-7-2005.html

oh wait though codename turquoise is pretty fucking rad

Brilliant Pebbles is my favorite one on that site i think

From cidepress' link, this was amusing:

"Where most audiophiles would agree, however, is that tweaks are a minor aspect of system building. Defined by the dictionary in Microsoft Word® as "a slight adjustment or change in..."

italics mine.

http://machinadynamica.com/water.gif for brains

Somewhere, audiophile dude pushes the leather sofa away from the wall, sees four-socket outlet, shrieks.

Well, these are great, but you don't have to spend a lot of money to improve sound:

http://www.belt.demon.co.uk/Free_Techniques/Free_Techniques.html

Holy shit the Teleportation Tweak! We are dealing with <i>balls</i> here, gentlemen. Big, round, shiny balls, of finest brass, lovingly hand-polished to a mirror shine by a taskforce of brilliant Sound Artisans. These balls can be yours for the astonishingly low price of $680 (Big Shiny Brass Balls are not subject to our 30-day money-back guarantee)

it doesn't actually take any courage to be a con man, is the thing. you just have to really, really hate everybody.

The interesting thing about these tweaks is that they abandon the pretense of scientific support. Whereas w/ feet for speaker stands in Stereophile or whatever they'll be some physicist explaining how the damping works, here's it's just like, Hey, put this magic clock in the room and it'll improve the sound. I love it.

Sorry, maybe I'm Billy-doesn't-get-it, but is this site real or an elaborate spoof?

I had initially assumed spoof, but I followed some links and poked around and it appears to be real, or at least elaborate enough a spoof to include three or four different sites. Stereophile had an article on some of these tweaks a few years ago anyway:

http://www.stereophile.com/news/10415/

even if it is a spoof there's certainly enough real snake-oil products with extremely similar purposes/explanations

here's a collection of some more: http://www.ilikejam.dsl.pipex.com/audiophile.htm

i know someone who swears by this ....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=280182123367&ssPageName=STRK:MEWA:IT&ih=018

"extremely flat"

I don't even know what "a richer, fuller sound, with less emphasis of detail" means. it's supposed to be a good thing?

My latest tweak = this chair;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/Photo624.jpg

i'm actually buying a glass platter for my turntable. i might even buy that mat for it. i'm a sucka 4 luv.

actually the chair i'm assuming was a joke, but honestly i was suprised how much getting speaker stands and "correctly" positioning my chair i listen in and the speakers in the room made a HUGE difference in how good things sounded.

The chair's totally not a joke; it's expensive and comfortable and easily moved but it's not likely to make me fall asleep in it (no headrest); if I'm comfortable and awake, I can concentrate on listening more. I bought it (almost) with the sole intention of it being a 'headphones' chair.

But yeah, basic physics says position your speakers correctly and sit in the right spot; you simply don't get stereo-imaging without it.

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-the-difference-between-monster-cable-and/

...a coat hanger.

that's AMAZING.
audiophiles are some weird people, man.

actually the chair i'm assuming was a joke, but honestly i was suprised how much getting speaker stands and "correctly" positioning my chair i listen in and the speakers in the room made a HUGE difference in how good things sounded.

-- M@tt He1ges0n, Thursday, December 13, 2007 11:39 PM

totally true

actually properly treating one's room acoustically would probably do a better job than moving your chair and speakers about

is there already a company selling audiophile interior house paint?

because if there is, I should start selling audiophile EXTERIOR house paint.

(xpost)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/c/cb/Dbsts2.jpg

I was much, much less impressed with this enormous fucking Naim set-up than I should have been given how much it ought to have cost. Sure it went LOUD, but sound-wise I wouldn't swap it for my own system, I don't think.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0126.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v236/njsouthall/IMG_0128.jpg

Is it just perspective on that first photo, or are your speakers nearly at shoulder height?

Oh, no - is that a Cyrus CD player? Or tuner? And why isn't everything on Mana shelves? That's why it doesn't sound that good. And has it been on continuously for five years? Another biggie with Naimists. (Seriously, that doesn't look like a great room for those huge - and amazingly ugly - speakers).

What's the turntable - Nottingham Spacedek or something? Oracle Delphi?

mp3s out a old marantz amp someone gave me and 15 y/o bottom of the line cambridge soundworks speakers all day babay

although i did love to read sudiophile magazines when i worked at a bookstore just for the lulz

The speakers are nearly to chest height - I'm 5'8".

The Cyrus is just a DAC for his wireless streaming thing. Dunno what the turntable is. The room is big but odd; it's a loft that used to be three bedrooms. There's a (low) double bed behind the speakers, plus a desk, which is where I slept (not the desk) (although that picture was taken at 6am so sleeping wasn't exactly urgent and key that weekend).

Yeah, I really wish someone had just given me a peek into my co-habiting/flat in communal block/married-with-kids future when I was handing over the moolah for all my gear in 1996-97. I wish I'd just got something good/2nd-hand with a small footprint (Cyrus CD/integrated, ProAc speakers, something like that; maybe a Pro-Ject record deck, old Marantz cassette deck, NAD tuner, cables from Maplin) and STOPPED there. Think of all the photographic gear I could've bought with the money saved if I'd just contracted that particular hobbyist bug a decade earlier!

(Ah, DAC for wireless streaming; the Naim box-stacking is kinda insane - external power supplies for everything. Makes my Audiolab pre/mono arrangement look positively understated).

The speakers are Naim DBLs. They weigh about 15st each. Retail these days at £15k. When he got them, in 2000, they should have been £12k. He got them for £4k cos they were "shop-soiled" - the band he's in had an arrangement with Naim and they'd been using them as a playback set-up when they recorded an album in a country house, and the guitarist's dog had taken a bite out of the bottom corner of one, or something.

I'm kind of glad I've had a brush with stuff that's seriously high-end because it's warned me off a bit. Our flat's not that small, but it's a flat nonetheless, and, you know, I want stuff on the walls and holidays and a new camera and stuff maybe too.

I think my main response to audiophilia these days is that the best way to make your hi-fi sound great is to play better records on it.

actually properly treating one's room acoustically would probably do a better job than moving your chair and speakers about

How so?

the best way to make your hi-fi sound great is to play better records on it.

b i n g o

if anyone is looking for really great speakers that won't break your bank....i bought these about a year ago and couldn't be more pleased with them...they are really surprising given the price and size:

Epos ELS 3 mini monitors:

http://www.musicdirect.com/product/73457

i run them with a Cambridge Audio integrated amp w/Cambridge phono pre-amp.....

My turntable is a Rega P1 -- one thing on that i would recommend is buying a glass platter and also i replaced the original ortofon cartridge with a Denon DL 160 cartridge which is a fucking amazing cartridge for the price...

For CD player I run a really really old NAD one that I got off craigslist for $35...it works pretty well, has a hard time tracking CD-Rs but will play them after awhile (it's from 87 though so I guess there weren't even CD-Rs then)

Post more pics of slobs in garrets seasoned with with ridiculous sound systems and ugly furniture.

I really like the coffee table.

I think my favourite way / place to listen to music these days, rather than the big sofa and NAD / Cambridge Audio / Tannoy / proper rack & stands set-up in the living room, with everything anchored in a nice triangle, blah blah, equidistant from rear walls, speakers toed in, is the hotch-potch system in the back room, with the knackered Marantz CD, 20-year-old Marantz amp, DAC, and diddy Q Acoustics speakers. Cos I have space, peace, my comfy chair, books, headphones, no TV or console to distract.

Those are the kind of speakers you buy to justify having previously bought Monster Cable.

What's the sensitivity rating on those things? It might be all show, but they certainly look like they could bring on an involuntary bowel movement.

Yeah that seems outright fraudulent, and yet 14 people are watching the listing?

"the stabilizer puck" is a great name for a band.

fans of this potential band can refer to themselves as puckheads.

also yeah that's completely on brand for this thread.

Dealer is from the delightfully named Bungay

As far as I can tell, all a CD transport has to do is reliably get a very, very long string of 0's and 1's from the CD to the a digital signal processing chip (which retrieves control codes, does error correction and such) and on to the digital-to-analog converter (DAC) which turns those digital streams back into analog sound. If a CD player does that properly and reliably, a fancy transport can't improve on it. The DAC is the main component that affects sound quality, but you can put a good DAC into an inexpensive CD player (or laptop or phone) and get great sound from it.

The whole product lineup of this company is fantastic. You can see a whole system assembled on the page for the €375000 "crown jewel" speaker system.

https://www.mbl.de/en/loudspeakers/101xmk2

xpost is David Thomas talking about bass frequencies from actual instruments being distorted, or does he mean the actual low-frequency sounds produced when a needle hits vinyl? I've always believed vinyl sounds "warmer" because all the music is being filtered through that (non-musical) sound.

alright ya'll.

https://i.imgur.com/fDLskgQ.jpeg

gonna hit the contacts with some cleaner, hook this beast up, and play a piece of vintage vinyl for myself for the first time in over five ywars. i may even livestream the needledrop because i want to hear a specific song, and it's the last song on side one.

gonna go follow-up on another post, make some coffee, and will check back in later.

HOLY SHIT I AM SO EXCITED IT NEVER EVEN OCCURRED TO ME THAT THE FUCKING THING DOESN'T WORK ANYMORE GUYS WHAT IF IT DOESN'T WORK

lol. let us know what happens!

awesome

it works. just look at it

wow that amp is the best thing i've ever read

welp. it powers on. i forgot the cable that connects the amp and receiver though, so no sound just yet. going back in the morning, so hopefully able to grab the money cable and a random crate.

so here's some other photos i took in the process. hopefully you're able to zoom in on the controls there because i've actually successfully connected a third 'center channel' time delay speaker in the past and i have questions about it for those of higher knowledge than myself: is this an actual analog delay unit built in to the f'kn receiver??? because i mean look at the controls?????

https://i.imgur.com/YGFG2zs.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/8vPGp4C.jpeg

https://i.imgur.com/yJhmsvU.jpeg

substitute 'repeats' for 'density' and, after years of playing all kinds of delays, i have no question that's what that knob is doing. the repeat times are so short, it's almost like running the entire stereo in parallel, but through the old electro harmonix analogizer. it was in my dad's house and i have memories of it being my favorite toy, but one i was not allowed to play with very often. because like all analog delays, it feeds back and distorts. the other knobs ("time delay output level" and "pk unlimit") act in binary as a dynacomp type level controller. it's a wicked fun little sidequest on this thing, but last i knew the circuit was blown and any time you tried to attach anything to those speaker connections, the whole system becomes really unstable and playing a record means droning feedback at any volume.

one of the cables i looked at in the storage unit this morning and thought, "nah don't need it for today's mission" was that god damn rca->rca cable. or is it called composite? whatever, it's the same one i bought at radio shack probably in the 90s, or sometime before 9.11, and it still works last i knew. so i'm using it.

will check in here later.

woo hoo! she's a beaut

when i was more actively modding the guitar pedal jerk subreddit, the dude from chase bliss was a regular and i seriously considering contacting him several times with pictures, short descriptions, and sound demos basically saying, "hey steal this idea it's very cool and right up your alley."

but i never did.

because if it's not clear from my descriptions there: that time delay speaker will damage your hearing if you're not careful.

i have one of those little battery powered honeytone practice amps from my time unhoused and am already trying to figure a way to maybe rig that up as the "TIME DELAY UNIT."😃

there are many hobbies. this one is the one where i have the most fun, though.

oh btw, this is retro snakeoil. thanks for reading.

"retro snakeoil" is absolutely my jam, thank you for typing!

holographic injection ratio?

we all need a "sonic hologram generator" button in our lives

holographic injection ratio? Theoretical...so, off?

sounds even better IN theory. so... definitely on!

here's a short update from my live last night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOKZ_HLi3v4

tldr: we got the turntable talking to the boombox via the receiver. sounds okay for now!

jammin that hutcherson in the vanguard this morning and buster williams is absolutely in the house rn.

Extraordinary bits of kit! Looking forward to the next instalment.
And thanks for introducing me to the name Orrin Keepnews.

does peak unlimiter mean that limiting is the default and you choose to unlimit?

no clue lol. if i recorded a video of what it does, the change is so subtle that i doubt the sound capture equipment i have would be able to illustrate what it does. i have no clue how you would record/direct a recordable signal that accurately portrays what it does. but does something.

it also occurs to me that the original stereo out of box was a complete home stereo system, with custom speakers. part of this stuff might only apply to that specific setup. i would liken it to playing an old "mixed for quadrophonic" lp on a standard stereo (or even mono?) playback: sounds kind of thin (but not unpleasant) and like, you can turn the volume up a little more without shaking the walls as easily.

also it totally works. just running good old stereo. it's about 1400/2pm pst where i am right now. i brought a couple more crates of random loosies and am planning to go live on my youtube channel linked above around 17-1800/5-6pm and just flip through stuff i haven't thought about in years. have somewhat of an idea what's in there, but mostly gonna be me freaking over/babbling excitedly over some old lps. not pro, just a dude with a smartphone. no chat, no interaction, just nerd schitt.

actually the lighting setup in here is not conducive to that time of day, so we'll call it 20/8pm pst. we're gonna go through these guys, share some stories, and play a few jams.
https://i.imgur.com/UvKUvKf.jpeg

I need to get my turntable up and running. I haven't messed with my records in about a year.

yooo these updates are sending me

nothing quite like the feeling of retrieving your stereo and records from storage and getting it all set up at the new spot! i know it well

thank you. this is a long time coming. so for the moment i grabbed the copy of les mccann's layers that peeked at me from the back of one of those crates. already this is better than the album as heard on streaming because there's no haphazard fadeouts between the tracks! why did they fuck it up like that for digital?

idk where any of this falls in snakeoil btw. that time delay schitt is fried, and the board connected to the eq controls kills the left channel entirely. stereo it is.

here's the livestream archive. it went okay! i will continue doing these, but will stop spamming this thread. i added chapters, but it's just a calvalcade of records and geeking out. lots of jazz! have fun: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFibkVtGqoU

and i know we have a marketplace thread, but idk i'm not a salesman and more interested in trades or "loaners"... so if i ever mention or show anything that you're interested in or know someone that might be, say something! let's talk records!

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/_8yDjtDOx9ws/SMiK867wppI/AAAAAAAABnY/2LQHE5Ft1m0/s320/317X-2.jpg

more quads per channel

Sometimes I wonder if cartridges are quite as big a deal as they're made out to be by some people.
Reason being, I once did a side by side comparison of two cartridges I own. One was a cheap Audio Technica cartridge I got for 20 euro. The other was an old Ortofon I have that might sell for 150 or more.
I could barely tell a difference, with the same record through both cartridges recorded to my computer. Any difference was quite subtle.
That's just one example of course but it did put some doubt in my mind.

I’ve definitely noticed differences, maybe your hearing or turntable just sucks

back when i bought my sonos connect, and upgraded my amp/speakers, as well as getting some heavy duty speaker cables,
i was coerced into getting some proper connection cables to go between the sonos connect and the amp.

i grabbed these : https://chord.co.uk/product/c-line-high-performance-analogue-audio-interconnect/

a couple of days ago i found the 'instructions' which i had never taken any notice of.
turns out that they are meant to be connected in a certain manner where the C (and rest of the txt on the cable) is meant to be next to the source device (in this case the sonos connect).
of course after years of ignorance, i checked and found i had wired them the incorrect way.
surely this is snakeoil, and whichever way you connect the devices with a cable (albeit a f&cking expensive cable !), makes no difference ?

xp sorry for my jerky post, mirostones

hey friends!

i wanted to do another semi-serious post in here after living with this ancient setup for a bit. but i'm not sure if this is the right place. would it be okay to post a "review" of the stereo in here? it's probably mostly going to be me making fun of myself.

turns out that they are meant to be connected in a certain manner where the C (and rest of the txt on the cable) is meant to be next to the source device (in this case the sonos connect).
of course after years of ignorance, i checked and found i had wired them the incorrect way.
surely this is snakeoil, and whichever way you connect the devices with a cable (albeit a f&cking expensive cable !), makes no difference ?

― mark e, Sunday, October 5, 2025 12:06 PM (one hour ago)

some cables have only one end of the cable connected to ground - the theory is that (i) this potentially any ground loops you have in your system and (ii) the ground is energized by the source ground which provides better shielding (?)

yeah, but i have no grounding connections (the record deck connections kind of do) ?
when i had to use an old amp for a while during a service of the proper amp i realised that the old amp had a ground connection.
something i had never noticed before.
however, the main amp i use doesn't any such option (off to check again !).
so i guess that invalidates the whole theory re the direction of connection for my particular set up ?

pretty much every modern piece of audio equipment has a signal ground

the power component is also grounded to the outlet

the only component i can think of where grounding is optional is a turntable

https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/654c1a21d7927473aecf5875/65c2cc093db8180168b415ce_13294-53743.png

on your sonos connect the rca jacks have two points of connection to the cable - the hole inside is the signal and the metal sleeve on the outside of the rca jack is the signal ground

altho i do see that the connect has a newer fancy ungrounded ac plug

Ah !
Ta for the info.

sorry to nerd out but it's actually quite interesting, from the wikipedia for rca connectors, if you've ever had that momentary loud buzz/pop when plugging or unplugging stuff:

When connecting the male into the female, the inner, hot (signal) connection is made before the ground connection has been guaranteed; this often produces a loud buzz if the equipment is active when the connection is made.

The hot signal wire and signal ground provided by an RCA connection implement an unbalanced connection. A true balanced connection is generally preferred in certain applications, particularly professional settings because it allows for the use of long cables while reducing susceptibility to external noise.

also, if audiophiles truly gave a shit they'd just switch everything to xlr connectors / balanced audio since that provides inherent shielding and is what pros use to run audio dozens of feet without that much signal degradation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balanced_audio

NB some DAC/amp setups do try to implement a 'fully balanced' signal path, jury's out whether it offers improved audio quality...

here's the full review of the stereo:

so, the tl:dr of this is: IT STILL WORKS AND IT’S AWESOME.

i don’t know technobabble terms with regards to stereo stuff. you’d think i’d know the proper language after years of dj’ing, but nope. so, my best point of reference is guitar gear, mostly pedals. when i try to describe the audio stuff, i’m gonna use guitar pedal references. i’m not doing schtick with that; i genuinely don’t know what i’m talking about. i mean, look at the snake oil i learned on!

there’s a really important piece of relevant personal information to this set of stereo components. it’s “the sad part” as it were, and it does help with some of the exposition of the following `review`, but it’s fairly unpleasant, so it’s going here:

part of the abuse i endured as a small child involved being locked in an isolated basement by myself for 48-72 hours once per week between ages 4-6. the only good thing down there was this stereo, which was plugged in and working. i figured out how to work it because i knew no one was coming back any time soon, and that’s also where i taught myself how to play a record and work the turntable. this explains why i have had so much time to study it over the course of my entire 44 years so far.

i first encountered the carver c-4000 high fidelity control console and its copilot, the carver c-500 high slew rate laboratory standard amplifier, in the early 80s. i call them, collectively, “Si.” pronounced with a long I sound, like you would say the word “sigh”, but absolutely nothing to do with the sentiment of a real sigh. homophones that are proper names are fun anomalies. and it’s not just a name: Si, as far as i’m concerned, is a genuine anomaly.

Si has a lot going on. Si has come and gone from my radar through the years, but always returns in functioning order with diminishing returns. many of Si’s peers and, let’s be honest, imitators have come and gone all along. even to this day. i have no doubt that this is at least 60% because Si is built like a tank. if Si is dropped, you need to worry about the impact point, not Si. i am speaking from experience. please listen to me with respect to this aspect of Si: if you break these components physically, you were angry at Si, or Si’s human keeper, and decided to take very persistent intentional, and repeated actions. Si is not impenetrable, but if this thing breaks, that’s on YOU.

but again: Si has a lot going on. you saw all the buttons in the photos! they all do something, but not in Si’s current shape. if Si were Batman [ED. NOTE: and they very well might be], he would need a trip to the Batcave because he is quite battle scarred; most of Si’s utility belt has exhausted its inventory. in stronger days, the time delay peripheral was a truly enjoyable and fully working toy. with hindsight on my side, i can clearly see it as a gimmicky (maybe even annoying) add-on, the power glove or google glass of the late 70’s hifi world. i’ve tried and tried to get it working again, but like i said in my initial reassessments of Si’s current state, the board that controls all the eqs and peripherals has rust on the soldering. the signal cuts about 20 decibels and is only coming through the left channel if i try to engage any of those features. i have so much more daffy heart-eyed praise for time delay, but i have not actually gotten it to work in over a decade so i can't say any of my research is current in that respect. in those previous research sessions however, time delay was almost always an hours-long engagement and a perfect reason to reassess my favorite records. i definitely believe Si’s deluxe features would still be working if i had been able to do proper maintenance this whole time.

but Si’s base operation is as a stereo playback system. and, in that respect, Si is very happy to still be here. like all components of this age, there is quite a bit of fussiness when needing to adjust wires. connections are cleaned and recleaned, but still sometimes get a little cranky and crackly. nothing permanent, and sometimes Si just needs a few minutes to reorient, and we’re in business. but, on the other side of that, Si is not supposed to be mobile, so once everything is connected and set, you’re good. stereo playback, even without the luxury of Si’s fairly decent bass+treble control for each channel, sounds just as good as ever.

been playing lots of vinyl and cds. haven’t gotten the cassette player out yet, but it will be possible to play tapes again should i need to. the only thing i can’t play are 78s. so that means i’ve also been able to attach Si, indirectly, to the internet for the first time ever. i still have an iPod touch with a ⅛” headphone output, and an RCA->⅛” connection cord. this iPod touch has wifi capability, and the Spotify app. so, the million dollar question is obvious: have i synced up david axelrod on vinyl and streaming, and then used Si’s mode knob to do a side-by-side? of course i have, and idk, seems like streaming just has more treble. still very cool to hear Si proudly broadcast out things like long season and dj muro mixtapes. sounds great, Si!

which brings me to my last point: even though none of Si’s peripherals work anymore, in their day, that was a brilliant way for a listener to interact with their music. some of the buttons still work, but they are kind of like fixed EQ presets that you turn on or off [ED. NOTE: and again: i think probably more happened in the past with those buttons when you had all of the original equipment and the insides were not as corroded as they have become]:
.the output -15db decrease is still a very powerful tool, because Si is a very loud talker! it’s an always on button for me.
.the stereo->mono button works still; it remains to be seen how this will unfold but that’s not something you just get on audio playback equipment anymore. this is clearly awesome. idk how else to articulate how exciting this is for me and i’m intentionally trying to swear less: heck yes mono button!!
.<-3db trim/<800Hz button does something, but not sure what. sorta feels like a one-button compressor. useful if a recording has very boomy bass that you need to temper.
.peak unlimiter and auto-correlator do something, but they sound broken. corresponding knobs do nothing. these are “muffle the sound” knobs at this point, unfortunately.
.the big one that still works is the sonic hologram generator. it’s like a one-button super low delay+reverb combo that gets added to the overall output. the delay is very short; less time than a slapback, but long enough to notice, especially with hiphop or anything with loudly mixed vocals. the reverb is like a `room` mode, but with the mix knob never going past 8 o`clock. when time delay is integrated and working, the sonic hologram generator button throws you into the solar wind properly. very fun button. even without time delay, it adds a very lightly echo-ey perceived extra dimension to the sound that i am finding enhances everything. just now, while typing this, i have the iPod shuffling on my Spotify and Polaris came on; sounds better than it ever has on headphones. the best thing about this button is that, because it kind of “expands” the sound, you don’t need to play anything very loud to get the full spectrum. great feature, tone sweetener, always on.

and that’s pretty much it, kind of looking back. this is a rare opportunity for someone to review a piece of consumer goods that have been truly put to test. this thing has worked my entire life, as long as i have the proper cables and some capable speakers (i mean, Si has dispensed plenty of incompetent speakers along the way too). if i were to give ratings, Si gets the top one. to sum it up simply, just… would i buy another one of these? you bet man, worth every penny.

i know how i sound when i say this, but from the bodily harm-inducing construction to the actual good playback that it still produces, over four decades later, even when it’s technically broken: they really don’t make `em like this anymore. i’m sure with most stereos of similar power in the current day, you wouldn’t even be allowed to connect it to Spotify without paying some sort of fees. and what’s with those sound-altering buttons? those have the potential to be awesome, as evidenced by the hologram button here. i seem to recall an Aiwa bookshelf system from the mid-1990s that had all sorts of similar on-off `hologram` type buttons that completely affected the playback. some of them were akin to that thing that would happen when you would only plug your headphones in part of the way and you got that really aquatic, echoey sound ― something i intentionally learned to do later as a substitute for time delay. that aiwa stereo was rad, too, with all those extra buttons. bring these features back to consumer stereo stuff imo!

balanced connections also run 12 db hotter than unbalanced, resulting in less noise.