WTF!

crunchman

Where's 3CS when you need him?

Flink_Poyd

At least you get free mainland postage for orders over £100. I think they use MyHermes or Royal Mail 2nd class 

DefaultM

Sassafras said:

Here's a glowing review for the slightly more expensive rhodium plug that's persuaded me to sell my motorbike so that I can buy a decent power cable:

http://www.russandrews.com/the-superkord500-sdii-uk-mains-w350-evo-rhodium/#reviews

Good for him.

beed84

The ultimate test would be to plug one in to Stephen Hawking's mobile machinery. If he sounded clearer, then there might be something behind the claims.

viz

Surely, if the cleanliness of the power has an impact it would be better to pass the mains through an isolator / capacitor rather than spend silly money on the lead? I'm rather susceptible to these sorts of things and the mains in our house passes through a multi stage filter with isolation transformer, DC blocking and earth line filtering before reaching the turntable motor, and the power to the phono preamp passes through an isolated capacitor so the preamp only receives pure DC current. But the power leads are normal, because I've already wasted enough money, I'm not going to spend 500 quid on a mains lead. The other stuff made no difference as far as I can tell; why would the mains lead?!

thermionic

If these claims are to be believed, using one of these cables with a Marshall MG15 would make it sound like a Dumble. 

p90fool

Rocker said:

robwright said:

http://www.russandrews.com/the-superkord500-sdii-uk-mains-w350i-ag-hc/

Sigh! When you have nothing to say, slag off audiophiles. If you had simply tried one in your hi-fi system, you do have a hi-fi system?, and found that everything that RA wrote about it is bollox, your opinion would have some credibility. Without trying it out yourself, your opinion is mere conjecture [whatever the "experts" say]

Well I'm calling it bollocks and I've worked for a well-known high-end hi-fi company, assembling mains cables with a "box of nonsense" halfway along them. 

I've also cut up cables from other manufacturers, one potted enclosure  on a 900 quid mains cable was just a handful of fucking gravel. 


It's not just speculative bullshit, it is utterly, utterly cynical, you should hear what the actual designers of some of this stuff say about punters. 

I worked at the Whittlebury Hall trade show for two years, having an inside look at some of those trade-only meetings was breathtaking.  

Three-ColourSunburst

kin said:

 Tonewood. It's indefinable, it's mojo, if you can't hear the difference then you probably don't even play the guitar and have cloth ears.

 Superkord 500, it's a load of old bollocks init? Fancy paying stupid money for something when something half the price does the same job.

Exactly! It all reminds me of a Christian radio station I once came across where some nutcase was mocking other religions because "they believed lots of ridiculous things that that science had proved were wrong". 

Thing is, I am sure that those who spend thousands on a power cord really believe that they can hear a difference, and could probably come up with all sorts of arguments as to how their cables do this. (Who knows they might even find a graph in a student project somewhere that they can point to.)

The real lesson to take from this is that human beings often 'listen with their eyes'. Also, prior expectations often influence one's perceptions, and this seems to be particularly the case when it come to auditory perception.

Sassafras

I think once you've spent a £1000 on a mains cable, an extra £500 will only bring infinitesimal improvements in performance.

Octafish

bingefeller said:

shrinkwrap said:

Can't the trade descriptions act get the voodoo digital cables dumped?
No different from homoeopathy.

No.......  https://web.archive.org/web/20160405202532/http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2014/1/Russ-Andrews-Accessories-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_228690.aspx#.WcgNAdHTWf0

I found this part of the ASA report interesting

We noted the evidence supplied by Russ Andrews Accessories represented the results of tests carried out under lab conditions to industry standards and considered that the results appeared to show a reduction in decibels compared to a normal mains cable (which was used as a control). However, we understood from Russ Andrews Accessories that these test results were not necessarily indicative of perceptible noise reduction in consumer relevant conditions and noted the results did not indicate a difference in perceptible RF (radio frequency) interference (in Common or Differential Mode) when using the standard leads against which the Superkord and Powerkord products were being compared.

Octafish

JezWynd said:

Suddenly realised my life is a hollow shell, without meaning or form. Where's my credit card.

£25 for a fuse . How could this possibly differ from a standard fuse, wouldn't it have to conform to certain safety standards and be built to a certain spec etc... @ICBM ?

ICBM

Octafish said:

£25 for a fuse . How could this possibly differ from a standard fuse, wouldn't it have to conform to certain safety standards and be built to a certain spec etc... @ICBM ? 

Yes, and in order to do its job as a fuse, it cannot have lower resistance than any other 13A fuse or it wouldn't melt when required to - hence it can't have 'superior conductivity' or any other such waffle.

But it's probably got gold plated ends and has been cryogenically treated in pure snake oil...

Three-ColourSunburst

bingefeller said:

shrinkwrap said:

Can't the trade descriptions act get the voodoo digital cables dumped?
No different from homoeopathy.

No.......  https://web.archive.org/web/20160405202532/http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2014/1/Russ-Andrews-Accessories-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_228690.aspx#.WcgNAdHTWf0

What could one expect given that the ASA was set up by those working in the business of selling snake oil to oversee the business of selling snake oil!

Three-ColourSunburst

Octafish said:

JezWynd said:

Suddenly realised my life is a hollow shell, without meaning or form. Where's my credit card.

£25 for a fuse . How could this possibly differ from a standard fuse, wouldn't it have to conform to certain safety standards and be built to a certain spec etc... @ICBM ?

Are you saying that audiophiles are all stupid and are being taken advantage of by companies who are only interested in maximising their profits? Just because you can't hear a difference doesn't mean that they can't, you probably don't even listen to music. If these £25 fuses didn't work, do you think that they could have continued to find a market for them for so long?  Do you have a successful company selling £25 fuses - if you don't what makes you think you are in a position to criticise what they do? Just read what the boss of this company says about the benefits of £25 fuses. I would put my faith in what an expert like that has to say, rather than some random poster on the internet. I don't care if academic studies have proved that all this is a load of baloney, I know they work.  Etc. Etc. Etc.

Legionreturns

Aaaaah! That's so much better! 

Bridgehouse

Legionreturns said:

Aaaaah! That's so much better! 

Can you hear yourself think now?

Legionreturns

Bridgehouse said:

Legionreturns said:

Aaaaah! That's so much better! 

Can you hear yourself think now?

It's like tuning a radio in properly and losing the white noise

beed84

Three-ColourSunburst said:

Octafish said:

JezWynd said:

Suddenly realised my life is a hollow shell, without meaning or form. Where's my credit card.

£25 for a fuse . How could this possibly differ from a standard fuse, wouldn't it have to conform to certain safety standards and be built to a certain spec etc... @ICBM ?

Are you saying that audiophiles are all stupid and are being taken advantage of by companies who are only interested in maximising their profits? Just because you can't hear a difference doesn't mean that they can't, you probably don't even listen to music. If these £25 fuses didn't work, do you think that they could have continued to find a market for them for so long?  Do you have a successful company selling £25 fuses - if you don't what makes you think you are in a position to criticise what they do? Just read what the boss of this company says about the benefits of £25 fuses. I would put my faith in what an expert like that has to say, rather than some random poster on the internet. I don't care if academic studies have proved that all this is a load of baloney, I know they work.  Etc. Etc. Etc.

A shred of logical reasoning is all that's required to conclude that what Russ Andrew's claims about his cables, SuperFuses and Burn-in's is utter dross. Do you think the music industry is queuing up to buy his goods in order to make the music they produce sound better for the listener? No, I imagine not. If a fuse goes, they'll fit a standard one. If a cable goes, they fit a standard one. As for burn-in...well that's also bollocks. Even when you click on 'what's this?' it doesn't actually say what it is. It merely states it's a unique process of some kind. Up-to £150 for a rather vague add-on? Keep it. 

Octafish

beed84 said:

Three-ColourSunburst said:

Octafish said:

JezWynd said:

Suddenly realised my life is a hollow shell, without meaning or form. Where's my credit card.

£25 for a fuse . How could this possibly differ from a standard fuse, wouldn't it have to conform to certain safety standards and be built to a certain spec etc... @ICBM ?

Are you saying that audiophiles are all stupid and are being taken advantage of by companies who are only interested in maximising their profits? Just because you can't hear a difference doesn't mean that they can't, you probably don't even listen to music. If these £25 fuses didn't work, do you think that they could have continued to find a market for them for so long?  Do you have a successful company selling £25 fuses - if you don't what makes you think you are in a position to criticise what they do? Just read what the boss of this company says about the benefits of £25 fuses. I would put my faith in what an expert like that has to say, rather than some random poster on the internet. I don't care if academic studies have proved that all this is a load of baloney, I know they work.  Etc. Etc. Etc.

A shred of logical reasoning is all that's required to conclude that what Russ Andrew's claims about his cables, SuperFuses and Burn-in's is utter dross. Do you think the music industry is queuing up to buy his goods in order to make the music they produce sound better for the listener? No, I imagine not. If a fuse goes, they'll fit a standard one. If a cable goes, they fit a standard one. As for burn-in...well that's also bollocks. Even when you click on 'what's this?' it doesn't actually say what it is. It merely states it's a unique process of some kind. Up-to £150 for a rather vague add-on? Keep it. 

I think Three-ColourSunburst was being facetious. As you say if all Russ Andrew's claims are true, then all the top recording studios would be using his gear, are they?

Octafish

Three-ColourSunburst said:

bingefeller said:

shrinkwrap said:

Can't the trade descriptions act get the voodoo digital cables dumped?
No different from homoeopathy.

No.......  https://web.archive.org/web/20160405202532/http://www.asa.org.uk/Rulings/Adjudications/2014/1/Russ-Andrews-Accessories-Ltd/SHP_ADJ_228690.aspx#.WcgNAdHTWf0

What could one expect given that the ASA was set up by those working in the business of selling snake oil to oversee the business of selling snake oil! 

Well to be fair, as I quoted above, the ASA said this....

We noted the evidence supplied by Russ Andrews Accessories represented the results of tests carried out under lab conditions to industry standards and considered that the results appeared to show a reduction in decibels compared to a normal mains cable (which was used as a control). However, we understood from Russ Andrews Accessories that these test results were not necessarily indicative of perceptible noise reduction in consumer relevant conditions and noted the results did not indicate a difference in perceptible RF (radio frequency) interference (in Common or Differential Mode) when using the standard leads against which the Superkord and Powerkord products were being compared.

Unless I'm reading this wrong, it says the laboratory tests showed something different on paper (as per their claims), but that the difference is not one that anyone would necessarily hear. Prusemably they craftily worded their ad that way?