What the, and I cannot overstate this, fuck?

@flipper @bloor I'm a big fan of optical interconnects with gold-plated connectors

@bloor@bloor.tw Why do I have the urge to see and hamster run thru it?

@PsyChuan @bloor The gold plating improves the digital sound transmission by making the light pulses more resilient to damage in the fiber smh, you just need twenty thousand dollars in equipment to notice that it's there (sarcasm)

@bloor@bloor.tw I've seen some wild "audiophile" nonsense, but ... whut?

@bloor I recall visiting a high-end audio shop maybe 25-30 years ago. They had a Denon single CD player, almost a cubic foot in volume, for $5000. I asked salesperson about "why?", and among its features was "no stray light can get and interfere with the laser." Hell, a runaway train couldn't budge it. Strangely, I did not purchase it.

@PeterLG @bloor And that's enough to move me from "That's harmlessly stupid and overpriced" to "Nope, couldn't pay me to take that from you and I want to be well away from this fire hazard".

@bloor power cables? They look like they're 20g wires shielded with a coat of white nail polish and hope. Anxiety inducing if there is actual power in them

@StryderNotavi @bloor

I just don't understand through mindset that would look at those and say "Yeah! Perfect!"

I would die laughing if one of my mates proudly showed me his audio setup and they were included.

Then I'd leave and never return.

@nazokiyoubinbou

The appropriate response.

@bloor

@bloor
That's the ugliest Litz wire I've ever seen.

@bloor
Unhinged Twisted Pair

@nazokiyoubinbou @c64whiz @bloor You mean the Styx?

@gunchleoc @c64whiz @bloor ???

@nazokiyoubinbou @c64whiz @bloor Styx is the river you cross into Hades

@gunchleoc @c64whiz @bloor I know that. And there is a band named after it and other things as well.

But what does that have to do with it?

@nazokiyoubinbou @c64whiz @bloor Well, I was just thinking which stream you might cross when messing with a mains cable ️

@greem @bloor https://youtu.be/Ac7G7xOG2Ag?si=zfEQZABdub3xZ-jc

@bloor thanks for the chuckle. I judge real audio people by their cables. For example Nelson Pass was interviewed in his lab and he was running normal speaker cables all over, since he knows what electricity is and how audio works. At that point I added his amps to my audio wish bucket list.

Paul from PS audio, who is not an audio engineer, on the other hand, advocated $5000k speaker cables and showed setups using them. That removed ps audio as a potential gear source.

Made my own cables. $10.

@gunchleoc @c64whiz @bloor ...

I have never heard anyone call (what is supposed to be) a huge river a "stream" but ok.

I believe it means "don't cross the streams*" which is a reference to the original Ghost Busters movie. (No clue why it's resurrected these days as a modern Internet meme, but it shows up a lot, lol.)

(* except that one time)

Or maybe it just means audio streams or something. I don't know.

Most of us didn't know these were mains cables originally until that other post.

@bloor lolwut, what kind of crochet is that, they could’ve tried to make an effort at least.