Mocking audiophiles again
2009-10-25 17:16:03.140235+00 by Dan Lyke 19 comments
If you need a giggle this morning, check out the Parts Express reviews of the Wattgate 381 Audio Grade Duplex Socket, at a mere $147.72.
2009-10-25 17:16:03.140235+00 by Dan Lyke 19 comments
If you need a giggle this morning, check out the Parts Express reviews of the Wattgate 381 Audio Grade Duplex Socket, at a mere $147.72.
[ related topics: Humor Music moron ]
comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-25 19:13:38.043614+00 by: ebradway
Be sure to terminate your power cord with this Wattgate 330i silver-plated connector
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-25 19:18:20.479883+00 by: meuon
My gawd, even the actual description of the product says: "Cryogenically treated"
I'm laughing, because it's a brilliant piece of gorilla marketting.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-25 21:07:47.148562+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]
It should be noticed that "Audio Grade" is a registered Trade Mark of Wattgate, and not just a meaning for "something that has to pass less than 20KHz fairly well".
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-26 10:53:11.693885+00 by: Chris in Florida
If my present source of tunes is a rummage sale boom box, will these make any discernable difference? I could buy a lot of beer signs for what one of these suckers cost....
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-26 13:44:13.96035+00 by: other_todd [edit history]
From an IM conversation where I showed my wife some of these comments:
[09:42] nonelvis: Correct me if I'm wrong, because as you know, Bob, I know virtually fuck-all about electricity: is this not just a description of an ordinary socket?
[09:42] other_todd: it contains some embellishments over an ordinary socket
[09:42] other_todd: but none that really deliver cleaner or better power
[09:42] nonelvis: I am doubting it is $150 worth of embellishments
[09:43] nonelvis: modulo blood of virgin nerd girls, etc.
[09:43] other_todd: the primary source of dirty power is not the contacts or the socket but the dirtiness of the incoming line power itself.
[09:43] nonelvis: one would think
[09:43] other_todd: it would be better to go buy a $20 surge calmer
[09:44] nonelvis: but that wouldn't have gold-plated oxygen-free hoozimajiggies!
[09:44] other_todd: no, that's true, it would not have cryogenic gold-plated woozles
[09:44] nonelvis: I need cryogenic gold-plated woozles
[09:45] nonelvis: FETCH ME MY WOOZLES, DAMMIT
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-26 14:33:51.497961+00 by: andylyke [edit history]
Okay - Maybe I'm old and losing touch, but ... Somebody spent an awful lot of time putting together the wattgate.com website. In a world where Henry Kissinger gets a Nobel (keeping it in the past) satire is almost irrelevant, but - is this wattgate stuff actually for sale? Are there people so stupid that ... Oh wait - Glen Beck's on - I gotta go see the news.
Later edit -- Jesus H Christ!!! I followed a couple of links from wattgate.com to their distribution network. These are actually for sale??? an IEC cord end receptacle for 110 pounds sterling????
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-26 15:00:45.208808+00 by: Dan Lyke
I think "cryogenic gold-plated woozles" has just made it into my lexicon.
Dad, if you want more giggles, just start appending "audiophile" to your standard search terms. You can buy a $500 1.5M Cat5 network cable, or $7250 for a 12 foot speaker cable.
As Eric has recounted about his friend in anecdote, if you spend the money on drugs you'll get the same musical experience for a lot cheaper.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-26 16:13:24.430943+00 by: petronius
Let's face it: audiophiles are like vitamin enthusiasts, following the latest craze. I remember hearing back in the pre-CD age that some guys would put a few drops of water on their LPs before playing. The idea was that a thin coating of water would protect the disk. I think this is the quivalent of keeping a St. Christopher medal in your car.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-26 20:17:13.420086+00 by: spc476
That cat5 cable looks similar to very old phone chords that feel like rope than stiff wires, and man, I would pay to have a ton of that for the data center instead of the stiff plastic crap that sticks out everywhere. Maybe double what we pay now, but not $100/foot.
Does anyone know what I'm even talking about?
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-26 22:31:51.637707+00 by: Dan Lyke
I think the stuff you're talking about was a stranded core phone wire, and I'm not sure you can do that with proper Cat5, although it might be possible. Someone I trust has said that the inter-reflections in larger solid core wire detectably muddy signals lower than 20KHz, making it unusable for speaker cable. I have not put a scope on this to verify.
Since so much of Cat5 is getting the signal just right and impedance matched on both ends, I could imagine that you have to use solid rather than stranded to make it work.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 04:46:27.223042+00 by: Diane Reese
I love it when you guys talk dirty like that.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 04:52:35.648685+00 by: Dan Lyke [edit history]
Not to worry, you can get the Wattgate plug built into a power cable for only $772.24, $67.15 for each additional ½m. Note that, among other features, this power cable offers you quote:
It's good that my power cable allows for the "widest possible bandwidth" to go along with your cryogenic gold-plated woozles.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 10:42:13.357168+00 by: meuon
Come on everyone, admit it, you want one.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 14:36:24.52526+00 by: Larry Burton
What I really want is to sit down and have a beer with the copywriter.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 17:16:43.097456+00 by: andylyke
Back in the '70s, I had an office mate who described his father's speaker system - massive exponential horns, built of concrete, that filled the back yard.
I thought that was a one off, but this ...
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 17:27:24.389856+00 by: andylyke
spc476: Cat 5 cable is available with stranded or solid conductors. You're probably using the solid conductor stuff. Microcenter (microcenter.com) offers 1 kft of solid cat 6 for $160 and 1 kft of stranded for $200 Cat 5 is $111 and $150 respectively. Plenum cable is considerably more expensive, but also available in stranded and solid.
It's never really pretty, because the pairs have to be twisted at different pitches to reduce crosstalk, so nothing nests together nicely, but the stranded is much more flexible than the solid, if a little more expensive.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 20:57:16.967916+00 by: Dan Lyke
I was out on my iPhone when I posted that note about stranded Cat5, but had I thought about it: of course there's stranded cat5, the pre-made wires under my desk are mostly that. I've just never crimped my own ends on stranded Cat5.
The real problem with cables this expensive is that they're only serving their purpose if people know how much they cost.
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 21:32:53.106482+00 by: petronius
For $772.00 the power cable should also give you immunity against H1N1!
#Comment Re: made: 2009-10-27 23:22:25.911497+00 by: spc476
Thanks Andy. We tend to make our own cables (we have a few 1000' spools at The Data Center) since it's cheaper and (with the experience I have) usually quicker to make than to drive out to a store and buy them. I just don't like how "stiff" the cable is, and it tends to stick out more than I would like.