Re: Snake Oil Award

"Daniel Fox" <upryz1@xxxxxxxxx> writes:

bob wrote:
I believe Geoff Kait is the same guy who's behind Brilliant Pebbles,
the Intelligent Chip, and the Clever Little Clock. It's been my theory
that his "company," Machina Dynamica, is actually a piece of
performance art, designed to demonstrate just how much audiophiles will
swallow.

Wow.

If what you say is true he is absolutely brilliant and I laugh
hysterically at anyone who has purchased any of the products from the
site.

If however, he actually believes in the stuff he is selling I laugh
hysterically at both him and anyone who purchases his bank account
depleting prank novelties.

I'm inclined to agree, and would be laughing right along with you.

However, I wonder if for some folks (the ones who are well-meaning and not
fatally tone deaf and merely interested in showing off how much money they
spent on weird stuff) these devices, while totally inert for any aspect of
audio, do provide some sort of mental focal point.

These partially lost souls then hear "better" because they have a "reason"
to pay attention. Nothing at all has changed in the real world with the
addition of The Device, but their minds now zero in on the job of
listening and sonic details begin to emerge.

Most of us who do this for a living are already "there" by temperament,
interest, passion, and 'cause it's our job, but many times more people are
not.

Mental "devices" to foster concentration are common in all sort of areas,
ranging from chants and rituals for religious ceremonies, to getting into
the right frame of mind ("flow" it's sometimes called) for various
creative pursuits, both artistic and technical.

I need to start poking around the garage and see what I can sell as an
audio talisman.... 2x4 scraps, j-box knockout slugs, hunks of weather
stripping, washers big and small, nails... And the greater the price the
greater the concentration and the "better" the sound. Woo hoo!

And of course, the novelty eventually wears off. The device needs to be
replaced periodically by a better model.

What a deal!

Frank Stearns
Mobile Audio

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