Maybe spending stupid amounts of money on power cords isn't entirely harmless

[wgscott]

... i.e., when it funds stuff like this: CEASE AND DESIST – RETRACTION | Real HD-Audio

[wgscott]

I really wish he had stood his ground. I understand why he probably was told he could not. I do think this is a good illustration of the point that consumer fraud is not harmless, even if the party being defrauded is a willing participant.

[wgscott]

Sort Kones.

 

Kind of says it all.

[wgscott]

I don't agree with that. People need to take responsibility for their actions. If you spend thousands of dollars (or even hundreds of dollars) on cables without first making sure the expense is justified, you're an idiot. Its just common sense. Its no different than if you were to buy a car without going on a test drive first.

 

That is simply blaming the victim.

 

A fairly famous consumer fraud case took place in the 1970s, wherein GM put Chevy engines in the Oldsmobiles.

 

Was this the fault of the customer for not taking a close look at the engine?

[wgscott]

that's rude!

 

wgscott. Why are constantly picking internet brawls?

 

You seem to think anyone who holds an opinion at variance with your own is picking a brawl.

 

A better question might be why do I keep reading your posts when I have had you on my ignore list for years?

[wgscott]

You have issues

 

You have Sort Kones.

[wgscott]

Sheep yourself.

 

The posts were second or third accounts hand from an email correspondent. If they had been first hand accounts, the posts would have been pretty much protected and much more difficult to challenge.

 

He also had his own observations.

[wgscott]

Wgscott, I'll try to stay out of the whether power cables sound different debate. But the issue here is not that. The main issue is Waldrop hypothesizes that Nordost was changing the track volume when doing the cable demos. That's completely unsubstantiated and was not my experience on 3 different demos. What Waldrop says would be as inappropriate and as inflammatory as me saying that I speculate Wgscott started this post because he privately sells a different brand of power cables or owns the stock power cable industry or something equally speculative and presumably preposterous.

 

It is not physically impossible that I am selling a competing power cord. It is physically impossible that a power cord increases the volume.

[wgscott]

I think we agree on that point. So are you telling us that Waldrop's hearing is deficient? And that we should ignore his comments? Because if you and Waldrop are going to speculate that Nordost played some trick to change volumes when switching power cables, does that legitimize us to speculate you sell competing power cords? You can't have your cake and eat it too...

 

You can speculate all you want. Unlike Nordost, I am content to say that it is factually incorrect. Nordost is gagging a critic.

[wgscott]

In Canada, corporations aren't even allowed to be people.

[wgscott]

Nobody would take the hearing test I posted either.

 

I wonder what could be going on?

 

It wasn't like I was trying to get them to listen to Fiona Apple.

[wgscott]

Wow, what a load of ignorant, biased drivel.

 

He'll stick you in the eye with a Sort Kone if you aren't careful.

[wgscott]

Well the initial version gave people 8 other choices that weren't Fiona Apple.

 

I wasn't able to hear a difference between her and the other 8. Clearly I am not an audiophile. My equipment isn't revealing. My power cords are generic.

 

So that was a low blow Bill.

 

Sorry! Please don't sue me!

[wgscott]

The problem is the obscene profits lead to abuses like the gag order, which is the subject of the thread you want to turn into a cable debate.

 

Personally, I am more than happy to see you drain your bank account. Spend away. I have no desire to save you from anything. Buy one for your toaster. I am sure it will improve the quality of what pops out of it.

[wgscott]

antidotal evidence

 

Perhaps you mean anecdotal evidence?

[wgscott]

While I do not agree with the anti-cable brigade. I'm happy that they are hear in such large numbers. Since they have the need that everything should be scientifically proven I can rest assured none of them will vote Trump. It has been independently proven that Trump lies and cheats the most of all presidential candidates. So not many Trump supporters here.

 

I checked with everyone else. We are all voting for Bernie.

[wgscott]

the vast majority of you are just disbelievers almost to a religious fervor

 

I don't even know where to begin with this...

[wgscott]

I don't even know where to begin with this...

 

OK, I will give it a shot:

 

1. The thread has nothing to do with belief or disbelief in magical cable properties, but rather the gag order used to suppress skepticism.

 

2. Cable skeptics on CA are not in the majority. Only a believer with a persecution complex would see it otherwise.

 

3. Belief in gods, creation myths, etc, is based upon faith, not empirical evidence. Belief in magical properties of cables whose differences defy physical measurement is also based upon faith, not empirical evidence. Therefore the cable believers are the ones who should be classified as being intellectually allied with Creationists, Flat-Earthers, conspiracy theorists, and so on.

 

I can keep going, but I doubt reason and logic will hold much sway.

[wgscott]

The legal action by Nordost was not to stop skepticism, but to make Waldrep take back the claims he made. Claims he could not prove or provide solid evidence for. In this case, Waldrep made irresponsable claims he could not back up. These claims were damaging to Nordost.

 

Nordost then did what any company or individual would do to protect their reputation. If Waldrep had solid evidence like he did in the case of the Audioquest HDMI cables demo video, he would have every right to point the finger at Nordost. In the Nordost case, he went to the court of public opinion and did not have a smoking gun. He simply had a lot of like minded supporters shouting angrily to back him up (like a certain man with orange hair, who puts his name on buildings).

 

If Nordost produced empirical evidence to substantiate their claims, I would believe them rather than Waldrep. If Nordost threatens legal action, I believe Waldrep rather than Nordost. The old cliché, "When the law is not on your side, stick to the facts, when the facts are not on your side, stick to the law", applies.

 

The gag order is designed to suppress what is most likely a valid skeptical observation, and to serve as a lesson to anyone else who dares to challenge the high priesthood audio bullshit orthodoxy.

[wgscott]

The ironic thing is that their decision to go this route has probably done more damage to their business than just doing nothing would have.

 

One can only hope.

[wgscott]

How in the hell do you know this?

 

Because they make claims that, if true, would violate fundamental laws of physics, including conservation of energy. That is why they resort to legal threats rather than simply demonstrating their critics are wrong.

[wgscott]

I'm a scientist. I am well aware of what Newtonian mechanics (or as you would say, "dogma") is, and the examples where it cannot provide an accurate description of physical reality. Power cables are not relativistic or quantum-mechanical devices. I also am quite familiar with the laws of thermodynamics, and their universal applicability.

 

No, there really isn't anything more here than "Newtonian dogma" and "Maxwellian dogma" (classical electrodynamics.) Sorry.

[wgscott]

I added in classical electrodynamics before you posted. Sorry.

 

Maxwell's equations are kind of an interesting thing. Relativity (which really is a revision/correction of Newtonian physics) was originally an interpretation of the Lorentz transformations (which are invariant with respect to the Maxwell's equations). So the relativistic part of quantum electrodynamics is completely consistent with the classical theory. The difference comes in when you introduce quantum theory. The electric and magnetic vector potentials in classical electrodynamics aren't ascribed any physical reality, but are constrained only by what their derivatives (the electric and magnetic fields) are. In QED, they actually take on a life of their own, so to speak, that show up in unusual situations like the Aharonov–Bohm effect.

 

That's why I always purchase BlueJeans Cables. They are guaranteed to be gauge invariant.

[wgscott]

No doubt....just must imagine there are many things yet unexplained. Certainty is, at times, a kind of stupidity. How many times has this been told as a story of earlier scientists standing somewhere making some statement.

 

In cases where Newtonian physics is demonstrably wrong -- say for example, the photo-electric effect, there are easily measurable effects that cannot be explained. In the case of cables, no one is able to measure or even reliably reproduce these claimed effects.

[wgscott]