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The Snake Oil Problem

The average home stereo system is an appliance that is used to play music. People turn it on, start up a playlist or album and use it for background while doing other tasks or while visiting with friends. As such, these systems are generally installed into active living spaces in the home, for the family to enjoy.

For most people it is all about good quality sound for music and movies and after the initial installation and setup the system is pretty much left as is.

But there are a small number of home stereo owners who take the hardware of their systems far more seriously. Generally called "audiophiles" these are people for whom their sound systems become a hobby in itself as they constantly tinker and upgrade their equipment in pursuit of better sound quality.

The joke version says:

Most people use their systems to listen to music.
Audiophiles use music to listen to their systems.

Audiophile systems are exotic and complex. They tinker and tune them as they seek a nirvana like state from their music. Often they are trying to duplicate live performances in dedicated listening rooms and will spend surprising amounts of money in the pursuit.

I was part of the audiophile group at one time. I had the exotic gear. I've even designed entire systems for myself and others. In the stereo heyday of the 1970s through the 80s, my friends and I would gather to chat about the latest music and debate the merits of various receivers and amplifiers. We got right into it, discussing circuitry, specifications and features with considerable intensity and interest. Often our coffee shop debates would attract attention and others would join in, sometimes asking advice and sometimes offering it. Those were truly interesting times.

But, in recent years the audiophile world has been changing and not always for the better.

Technical insight lost Home Top Chapters

This technical fade is mirrored in the audiophile hobby. Where conversations once centred around the specifications of the various parts of a system or the benefits of various setups, now they hinge on magical thinking and meaningless terms like "fast bass" or "forward sounding speakers". Many no longer understand the most basic principles of electronics such as Voltage, Current and Power. The loss to the community is palpable as many people no longer know enough to successfully buy and set up a proper system.

Caveat emptor Home Top Chapters

In the early 1980s when HiFi sales were at their peak and rapid progress was being made in new areas of technology, a number of highly predatory companies began making inroads into the marketplace. By selling what amounts to miracle cures for problems people don't even have, these companies are the modern equivalent of the Snake Oil vendors from the mid 1800s.

"My magic potion will fix everything, trust me."

These companies have become staples at audio shows and conventions, putting on showy presentations with pseudo-scientific explanations of their products ("Bafflegab") imploring their customers to set aside well grounded principles of science and engineering in favour of believing only their ears. Their presentations are carefully constructed to invoke a self-fulfilling expectation their products will improve people's home stereo systems in fantastical ways.

"Our $2,000 super-widget will give your system new life, opening up the soundstage and improving both presence and dynamics, while reducing skin effect and preventing dielectric losses", and on and on.

But the demo effect is psychology, not science. We hear a difference because we were told to hear a difference and because we actually want to hear it, so we are paying closer than usual attention. We notice things we didn't hear before and we think we are hearing a much better sounding system.

However; when these miraculous products are put to the test with actual measurements and science, they most often turn out to be no better than regularly priced products and sometimes they're even worse. All they really do is empty your wallet.

In short these highly predatory companies have convinced people that after all the money they spend on exotic amplifiers and speakers, their home systems are simply not good enough without the company's cables and bobbins. The result is most often a perpetual state of dissatisfaction, fuelling an ongoing hunt for an impossible state of perfection.

Fancy speaker wire is the most common and often the most expensive. But similar claims are made for RCA patch cords, USB cables, HDMI cables, power cords, and a whole range of small gadgets such as power line filters, USB reclockers, power conditioners, even fuses. But it doesn't end there. This blatant shysterism even extends into selling crystals to be placed in the corners of rooms, weights for the top of equipment and little wooden disks that are supposed to define the listening area. And always at extortion level prices.

Sadly, with the atrophy of technical knowledge and the resulting inability to see past the deception, a surprising number of people actually fall for it and end up spending exorbitant amounts of money even though it is likely their systems were working just fine without any of it.

A hobby divided Home Top Chapters

Now convinced they can hear real differences by swapping cables and accessories, one side of the community has rejected the science behind their equipment. They will often make outlandish claims to be able to hear things that even laboratory grade test equipment can't measure. In fact, many claim that we can't measure sound at all and the only important criteria is what we hear.

On the other side of the field are the more traditional audiophiles who still carry some technical skills. They will tell you that we can measure stuff nobody will ever hear and that the electronic measurement of home audio systems can be very helpful in getting the best results.

So it's "Subjectivists" vs "Objectivists". But in all truth it's an argument that should have never gotten started. Both sides are actually right. The hobby itself is about listening to music (and movies) with better sound quality, so all of us do listen to our systems. But to make sure we don't go blowing stuff up, we do need to pay attention to the specifications and measurements.

In truth, the two groups should be helping each other. But the argument rages on and on.

Mix and match Home Top Chapters

This has resulted in a lot of perfectly good equipment that all behaves about the same. With HiFi's stated purpose of faithfully reproducing the recorded source material, most amplifiers now sound mostly alike and sources like DACs and Streamers are hard to tell apart, even in controlled listening tests. The goal of audible perfection has been reached, even in most of the lower priced equipment.

Although there are very few actual standards, the need to be compatible in order to remain competitive has driven considerable innovation. In particular the move from Impedance Matching to Impedance Bridging has made it possible to hook almost any product to any other product and get a good result. For example, you can buy a Streamer from one company, an amplifier from a second and speakers from a third and, with only minimal precaution, you can be fairly sure it's going to work nicely.

Along with growing compatibility, companies have made a considerable effort to ensure that cables and wiring make as little difference as possible. This is to ensure that with proper connections, their equipment performs as designed in combination with other products.

Comparison shopping Home Top Chapters

For a company to compete in a market where they are up against other companies also selling compatible products, they really do need to keep their prices as close as possible to those of their competition. And this provides us the clues we need to pick a good system and avoid snake oil. We do it by price.

We can simply look at the prices of similar items and choose products in the median range by comparing features. As long as the price is not too far off the average we're probably good to go.

This "price averaging" lets us define two criteria for our purchases:

First, the "Crap Line". If a product is significantly below the average price it is pretty safe to assume the manufacturer has cut corners, used sub-standard materials, cheap parts or flimsy casings.

Second, the "Bling Line". This is the opposite. When something is way more expensive than the average for similar products you can be reasonably sure you are paying for luxury or simply being ripped off, without actually getting a superior product.

If you are, for example, considering a new 3 foot RCA cable, you would look to see how much the average cable costs. Anything too cheap or too expensive -crap or bling- should set off a warning bell and you should stay with the average price. That is most likely where you will find properly manufactured cables that simply get the job done.

The same logic applies to other parts of a system just as well. The best buys are usually crowded around the average prices. So when shopping the first step is to discover several like items, with the features we need or want and do some comparison shopping.

There are rare exceptions. For example, when Class D amplifiers began making inroads into the marketplace their simplicity allowed for a considerable drop in price. The average price for a 100 watt amplifier went from nearly a thousand dollars to less than two hundred, almost overnight. But events like this are rare and even when they do happen, establishing an average for the new technology still helps us avoid rip-offs.

Reviews and ratings Home Top Chapters

This has lead to the online reviewer. Usually found on streaming video sites, their job is to talk up a product and to try and describe it without letting you hear or touch it. For the most part this is simply long winded advertising using the subjectivist model to describe equipment's behaviour. They talk about fast bass, brilliant highs and marvelous clarity, but somehow the specifications that matter never really get mentioned, leaving their fans to fend for themselves when picking new equipment. Clearly this is only minimally helpful since the only thing it does successfully is to let you know that a given piece of gear exists.

Fortunately, a number of reviewers are beginning to offer in-depth product analysis, backed by sound engineering principles and common sense. This flags a move back to the "old way" of understanding how stuff works and weighing it's quality of construction and behaviour as part of the analysis. While it is true this requires consumers to educate themselves, one might reasonably hope this trend continues. Absent the chance to go to a store and see for ourselves, this kind of in-depth analysis is the only real information we get.

Summing up Home Top Chapters

Do not get drawn into the Snake Oil side of the hobby. Down that path lies only disappointment and needless expense.

Remember, this is all about filling a home with good music. The hardware of your system is simply a means to an end.