If nothing else it shows those high end $1,000+ cables they buy are nothing but placebo effect.

analog31 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

My hypothesis is that the $1000 cables help sell the $300 cables. I’ve seen comments to the effect of: “I’m not fooled by those $1000 cables, so I saved my money and got the $300 cables instead.”

In other words, they got fooled.

What’s happened in electronics is that there’s a cutoff, above which the audio quality doesn’t get any better, but that cutoff is much lower than anybody can believe. So the psychological cutoff is higher than the physical one, and a role of marketing is to raise that cutoff even further.

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polotics 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

it also puts a market value on said placebo effect...

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turnsout 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

This may be an unpopular opinion, but if people believe they can hear a difference in their $1000 cables, and they enjoy purchasing and testing them, I'm inclined to let them enjoy themselves. I have a basic hi-fi setup with rational cables, and enjoy the cost savings, but to each their own.

I feel the same way about wine. At a certain point, it's not really about objective improvements, it's about vibes and lore.

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BurningFrog 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I also don't need to storm these people's homes and tear up their expensive audio setups. Life is hard, and if you find something to enjoy, I'll let you have it.

That said, think there is value in putting out facts that let people make informed decisions and not spend tons of money on things that don't actually work.

	▲	turnsout 5 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Absolutely. I'm glad the linked article exists! Hopefully it can prevent someone who really can't afford it from splurging on expensive cables.

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ungreased0675 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Yes, but there is a negative societal cost to allowing quacks, frauds, and hucksters to exploit the naive.

	▲	ssl-3 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Capitalism be that way, sometimes. We can't have the good parts without also taking some of the bad parts. (And yet: They still make inexpensive cables in factories every day.)

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rsynnott 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The vendors of such snake oil often make specific, incorrect claims. Fraud is still fraud, even if the victim enjoys it.