Seems you can't buy the truth.

[sq225917]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/01/13/russ_accessories/

http://asa.org.uk/ASA-action/Adjudications/2011/1/Russ-Andrews-Accessories-Ltd/TF_ADJ_49597.aspx

 

[Alan Brown]

Quite funny, I wonder how second hand values of powerkords will hold up? There may be a few more around now, or perhaps they'll just be put on the kettle..

 

[pete693]

Well now,there's a surprise.

 

[Arkless Repairs]

As an engineer the idea that a mains cable could effect sound quality was always beyond ridiculous ...... Seems that the ASA agrees!! :MILD:

 

[Mescalito]

It will be interesting to see find out what all the foo-fairies out there say to this.

I can already hear the usual suspects coming up with the usual excuses....insufficient system resolution......hearing acuity not up to it......measuring the wrong thing......etc, etc.....

Anything but gullibility and foo.

Chris

 

[RobHolt]

Not the first time for RA IIRC.

 

[speedy.steve]

But, but, ok. They might not reduce RFI but those little whizzie electron thingies love Kimber better than life itself and so the sound is sooooooooooooo much better))))
Uncle R can hear it, so it must be true.

 

[sq225917]

Rob, indeed it's a rebuttal of his comeback from the first adjudication. I'm sure he'll get bored of it before we do. ;-)

 

[Haselsh1]

You know, I remember a guy called Peter Belt. Funny that, don't ya think...?

 

[Arkless Repairs]

Oh yes! the little sticky triangles.... Wonder what the ASA would have made of that!?

 

[felix]

There may be a few more around now, or perhaps they'll just be put on the kettle..

.. I await the reports the thing boils faster, descales itself and the tea tastes better.

Or maybe not.

 

[monya]

I could feel sorry for the guy. We all know that cables DO make a difference - it's just not measureable

 

[felix]

I don't.

And yes, I believe cable can make a difference. Another way of putting it is that there's nothing to discriminate between cables with similar R, L,C values - and that's pretty much all. Cables with differing values here can sound different, even as one who tends to measure rather than the tedious business of listening I'll freely admit that. Put another way - cables that measure the same in some quite basic parameters, very probably sound the same, and for domestic lengths of cable of similar geometries it's a vanishingly small difference not worth worrying about. You can also manipulate these parameters and get different results. No magic.

Anyway - the job of the ASA is set a bar on advertising 'puff', that is, to draw the line between reasonable and unreasonable claims in advertising. I dare say many people will apply certain moisturisers and feel[/i[] better for it, esp. if it appears to be endored by a 'laboratoire' . But there is a distinct limit to such suggestions when it strays into express claims to gain sales. RSA could quite simply sold cables as 'exception hand made quality, robust, reliable..' etc and no-one could really quible. Instead the claim was totally unsupported technobabble to impress the uninformed. That is not on. Likewise, certain yoghurt products claiming 'useful' bacteria have been slapped down in the last year. It's not the ASA's job to ascertain the validity of the claim - only its reasonableness*

RSA failed to meet an acceptable standard for advertising.


*likewise, the ASA dismissed objections to those humanist bus ads literally because it's not within their remit to determine if god exists.

 

[wadia-miester]

Felix,

Very reasoned and honest observations

 

[YNMOAN]

The testing commissioned by RA was carried out by Ben Duncan (I believe). Given that it is the validity of this testing that has been called into question, how do people think this reflects on Ben Duncan?

 

[nando]

i always think that cables are system dependant, having tried well known brands and some non branded, it gave me a very wide yet narrow choice of preference, but the most thing that worried me was the tremendous prices they sell for, most cases to me i found untestable, the ones that i prefer " me personally" are LAT, & AUDUSA,

 

[sq225917]

The testing commissioned by RA was carried out by Ben Duncan (I believe). Given that it is the validity of this testing that has been called into question, how do people think this reflects on Ben Duncan?

My personal view is that any experiment in which the circumstances are atypical of the situation in which the DUT will be used either show the person who defined the test protocol wanted to skew the results or simply didn't understand the topic at hand.

I have no idea who defined the test protocol in this instance.

 

[Arkless Repairs]

I wonder how long it will be before this degenerates into the topic of cables in general :JPS:

 

[YNMOAN]

To be honest, I don't think the 'cables make no difference' argument is very pertinent in this case. It is the issues regarding objective proof that i find interesting.

I can't help but wonder how many people will comment in any sense - a significant amount of forum traffic appears to be from spam bots and sellers of second hand equipment.

 

[RobHolt]

To be honest, I don't think the 'cables make no difference' argument is very pertinent in this case.

Grown-up discussions on the subject are very rare indeed, as it seems everything has to be black and white. That is the problem.