dowsing for tubes, resistor polarity and other things.

[pucho812]

OMG,

This is classic.

hovland hp-100

 

[rock soderstrom]

Dowsing is real (X-Files theme sounds in the background)

 

[scott2000]

Wow..

 

[mjrippe]

I had a brief experience working with an Audiophool company. Directional wire, extra-cost treatments, etc. Their "cryo" process consisted of leaving the items in a styrofoam cooler full of dry ice overnight. I guess that means they at least pretended to do something.

 

[pucho812]

I can’t imagine crying freezing tubes. The changes in temps could easily crack the glass

 

[mjrippe]

No, no, the temperature change re-aligns the crystalline structure!

I'm sure dipping them in liquid N2 would crack them, but boxed tubes thrown into a cooler of dry ice would take some time to cool down. Oh, and they did this to the speaker cables, power cords, and probably brass "points" (feet) as well.

 

[pucho812]

You just gave me an idea. Years ago at a local audio meeting there was a demo of a box with a switch and 3 leds. Depending on switch position you got one of the 3 leds to light. What no one knew what was in the box, was that the input went to the output with nothing in between and that the switch with led portion was a placibo. Anyway to watch the heated arguments of the blue sounds better then red and vice versa was a sight to behold. We are talking professionals not audiophiles, but boy did they argue and were even more mad when they found out it was all placibo

 

[My3gger]

It probably happened to most of us. Moving eq controls when in bypass made me hear difference on several occasions, fortunately not big and not for long time. Tubes were even more interesting in this regard because when i matched NOS and new, it dawned on me differences in circuits with NFB are smaller than previously heard. In this case placebo were SQ and similar markings, especially sword on Tesla, gold in them, impressive construction, etc.

 

[ricardo]

Dr. Arthur Bailey was a water diviner.
He could also lay claim to designing the last of the great valve amplifiers, pioneering the use of complementary transistors in amps and the invention of the modern transmission line speaker as a consultant for Radford. eg
New Phase Splitter
A friend of mine was at a tutorial in Doc Bailey's office when he got an urgent call from someone who had a burst water main.
Doc Bailey asked him to put the phone on an extension and wander around the garden under his guidance. He found the leak within 10min.
Not sure this corresponds to the explanation in
Turning The Solomon Key

 

[JohnRoberts]

It probably happened to most of us. Moving eq controls when in bypass made me hear difference on several occasions, fortunately not big and not for long time. Tubes were even more interesting in this regard because when i matched NOS and new, it dawned on me differences in circuits with NFB are smaller than previously heard. In this case placebo were SQ and similar markings, especially sword on Tesla, gold in them, impressive construction, etc.

That is called "expectation bias"...

I recall as a technician back in the 70s, we would add an extra knob to prototypes for the boss to twiddle. It wasn't connected to anything but he didn't know that.

JR