Audiophiles and Gearheads - is there any other hobby that has more pseudoscience?

[Mcgyver]

May not qualify as a hobby but the supplement industry like vitamins and nutriceuticals has to be near the top

I listened to a Freakanomics podcast on that .... stunning what goes on, iirc it is entirely unregulated. Pills with only 4% of what they are supposed to contain sort of thing.

 

[Susquatch]

I listened to a Freakanomics podcast on that .... stunning what goes on, iirc it is entirely unregulated. Pills with only 4% of what they are supposed to contain sort of thing.

Out of curiosity, I did a crude check on Jamieson who operate out of Windsor. They do self certify but are also regularly audited by regulatory agencies and an industry compliance review outfit. On the surface, they seem to be one of the better outfits.

 

[Doggggboy]

Out of curiosity, I did a crude check on Jamieson who operate out of Windsor. They do self certify but are also regularly audited by regulatory agencies and an industry compliance review outfit. On the surface, they seem to be one of the better outfits.

I think it may be better regulated here than in the US, where the industry successfully lobbied to have laws passed that prohibit regulation.

 

[someidiot]

Out of curiosity, I did a crude check on Jamieson who operate out of Windsor. They do self certify but are also regularly audited by regulatory agencies and an industry compliance review outfit. On the surface, they seem to be one of the better outfits.

So what you're saying is that they provide higher-quality expensive pee than most.

 

[Susquatch]

So what you're saying is that they provide higher-quality expensive pee than most.

I'm not saying anything like that at all. I'm saying that what I found on line suggests that if Jamieson says their pills have 1000mg of Vitamin C, then some of the independent testing that's been done suggests that it probably does.

 

[JustaDB]

In the test, a group of 12 self-professed audiophiles were blindfolded and asked to distinguish between the expensive Monster 1000 cables and the makeshift coat hanger wires.

Years ago, when I was a young buck (early 20's) I hit this one stereo store in Lethbridge that had a decent listening room. I was looking for a new set of speakers.

Guy sets me up in the room, blindfolded, plays music that I typically listened to & starts running through the gamut of speaker selections. Basically, which do I like the best? First or second? Keep the best & compare it to the next.

The experiment was very revealing. The speaker that I ultimately chose was of decent quality, towards the higher end of things but nowhere near the most expensive. Sales guy told me I had a decent ear & that the speaker I chose was their best seller. That made me feel pretty good.

I've never considered myself an audiophile.

 

[someidiot]

I'm not saying anything like that at all. I'm saying that what I found on line suggests that if Jamieson says their pills have 1000mg of Vitamin C, then some of the independent testing that's been done suggests that it probably does.

I think that it's a reasonable interpretation, given that the routine ingestion of vitamins and "supplements" (absent specific diagnosis) is widely regarded by unbiased practitioners as little more than a generator of pricey urine. Thus, higher-quality inputs...

 

[whydontu]

Should we throw homeopathy into this? I get lots of kidney stones. Yesterday, while waiting for the real drugs to kick in, I came across this gem. Five pellets of 30C berberis will contain maybe 2 molecules of the active ingredient. Dilute the original herb 1:100 30 times, or 1 / (100 to the 30th power).

30C is a homeopathic potency label that describes how many times a remedy has been diluted and shaken. The "C" means each step is a 1-in-100 dilution, and the "30" means that step was repeated thirty times. It is one of the most widely used potencies in home homeopathy.

 

[Upnorth]

Years ago, when I was a young buck (early 20's) I hit this one stereo store in Lethbridge that had a decent listening room. I was looking for a new set of speakers.

Guy sets me up in the room, blindfolded, plays music that I typically listened to & starts running through the gamut of speaker selections. Basically, which do I like the best? First or second? Keep the best & compare it to the next.

The experiment was very revealing. The speaker that I ultimately chose was of decent quality, towards the higher end of things but nowhere near the most expensive. Sales guy told me I had a decent ear & that the speaker I chose was their best seller. That made me feel pretty good.

I've never considered myself an audiophile.

I had a cousin that did these sort of tests. He told me they fed the best quality audio into the speakers they want to sell you.

 

[Tom O]

I have always found that the best thing for kidney stone discomfort is lying in a hot bath with a couple Tylenol.

 

[jcdammeyer]

Years ago I read an article about FM radio. One group wanted to set it to roughly the same bandwidth as AM radio; about 5kHz IIRC.
The proponents of HiFi wanted 15kHz.
They did an experiment with a small live musical group behind a curtain along with loudspeakers.
They compared 5khz bandwidth with live music and the HiFi 15kHz.
Needless to say the AM bandwidth lost badly and the quality of FM is still with us.

 

[Elektrishun]

"Absurd, yet flaccid"

"Audacious, naughty, yet subtle"

 

[Elektrishun]

May not qualify as a hobby but the supplement industry like vitamins and nutriceuticals has to be near the top

I agree.

Health and wellness in general is full of outlandish claims.

Recently, I noticed that the YouTube AI Tai Chi exercise videos that promised you'll get rid of your "dad bod before that next vacation" has been upgraded by a cut-and-paste version claiming "military calisthenics" will now do the same. They always include shirtless dudes who look like they were born in a Soviet lab. My favorite WTF moment of the Tai Chi ad is the young woman talking to the muscular, shirtless, Tai Chi master. She appears to be seeking fitness advice on behalf of her dad 😳. I think the director got his scripts mixed up with "another movie".

 

[JustaDB]

I had a cousin that did these sort of tests. He told me they fed the best quality audio into the speakers they want to sell you.

My test was done w/ CD's & playback was in mono. Same songs for each set of speakers.

 

[whydontu]

I have always found that the best thing for kidney stone discomfort is lying in a hot bath with a couple Tylenol.

Yup, that’s the ticket unless it’s a 100/100 stone and then off to the ER we go. Try ibuprofen, works better than Tylenol. Also really nice to have on-demand hot water, so when the tub cools down I can just add more hot water.