What’s your vote for the most ridiculous, overpriced, and useless tweak?


My vote: Furutech Outlet Cover 105 NCF $220, with “special crystalline material that has two “active” properties.” https://www.thecableco.com/outlet-cover-105-ncf.html

glow_worm

I am hoping that this will be a thread we can have some fun with, but I'll clarify a bit. What got me thinking about this is that I was at one of the retailers I frequent, where I’ve spent quite a bit recently. He actually asked me to buy one of these (similar price, not these) and after I thought about it I was pretty insulted. Did he think I was a pigeon? I don’t know about the rest of you, but I didn’t make my money by being anyone’s fool.

So, no lalitk, I don’t have any empirical evidence, and frankly your very serious and utterly humorless comment does help make my point…that maybe some high end vendors do see us as pigeons, who will try anything. At my age I believe I do a pretty good job of identifying the ridiculous, and avoiding getting bilked by con men…that frankly I think prey on the somewhat neurotic behavior of some audiophiles. I submit that a Borneo fruit bat couldn’t detect a difference in the sound with or without a $220 outlet cover (well, maybe you could), and I’m not going to get swindled to find out.

Geoffkait, good point, maybe I should have used ‘or’ but I wanted leave it wide open for responses. That said, I believe that this product would be a great example of the Venn intersection, dead center. And there are a number other examples I’ve spotted over the years.

Millerc, good question. I rest on my comments above, simply con artist detection, not trial. Things that just don’t pass the smell test, and are too expensive and ridiculous to even try. (just read your Stereophile Scull example, hilarious!)

So, if any of you can think of a tweak that seems absurd, please share, because I vote that there are indeed MANY “ridiculous, overpriced, and useless tweaks.”

jl


People would generally be much better off if they believed in too much rather than too little. - PT Barnum

Every crowd has a silver lining. - PT Barnum
Piezoelectric wall outlet covers work and they work extremely well. You can test this yourself with fo.Q tape, stuck onto the outside of a regular outlet cover. A cheap way to re-arrange your thinking.
^^^ Try pasting the inside of the wall outlet cover with PPT Total Contact and see what happens.

Frank
I’ve been designing and selling audiophile products based on piezoelectric crystals for a wide range of audio applications, including but not limited to power plugs, walls, windows, room acoustics, for more than 15 years. I also designed and have been selling a wall outlet that acts like a resonator for around ten years but who’s counting?  No big deal. Maybe for someone living in a cave.