Biggest audio hoaxes


Often when people discuss audio, they talk about "snake oil" or "hoaxes."

It's pretty typical to use the term hoax as a tactic against another who disagrees with one, or holds an unusual opinion or vouches for something which has not been verified. That's not what I mean by a "hoax." 

By "hoax" I mean an audio product or claim which has been pretty definitively disproved. Maybe not to everyone's satisfaction, but to common consensus.

So -- with that definition of hoax in mind, what are some of the biggest audiophile hoaxes you've heard of?
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If all it takes is one person’s experience to disprove something that everyone else testifies (with evidence) is a hoax, that really opens up the marketplace!

But seriously, taste is not that subjective. That’s why words like "peppery" or "bitter" or "goopy," etc. are understood. We share a biology, we share cultural norms and history, and we share language. Not exactly, of course, but enough to make judgements about taste or hoaxes with sufficient objectivity for them to be understood as binding. Are there lots of debates at the margins? Sure. But the fact that there are fuzzy sections along a line of discrimination doesn't eradicate clear demarcators.

So, the question as to whether there are "hoaxes" can, at least sometimes, be resolved. If you disagree, the next time your mechanic tells you that he chased gremlins out of your engine and charged you an extra $500 for that, you’ll have to pay him. Because if you cry "hoax" and all he has to do is testify that he saw them, you’ll lose the argument and be out $500.
Gremlin chasers are a bread unto themselves.

Sometime they are HEROS. A hero is a guy that MAKES a problem so he or she can be the hero and FIX the problem.  

A real Gremlin, can't find it.. BUT it'd always simple physics. Water cannot flow up hill in a river, but it can in a tunnel. :-)

Master M how's things going?.. All well I hope... Teach um!!
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Biggest Hoax,

How Magazine - Reviews (Essentiually Indirect Adverts) influence readers the next big thing in Audio are the ones they reviewing until next year when it just repeats itself all over again.