Everyone is trying to get between you and your money, but no industry I can think of is willing to outright fraud you as hard as the audio industry. We found this Australian site that has hundreds of products ranging from overpriced to downright scam. I mean, they're selling $200 stickers that they claim will impact your experience more than the $2,000 amplifier you already bought.
So We bought them. But wait, they sent a green iPad and wait, what? Hey, what's this?
What's this in here? This is the worst plane tickets ever mate. Like you could have given me a seat, could you?
It's tank pods! I'm jet-lagged. This is gonna be fun.
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So to test all of this crazy stuff, we got our reference monitors from the lab, the ones that we use to test headphones, all that kind of stuff. And we have brought an assortment of crazy things. And Dan.
And also we brought an assortment of crazy things. What is, what is the red box thing then? You want this?
I don't know what it is. Okay, these are called, these are cable lifters. Made in the USA.
Yeah. But I can pick them up. These are American.
You wouldn't understand. It basically means they're worse and more expensive. Oh.
Look at the case. That's how you know, it's nice. Yeah, I think that's just the shipping.
Okay, it's not glass. As everyone knows, the ground, the earth has a certain level of capacitance, right? And dirt.
Oh, they're dirty? Well, I don't know, they've got this powder on them. Probably energizes the Americans who made them.
The earth itself has like a certain charge. That's why when like you have something grounded, electricity goes down. This prevents that capacitance from, from assaulting the signal.
As you can see, we have a really big problem right now. Can you guys point it out to me? That's right.
The cable is on the ground. Oh my goodness, no. So what these do is that they allow the cable.
Oh, wow. To stay lifted. I think it's supposed to work like that.
They say about one every 1. 5 meters to 2 meters. That one come out.
This is the best kind of suspension bridge. Suspension of disbelief bridge. Well now, okay.
So now we've lifted part of the cable and that's gonna help remedy some of the issue. But not if it's touching the ground, mate. Hey guys.
We've done a full loop for nothing. I don't know what to tell you. These cost $650 US dollars.
Did they send samples? No, we bought them. These bunny ears are for their proprietary flat cables.
You mean the one where in the manual it says they may be a different shape due to manufacturing? Yeah, the flat cables. Yeah.
I've looked at reviews of their flat cables and apparently their flat cables suck and are noisy. What cable could you lift with just two of them? The good news is we have a lot more of these.
These are the fog lifters from AudioQuest. Looks like a big floss kit or something. Cable uppers, isolate RF noise.
What? This isn't, is this even English? I just know my kids, when my kids were little, uppers.
You need not fear because this is, and I quote from the box, the next best to levitation for preserving your low-level signal. Yeah, and actually, these are far more reasonably priced. I don't even know how to start.
I would have said I thought that was like 50 bucks even at stupid audiophile pricing. I don't know $100. 95 USD.
I've never been less happy to be right. They're nice. They definitely keep your cable off the floor.
Well, this kit actually has a chance of actually doing it. Yeah, that one like doesn't have enough tension on it. So it doesn't actually support the cable, but these are like.
. . It's like a kid's ukulele.
We'll move on. Okay. So now the cable is still touching the damn floor.
Oh, no. We have two products and we still haven't alleviated the situation. Oh, my junk.
Okay, but we have, we didn't do a before test. We haven't done any tests. Oh, yeah.
Do you want to listen to it before? Yeah, the crossover is a little off. Yeah, the crossover is not great.
Yeah we should probably fix it. I got it. Okay.
Okay. All right. That's it.
Quick. Get the cables lifted. Okay, cables lifted.
We gotta do the fastest cable lift AB test. Pull against me. AB test.
Let's go. Let's go. Come on, boys.
Oh, it's got power on it. Dan, move. You're in the sound field.
You remember what it sounds like, boys? What we should expect is a little bit more air and less noise floor. Oh, I hear it.
Oh, f*** you. Too much air now. That's okay.
We have a lot more fixes to apply. You see, we've solved the cable problem being on the ground and everything, but we haven't solved our source problem. Computers weren't made to make music.
Oh, okay. It looks, it feels fancy. It looks pretty cool.
It's heavy. It could be the heavy metal container. It's machined.
Feel the heft in that. Yeah. Does it just have like a brick in it?
It's a macro quantum. Oh, now I get it. What's a macro quantum?
It doesn't, I expected like a headphone jack or something. Quantum sounds cool. So basically, here's the thing about USB.
It was made to transfer files, not audio. I'm not saying anything. I'm gonna lose my g**d*** mind.
The system is gonna introduce a lot of noise into your USB port, which is a thing that can actually happen. There's no output on this. It just plugs in.
Yeah, you just plug it into one USB and it fixes the other ones. It's nice because it takes up a whole port. It'll take up two ports if you don't put it on the extension.
It uses a special detection circuit to detect noise and sends a compensatory corrective signal to noise cancel the noise. So the solution to noise is more noise. That is how noise canceling works.
I know. Car mufflers do the same thing. It shoots the sound back at itself.
Okay, and I'm gonna plug it in and I want you guys to tell me when you think I've plugged it in or not. I'm waiting for the Windows USB connected sound. Well, it probably doesn't have anything in it.
Did you guys hear it? No. Are you, oh, you're sure?
Because it's blinking. It is. It is working.
Wow, there is something in it. How much did this one cost? How much do you think this is?
It has a blinking light in it. 250 bucks. That's how much an LED cost, isn't it?
Yeah, LED's are expensive. Well, I'll say. Wade, you were very, very close.
Oh, no! $263. Can I destroy it?
Yeah. Well, you want to open it up? Yeah.
No, no, we have to, we have to try all our things first. We didn't even get to try it. We'll open it after, Dan.
We also have another one called a Jitterbug. That's a fun name. So I like it already.
Wow, Stereophile Recommended. Editor's Choice Award from some idiot. I've heard really good things about the Drgonfly.
The Drgonfly is actually a really good. Yeah, that's little USB-A. Yeah.
Okay, now hold on just a second. This seems like it might actually be a thing. Then it went full completely off the rocker bulls***.
For an additional improvement in audio performance, you can use a second Jitterbug in another unoccupied USB port that is in parallel to the first. That is not what parallel means. Well, I mean, aren't they technically all serial?
Not the point. Look at this diagram. Here's how you use one.
Here's how you use one, and also give them more of your money. That's, that's something you'll notice in a lot of these products is that in the manual they will say, for better performance, buy another. So Jitter is a real thing back before sound cards and sound chips were like very, very prevalent and common.
So it kind of was like. . .
Like the sample rate wasn't clocked perfectly to the clock. Yeah, and that was more a matter of the fact that your CPU had to keep up. On modern hardware, that basically doesn't exist.
Audio is baby stuff now. Yeah. So most of the recording studios I've recorded in, they're still using a Mac from 2006.
All right, well, want to plug it in in parallel with the other one? Oh, you don't want to do the pass-through? No, yeah, this one can have the pass-through.
The other one can run in parallel. Oh, okay. Yeah.
Still like the song. Wait, wait, Adam. How much was it?
Only $70. Cheapest one yet. Is there a deal for two?
No, we've gotten our cable off the ground. We've gotten our signal from the computer cleaned up, but here's the issue. We got dirty power from the wall from the city of Surrey.
Yuck. Change your filter. Get all the dirt out of it.
Well, that's what we're about to do. Oh, wow. Oh my god.
Oh goody. I was told we can't actually do that because of WorkSafe. Significantly greater metal mass and grip.
Metal mass. More metal. Beryllium copper base metal for superior spring tension and hanging silver plated surfaces for superior RF noise dissipation.
Also, I know a thing or two about what silver looks like and this ain't it. You're not allowed to eat it. You're not allowed to.
I want to. Oh no he’s gonna die. If there was no audiophile nonsense marketing attached to it, I'm actually super into this product.
Just a North American outlet that doesn't just immediately fall out. That's chewy. Yeah, it's good.
That's chewy. I would easily pay like $15 or something like this. Would you easily pay 50 times the amount of a normal wall outlet?
Sorry, how much is it? $200 I'm about to show you two pictures. This is a this is an oscilloscope.
I'm ready for the meme. This is an oscilloscope showing the power from the wall. Get in here, Pam.
So this is AC that's going up and down. So that's the first picture. Yep.
That's the second. Can you show the second one now? This is the second picture.
No, no, but that's the second first one. Oh, no, stop showing the same one. This is the.
. . It's very hard with a scoopula.
Don't you have tools in this building? I have a screwdriver right here. Don't you sell screwdrivers?
LTTstore. com I don't think this is silver, Adam. They look silver.
They're very shiny, though. They're too shiny. It's possible.
There is some silver in here of some sort. I'm not gonna just come out and say fraud, false advertising, but as far as I can tell, I don't see it. So that's where we're at on that.
To keep on the powertrain, because we can't put that into the wall, so I bought the next best thing, which is the Q-Vibe Nordost. Oh, no, these guys again. No!
I know it's called a Q-Vibe and it looks like it's the size of a travel sized. . .
Okay. All right. All right.
All right. All right. A dildo.
Okay, stop. Oh, I get it. Shut up.
It doesn't even have a pass-through. Yeah, it just goes in. You just plug it into.
. . You just plug it in and then it.
. . It's magic.
Well, it's important because it doesn't affect the source impedance or peak current available from your power line, but acts to reduce errors and irregularities in the waveform. How much you want to bet that inside there is just an AC to DC power supply and a blue LED? Do you want me to go cut it open?
No, I don't think that's necessary. Oh, I like working for you. We didn't even get to try it.
Hey, that's carbon! That is actually. .
. I think. .
. That sounds like carbon fiber. The finish on it, too.
This feels good. Do you want to have a try? Yeah.
It just feels good to chew into. Oh, I like it. Wow, that is really carbon fiber.
You're not supposed to break that stuff and breathe it in. That's why I kind of handed it off. Dan got it off.
Dan got it off. Okay, what are we looking at, Dan? A giant resistor and a tiny capacitor.
And then some kind of IC that they. . .
They did it! They f***ing did it! Come have a look at this.
They sanded the markings off the IC in it so that we can't tell that it's nothing. An LED driver. It takes 120 volt, converts it to 5 volt, and then shits it out into this LED.
It enhances the musical performance and picture quality of any AV system at an incredibly affordable price. $405. So Nordost literally is scamming people out of so much money.
What do you think the total cost of that is? Yeah, like $3 maybe, if you make 50 of them. Don't worry, don't worry.
Just because our power's not clean doesn't mean we can't fix it up. What we gotta do is we gotta trap and contain the power that we got already. These are gold-plated XLR caps from Telos.
We've only had three brands appear in this video so far. AudioQuest, Nordost, and Telos. Telos is like.
. . They are the god kings of this.
They have a $30,000 cable burn-in machine. I wanted to make one of those. And they got one pin in them.
Yeah, so it just plugs the ground. Ah. What?
Why? So the sound don't leak. So it also sounds like plumbing, like water.
What? So you don't want it to drip out, you put this in. I would've had to buy like 400 of these.
They're made of copper for the best effective material to isolate EMI and RF noise absorption. The best 24 karat gold-plated techniques. The best.
Yeah, there's pure Teflon inside, which is also the best material for isolation. Okay, but you guys, this is important and I didn't do this and I'm really sorry. There is a burn-in time on these.
F*** you. F*** you. F*** you.
That's like having a burn-in time on your house tap. Is this supposed to be Teflon? Because I don't see anything else that could possibly be Teflon.
Yeah, I think that's the Teflon part. It's like a little dog tag. Have you ever had pure Teflon?
I'm full of microplastics. This is not made of copper. Oh, is that silver in there?
It shouldn't surprise me that someone who's willing to lie about the function of the product would lie about the composition of the product. But I don't think I've seen anything this brazen yet. How much were these again?
Oh, yeah. Yeah, they're $82 for two. What do they think this is, camera equipment?
I had this realization when I was shopping for rugs for our new place with Yvonne. And they had these rugs that were $80,000. And I was sitting here going, I cannot tell the difference between these ones and the ones at Bianca's Liquidation Outlet in Surrey.
Yvonne and I were discussing it afterward, and then I went. . .
We've used designers for things like set construction before. And when they quote you, they quote you a percentage of the total cost of the project. And so it's in their interest to take bulls**t like this, hide it as little tiny plausible enough sounding line items on a $400,000, the finest, installation.
So that they can collect their $8 for their 10% commission. And the people who are paying for it didn't know or care the difference. So in a way, this is a tax on the rich for the working sap.
And we should support it. And it looks cool. Boom!
Got him! We can fix up our cheap-ass ports with a special coating. CleanIt is a high-quality electrical contact enhancer that has been specifically formulated to clean and condition connections between hi-fi and home cinema equipment.
In an ideal world, both the male and female ports of all connection points would be manufactured to match exactly. But in reality, this is never the case. CleanIt removes all contaminants.
It's isopropyl alcohol. Yeah, that's 100%. This should be illegal.
Because it does give you the appropriate warnings. Keep out of reach of children. Do not swallow.
In case of contact with eyes, etc. Highly flammable. But what it doesn't say is what the f**k it is.
And you can't ship chemicals like that. Not even here on the container. I brought this on the plane, mate.
You're gonna get me in trouble. Cleans dirty sockets and connectors. In fairness, this will clean a dirty thing.
Yeah. But you can get liters of this for however much they're charging. Oh no.
Yeah. Oh no. Don't worry, actually.
This is the cheapest thing we bought. Okay. 40 bucks.
40 bucks. Yeah! 40 bucks Canadian.
This next product is a remaster ring. So it's for remastering? I've done remastering.
I get it. It takes a long time. That's actually pretty funny.
I'll pay just for the joke. This company's named Fo Q. Vibrational energy is converted to electric energy and finally to heat energy, enabling efficient absorption.
There are no rubber or heavy metal overtones. I hate when those rubber overtones dig in. It's the worst.
But CDs are ones and zeros. All of this fixes digital stuff. These are just vinyl stickers.
These are vinyl stickers. I promise you, these are just made of vinyl. No.
No. Made in Japan. Shall we listen?
It's 38 Canadian dollars, so about 28 dollars. So actually not that bad. So about two bucks each.
How are my rubber overtones? Is there any more air in my voice? Wow, you sound amazing.
The final part of the chain that we need to correct is us. New ears. Actually, these are from Flair.
These are called Ear HDs, and what they're designed to do is make stuff sound better. Yours is in-ear device for higher sound quality, and mine is revolutionary sound-focusing device. So this is so I only hear things in front of me, and this is so that he can hear everything.
Okay, so theoretically, I should be able to better focus on that. I'm doing it. I've done it.
I can't hear you because you're over there. I can only hear in front of me now. No, no, you're mistaken.
Your one is to hear everything all around you. What? Yeah, that's not what yours does.
My name is. . .
This is yours. So you can hear everything better. Well, actually, everything's slightly worse because I've got this plastic rubbish in my ears.
Can you hear me like a super spy now? I can hear you talking. You're talking kind of quietly.
Okay, I'm going to keep the same volume, but keep your head still. I'm just going to walk behind you. I'm just going to walk behind you.
Can you hear me now? Can you hear me now? I'm keeping the same volume the whole time.
You can hear me now? Yeah, I can hear you now. Are you on a cell phone?
Are you checking if I can hear you now? Do I sound behind you? Everything, regardless of whether it's behind me or in front of me, sounds like s***.
It sounded so much better when I took them out. Yeah, see, here's the thing. Your ears use the entire shape of your ears to give you positionality.
So all you're really doing is taking all the sound that would normally come into your ear through this giant hole here, and you're putting it through this little tiny hole, and then you're blocking the work that your ear is doing, that the lobe is doing, making it so you can't tell where sound is coming from, and it all sounds like ass. But wait. What if I could hear behind me better?
These ones are easy to A-B test. Wow, that's so much better now. They're like bass dehancers.
It's like wearing a small shoe all day, so you look forward to taking them off. So you wear these all day, take them out and go, Ah! Okay.
They're just earplugs. Okay, so take them out, take them out. Ow!
That's the look of a satisfied customer. Please tell me they weren't very expensive. Oh, they're not that bad.
These are designed to trick the general public. They were about $30 and $50, respectively. $30 for the 360s, $50 for the 90s, which are the.
. . This is the final thing.
I just want to read you a section from a review. The combined effect of the first Revive RR777 and the second RR777 was too much for me. It gave me a moderate case of vertigo.
Wow, look at that painted silver. Sorry, can I just. .
. Oh wow, it's so light, you gotta hold it down. So Schumann resonance is an electromagnetic phenomenon that's produced from lightning strikes.
The resonance comes from the reflection of 7. 68 Hertz waves of radiation bouncing between the Earth's surface and the ionosphere, and it has sometimes been referred to as the heartbeat of the Earth. Do you have a paper to sort?
Okay, so this is a legitimate thing, and it's part of the reason why Northern Lights happen. Okay, I'm on board, I'm on board, I'm on board. What this does is it produces that frequency.
Oh no. All you need to do is place this in your room, and then the Schumann resonance pulses that come from it will improve the quality of your audio, and probably even how you feel. Please don't dismantle it yourself.
Give me the screwdriver! Ow! Ow.
I think before we open it, we should take a listen. Behold. Yeah!
Do you feel it? Oh, turn it off. Okay, so my eyes are closed.
Okay, so turn it off at some point, and we'll let you know if we can tell. Now! All right, Dan, do you want to take it apart?
It's incredible. I think we just need two of them, and then I will get a severe case of vertigo. Yeah.
Ooh! Oh, look at that nice-looking. .
. That's sick. That looks cool.
That's an antenna. Hey, they've used plug-in connectors. That's really nice for service.
I actually like that. This is the cheapest PCB that I think I've seen on a modern device in, gosh, 20 years? Is that just one layer?
It's one-sided. Yeah, one-sided. These are just labeled Connector 1, Connector 2.
Oh, the one with the three pins. Sorry, this is. .
. We don't even have the upgraded version. there’s a new one.
Oh, wow. The revision. So this is the s*** one.
Yeah, this is garbage. Something to be noted. So, Schumann.
. . The Schumann Resonance is a classic alternative medicine healing kind of thing where it's like, oh, you play it in your room, and it'll make you feel better.
But this is a unique application of trying to rip off, not sick people, but idiots. Sorry. Audio piles.
How much is it? Don't look. Don't look.
I already saw. It's 500 US dollars? Yes, and do you want to know the name of the man who sold this to you from Grooveworks?
Peter Griffin. Adam, can I hook this up to the oscilloscope and see what this is doing? Sure.
I also want to go through the amount of stuff we couldn't buy because of the budget that you applied. And this is what I'm so sad about. We didn't get our quantum stickers in time.
They're on the way. What? Soundstage clarity and imaging is indescribable.
Peter, I can't believe what I'm hearing. Peter, I can't believe what I'm hearing. We spent all that money on those cable lifts, but what we could have done is spend them on something to get them organized.
Yeah. Stick it to this. Oh, yeah.
Oh, wow. Oh, wow. That's what I wanted you to.
. . Okay, so it's going between like 6.
. . No, 1.
5 hertz. I think it's a. .
. Maybe it was when you grabbed it, it changed the waveform. No, I'm moving the pot.
Yeah, okay, there we go. Two, three, four. .
. Oh, yeah, there you go. Four and a half.
All right, so it's doing something. Just like I'm doing something. Telling you about our sponsor.
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. . Do you know how we got the better audio quality on Floatplane?
Was it a mistake, an accident? Schumann resonance. Oh, this whole time.
