The most intense placebo you ever experienced

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by petertakov, Oct 22, 2016.

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  1. petertakov

    petertakov Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Sofia, Bulgaria
    Have you ever experienced the placebo effect? I mean, you most certainly have, but have you caught yourself and have been shocked by how real it is?

    I have recently spent 15 minutes fine-tuning the crossover frequency and the volume of my TV system subwoofer until it was perfectly integrated. By making minor adjustments to the knobs I was able to make the bass and drums sound fuller without being boomy, the voices to sound a bit "richer" without becoming chesty and even the treble sounded a bit more extended. I was quite proud of myself being able to clearly identify the effect of even the tiniest moves of the knobs. That is until I found out it was actually switched off.

    Go ahead, be a man, embarrass yourself forever with your placebo story :))
     
    Merrick, fuse999, Jimi Floyd and 37 others like this.
  2. Gretsch6136

    Gretsch6136 Forum Resident

    At a hi-fi store the proprietor demonstrated what he called tuning beaks. Basically little weights that he put on top of the speakers. he said that different placement would alter the speaker's response. Sure enough I heard a difference. One placement accentuated the highs, another accentuated the bass and so on. Whatever he said I would here is what I heard.

    I subsequently realised that he must have just been conducting his own experiment on how easy it was to influence what people thought they heard through the power of suggestion.
     
    rod, missan, showtaper and 6 others like this.
  3. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    oooooh, a lot of people here are gonna hate this thread :laugh:
     
  4. Ham Sandwich

    Ham Sandwich Senior Member

    Location:
    Sherwood, OR, USA
    There was a time when I had convinced myself that MP3 at a high enough bit rate was perfectly transparent. I had ripped everything to MP3 because that was good enough. And hard drives back then were small (120 MB was big). I continued to believe that long past that I should and continued to rip to MP3 long past that I should. I had convinced myself that MP3 was good enough. I was fooled.
     
  5. Hermetech Mastering

    Hermetech Mastering Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Milan, Italy
    Happens all the time to me in mastering, there I am tweaking away at the EQ, getting it to sound just perfect, then I realise it's in bypass. :)
     
  6. razerx

    razerx Forum Resident

    Location:
    Sonoma California
    Can we say drugs and alcohol?
     
  7. Hermetech Mastering

    Hermetech Mastering Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Milan, Italy
    There's nothing placebo about 500 mics of Albert's finest.
     
    iggyd, trd, nitsuj and 3 others like this.
  8. missan

    missan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm
    Placebo is just a part of most people´s life. It has happened to me many times, the worst case I don´t really know.
     
  9. action pact

    action pact Music Omnivore

    Heh heh, I hope your customers don't read this!
     
  10. richbdd01

    richbdd01 Forum Resident

    Location:
    London
    Without you I'm nothing
     
  11. Bill Hart

    Bill Hart Forum Resident

    Location:
    Austin
    I'm still not sure about this one-- a Schumann Resonance generator. I have one of the "audiophile approved" ones made by Acoustic Revive. The first time I turned it on I became somewhat nauseous. Thereafter, in experiments with it, on and off, it seems to tighten the image and bring the sound forward. There are also times when you cannot tell if it is doing anything (shutting it on or off during a listening session). There are other times when it clearly is doing something- but no one, to my knowledge, knows what that is or why. (Various theories, from suppression of EMI to a calming effect on the human body). Read the general literature on the subject of the Schumann Resonance, and you'll soon be praying to the moon, wearing Birkenstocks and and expecting to see alien spacecraft.
    Here's the crazy thing--I still use it. Maybe they did find something in Roswell, New Mexico.
     
    Eduardo Denaro likes this.
  12. missan

    missan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm
    This You can be very sure of, they didn´t.
     
  13. missan

    missan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm
    I just remembered the worst case for me. I worked with a company that were flourising some parts for our company. (Flour gas is extremely toxic). The instruments showed we got a leak somewhere. I became very dizzy and could hardly stand up. After investigations it turned out there was no leak, I then became better. :)
     
    rxonmymind, OcdMan, Kyhl and 7 others like this.
  14. Hermetech Mastering

    Hermetech Mastering Mastering Engineer

    Location:
    Milan, Italy
    Well I wouldn't have posted it on a public forum if I had been worried about that, would I? Why do you hope they shouldn't read this?

    Surely it shows integrity and humanity, no? I've never pretended to be perfect. It also serves well to illustrate the premise of the OP. We all do such things from time to time, I always notice in the end and give myself a huge face palm. :)
     
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2016
    SandAndGlass, Gumboo, sami and 5 others like this.
  15. hesson11

    hesson11 Forum Resident

    Years ago, I was convinced that the sound from my expensive external DAC was better than the direct feed from my Rotel CD player. Then I happened to notice that I had switched the inputs, and when I thought I was listening to the DAC, I was in fact listening to the CD player. I had someone re-do the hookup so I didn't know which one I was listening to. Couldn't tell a damn's worth of difference.
    -Bob
     
    jimbutsu, Robert C, wgriel and 10 others like this.
  16. Bryan T

    Bryan T Forum Resident

    Location:
    L.A.
    Similar experience in a recording studio. Tweak the eq and compression on a track until it is perfect, only to realize it is bypassed or I'm tweaking the wrong track.
     
    Robert C, Ephi82, Kyhl and 5 others like this.
  17. james

    james Summon The Queen

    Location:
    Annapolis
    Great thread. Funny stuff

    One day my stereo was sounding particularly good. I wondered why, but then didn't think much of it. A couple of days later i saw that my wife unplugged my big industrial power strip and replaced it with a flimsy IKEA unit to make more room for a lamp. Made me realize some things don't matter as much as we think they do.

    Turns out the reason my stereo was sounding great was the big ass christmas tree in the corner. It always sounds better during the holidays.
     
    action pact, octaneTom, sami and 12 others like this.
  18. timind

    timind phorum rezident

    Cable swaps for me. I've "upgraded" cables and heard an improvement only to realize after a few weeks of listening that the difference faded. Put the old cables back in and no change heard.

    The cables I use now are well built, but not fancy. I've stopped upgrading cables and definitely stopped "listening to" cables.
     
  19. Eduardo Denaro

    Eduardo Denaro Forum Resident

    Location:
    Minnesota
    The speaker weights are pretty funny. I think a lot of this hobby is full of bologna. Though it's meat that I'm more than happy to eat! This whole thing we all do would be pretty boring if it weren't for little (or big) things that we all do to our systems that may or may not have any effect on its performance. I like to maintenance on my pickup and tell myself that it's running better. I can just feel the gas running smoother through that new fuel filter, or wow, a few less psi in those tires are making this ride so much smoother. These new spark plugs and wires really have this engine purring like a kitten. Do they really make that noticeable of a difference? I don't always know.
     
    Gretsch6136, missan and petertakov like this.
  20. dividebytube

    dividebytube Forum Resident

    Location:
    Grand Rapids, MI
    Not something that happened to me, but something I remember from the early 90s:

    In college I had a real cool philosophy professor who was also an audiophile. My GF and I went over to his house to check out his system - Conrad-Johnson tube gear and Martin-Logan electrostats. I can't remember the brand of CD player or turntable anymore.

    Anyway, we listen to a track on CD. And then he takes out the CD, sprays some sort of audiophile cleaner / "anti-jitter" thing on it, and we listen to the same track again. He's smiling and happy this time, and claims how much better the sound is now. I didn't hear a single difference, but he sure did!
     
    hi_watt and PhilBiker like this.
  21. Rogn Valdr

    Rogn Valdr Forum Resident

    Location:
    Courtrai, Belgique
    Did no one tell you you have to turn the cables around every couple of weeks to prevent digital dust particles from settling and clogging the wires...
     
  22. Ghostworld

    Ghostworld Senior Member

    Location:
    US
    My USB cable running to my DAC was to short, so I coughed up for a good quality, longer one. For a couple days I was so proud of how much richer my system now sounded, until I realized the loudness button had gotten pushed in. One click and that tweak disappeared.
     
  23. ThmsFrd

    ThmsFrd Forum Resident

    I remember reading some audiophile forum named Steeve Holgan or so, where everybody was constantly hearing major differences between 16/44 and 96/24.

    Fun times
     
  24. Fiddlefye

    Fiddlefye Forum Resident

    It isn't the eggnog?
     
    SandAndGlass and james like this.
  25. Ntotrar

    Ntotrar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tri-Cities TN
    It all sounds more mellow and laid back after consuming a few pale ales.
     
    SandAndGlass, sami, Kyhl and 3 others like this.
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