Quote:
Originally Posted by Edwards  Edwards from Toukyo, here. Not many of us Japanese sluts I think.
So all the rage in Japan lately has been the use of high-end multi-outlet power taps and cables. Everyone seems to be using them. I see them popping up in studios everywhere, mostly made by Oyaide: OYAIDE ELEC,co,.ltd.
Their rational seems to be because they are made of OFC or PCOCCA with plugs made with Gold or Rhodium contacts, that they pass electricity faster and pairing certain cables with certain gear (mainly people are using them for computers and audio interfaces, sometimes preamps) that the performance is more stable and brings out different characteristics.
Even simply plugging in an Oyaide multitap into the wall then plugging computer, interface, and monitors into it has been said to produce increased center of sound picture and clarity. Everything seems centered on providing clean, stable power.
As I said EVERYONE here seems to be falling for this. Really respected musicians and engineers alike. Is this mass insanity or is something really happening here? There are many companies making high end power taps and cables, but the Oyaide products seem to be what has caught on.
I ask because my setup has reached the point where I want to invest in some power distributors or taps purely or convenience (outgrew my setup).
Should I jump in and try an Oyaide power multi-tap and cable?
Or should I get a Furman-style power distributor (Tascam makes a good model sold only in Japan). I'm not ready for a full-fledged conditioner, so don't suggest it please. |
The
audiophile victimization industry has got a
lot of mileage out of the basic human trait of
cognitive bias, which can lead people to incorrect interpretations of their own experience and
presumed preference.
Behavioral scientists have found -- and recent brain scan studies have given sometimes dramatic support to the idea -- that humans allow a number of non-objective modes of thinking to color what they
believe are uncolored perceptions. Humans
want to believe in what they've previously believed. Uncertainty produces elevated anxiety in most people (backed by brain scan studies) and the human drive is to come to a
conclusion, any conclusion -- and it is
much more comforting if that conclusion is consistent with prior beliefs and belief frameworks.
IOW, most humans do
not like their personal paradigms shifted.
Problems with the interference of personal belief and perceptual cognition pushed the scientists who specialize in the study of perception, beginning more than 100 years ago, to realize that simple
blind testing was not enough.
In simple blind audio testing, the subject does not know what he's listening to, but the test
giver does. Over and over, it was found that the test giver could contaminate the findings by giving subtle, typically unconscious cues about the source material. Eventually, the practice of
double blind perceptual testing was established as absolutely necessary in much perceptual testing.
By keeping the test
giver and
taker in the dark over which of two sounds was which, more reliable, less biased results could be derived.