Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion The Water Cooler An Encounter With "Audio Snake Oil"

We've all seen devices which make astounding claims about improving sound systems. Here's a thread from Ars Technica about an encounter someone had with a REAL audio "snake oil" salesman, and his attitude towards his product:
http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/ubb.x?a=tpc&s=50009562&f=67909965&m=57800723427

That's pretty cool. Thanks for the link, Blooz.

I have one! An Acme cryo treated, silver outlet for my tube 2 channel system. I also use Mapleshade double golden helix plus speaker wires in that system.

Antique Sound Labs MG S1 15DT integrated receiver
Ah! Njoe Tjoeb 4000 tube output CDP with upsampler
Vance Dickason Titanic 10" sub
Michaura M55 speakers (very much like M22s)

Sounds beautiful.

LOL!!!

The single greatest audio scam is without question the Nuance speaker sales pitch, sold in a few miscellaneous outlets across Canada.

They take you into this room, tell you about how Nuance makes "special imaging speakers", then proceed to play a bunch of Q-encoded CDs so you'll be "amazed" by sounds appearing in 3D space. Without giving you a chance to ask any questions, inspect the units, or actually test the damn things with your own music, the pushiest salesperson on the planet offers you the "deal of the century" by bringing the price down hundreds and hundreds of dollars. If you're smart enough to actually demand your own audition, the salesperson literally starts insulting you.

Everybody MUST experience the Nuance scam, for sheer entertainment if nothing else.

That does sound like quite the pitch fhw.
Does this occur for every Nuance salesman across the country?
I don't know of any offhand out west otherwise i would certainly go give it a try. It sounds like oodles of arguing fun.

Just as information (click on Product Experience. Um. Yeah. I like the way they don't have product pages except for manuals. And those are pretty much assembly instructions. Not one bit of info on the tech or speakers. (at least, not that I found.)

As an aside, anyone ever notice that if you just put in the beginning of a speaker company's name as the url (ie, www.nuance.com) you ALWAYS find a business solutions company of some sort on the other side, virtually always with an overload of flash animation? Nuance.com is particularly good, because it has sound as well!

That site was awful.
No information at all.
I didn't hear any sound. Are you sure your stereo isn't the source of that music Ken?

No, the other site (nuance.com). I did discover that in their FAQ they had limited info on amp power and sensitivity, but nothing other than that. Including pictures.

Chess,
try Krazy Krazy, they've got Nuance (if you were looking to check them out). I think Visions used to carry them but I think they dropped them a year or two ago.

Chess,

If you do a search on hometheaterforum.com, you'll find a few threads about Nuance, with people from all across the country sharing stories. You may have luck finding a dealer near you.

And yes, I believe the pitch is EXACTLY the same from store to store, with the same Q-encoded songs.

What is Q encoding?

Ken,
it's a special audio format that produces fairly realistic surround sound using only 2 speakers. This is the website, and they've got some cool demos on it.

Q Sound

That is pretty shady.
I had never heard that about any speaker sales before. I've heard many stories about the salespeople themselves though.
Seems there is alot of ignorant retorts being reported when asked about the cost of the speakers. What salesman wouldn't tell you the cost of a speaker?
That just doesn't make any sense.

What happens first in the pitch is the demo by a Nuance tech who "just happens to be there for the day". After he shows the speakers off (you have to interrupt pretty aggressively to get any meaningful questions answered), he immediately hands off to the salesperson.

The salesperson tells you the MSRP (say, $2200/pr for the top model), then brags about how little he'll let the speakers go for. Some online folks have reported giving lowball offers in the realm of 6-700 dollars and having the sale okayed.

You can see why the stores aren't in a rush to get rid of the line, with an astronomical markup. It's an issue of most shoppers being "rubes", and those of us who would catch on shop at high-end/specialty stores anyway.

Here's a pretty lengthy post at HT Forum that rants about the Nuisance speakers.

Got another one right here! Yes, it's green. Now do y'all trust Stereophile?

In reply to:

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Audioprism has officially closed its doors and ceased production on all their products.

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Geez...I wonder why?

Heh. I missed that. Maybe because no one sane was willing to pay $20 for a $.50 pen?