Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Advice from Axiom Owners Audio Review Rant

I had to post a link to this review of gel pads for isolation. I went through a gamut of emotions while reading this. My first reaction was to laugh, especially when I read that he put these gel pads under his speaker wires to isolate for vibration. Then I nearly vomited from disgust when I read how he established a reference by removing all isolation equipment before using the pads and found that “one of the more engaging jazz releases in my collection suddenly became rather univolving”. GIVE ME A BREAK! He’s using some of the most expensive audio gear available (not that price = quality), including the highly regarded Wilson Audio WATT/PUPPY 7’s. He also describes his test CD Flamingos [hatOLOGY 609] as being an excellent recording from one of his favorite labels. Is he trying to make readers believe that his system sucks when his components are sitting on regular shelves, and his speaker wires are sitting on the floor? I find audio reviews such as this are a farce, and it upsets me as a readier and audio lover that reviewers write such non-sense.
My question is, do reviewers who publish reviews such as this really believe the things they right? I would be willing to bet my house that if he did a double-blind A/B he would not be able to hear a difference between speaker wires on the floor, and speaker wires raised by 4 gel pads! Nor would he be able to differentiate between his cd player on the shelf, and his cd player under the gel pads, unless the vibration is so great that the player skips when not isolated.
I should have seen it coming though, with a website entitled Ultraaudio.
End Rant.

Note: I did my best to not use ... () and base!

Well Dan - I could NOT agree with you more. How gullible do they think the average HT person is?

Now - had they done a review on the isolation pads that use the pastel green colored gel, THEN they would have my full attention and an order!

I agree, the high end audio jounalists frequently seem to be slathered in snake oil. I give little credence to any of these subjectly judged articles. It seems to be little more than the hokum venders in partnership with the industry writers they support.

"I believe virtually everything I read, and I think that is what makes me more of a selective human, than someone who doesn’t believe anything"

--- David St. Hubbins

What a joke.

I get so flabberghasted at this stuff. I try to not buy products from retailers who shill this stuff, be they $1000 isolation shelves, $800 a/c cords, $30,000 turntables, or what have you. They may have other worthwhile products, but that they would sell such stuff irritates me to no end. Part of me can't blame them - there's a market for it! That's capitalism! But another part of me thinks that part of good customer service is not letting your customers waste thousands of dollars on such useless garbage.

Spinal Tap , jejeje

Oh, mercy... here's a new one on me!

http://www.referenceaudiomods.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=NOB_C37_C&Category_Code=VOLUME&Product_Count=2

:|

the name of the company is RAM. ill just leave it at that.

Well, if you're going to spend $9,050 for an amplifier and $2,100 on an external battery kit for the amp, you may as well go all the way and send an extra $485 on knobs! That's a new low!