Reading the latest post by our member Snake I realized that I cannot name any "snake oil" gizmo in cassette replay. Power cords are hardwired, no one ever mentioned $50+ fuses, no Green Pen to colour the edges of the tape, Shakti Stones are too big for Walkmans... Maybe m'Pingo dots? Or MagLev platform for Nakamichi Dragon, but that is Not snake oil, good support vs. stacking boxes on top of each other does help with hi-end toys. I will put Black Gate caps in my next Walkman resto effort, just for fun. If anything else comes to mind, please post your ideas!!! Interconnects... how do you feel about hi-end cords for the decks? But, as with aftermarket headphone cords, this is not your certified "snake oil"
Today was another day in Paradise for me: kept company to my wife (allois.com) at Beverly Hills Art Walk! Talking to the Artists, not my fellows in my own Medical community is like getting some fresh air!... But thinking about my own question I came up with one: bulk-erasing prerecorded cassette before recording onto it! This must certify as "snake oil"!!! Does it work? Will try and report it here
If you take quality differences in cables serious (which I do) there is indeed nothing that comes to my mind that would qualify as 'snake oil'. I think it is mainly because High End Shaman were not properly there yet at the heydays of cassettes! Otherwise there would have been plenty tweaks possible... magnetic fields, resonances great stuff to design some magic around
Mpingo dot on the tape head instead of the cart Someone has to try it!!... My latest "snake oil" charm is Audio Desk Systeme CD lathe. Haven't played with Magic Green pen yet, but cutting the edges of unbalanced/wobbly CDs makes them playable on my Wadia 781i. Production quality gone so bad recently that Wadia kicks them out, and if played on tiny Discmans some CDs make them vibrate like an unbalanced centrifuge. No wonder folks move into PC audio... @Boodokhan for my main h/p system of Naim CDX/Lehmann Audio BlackCube Linear/HD-650 I use Silver Dragon from MoonAudio. When I needed 12-ft h/p cable from my main stereo to my "sweet spot" I bought Stefan AudioArt E-Series cable. (Initially ordered Cardas cable, but after a few weeks of waiting gave up). Stefan's cable worked very well with WooAudio 3 (my favs were NOS Mullard tubes, with Siemens and Naim CDS3 upstream it was too much of a good thing even for me!). For my everyday casual spinning of Sony WM-D6 (or Discmans/iPods into SR-71) I use HD-600 with HEADPHILE cable. 10+ years ago I fell for Sennheiser ad that HD-570 was specifically voiced for the classical music lovers. As you can see from reviews of this model, Sennheiser dudes must have listened to Xenakis or Stockhausen when thinking about "classical" Larry made custom cable with a mini-connector and HD-570 was tamed. Sorry, I do not remember which Headphile cable I bought for HD-600. My top recommendation, not knowing your headphones or amp, would be Stefan AudioArt.
