Techno Babble

The gap is getting wider. Today the rate of technological development far outstrips the ability of most people to keep up with it. This, I believe, is at least partly responsible for the increase in proliferation of highly expensive, totally useless gadgets designed to separate affluent but technically ignorant people from their money. Examples abound in every field, but especially where the claimed effect or improvement is highly subjective and appeals to those whose egos surpass their judgment skills.

The home audio systems market seems worse than most; you can buy speaker cables more suited as car jumper leads, wooden control knobs that improve the sound clarity, plastic labels that you stick on your CD’s to make them sound better, the list goes on and on. Even worse, the more stupid and technically worthless the devices are; the more expensive they get! Amazingly, there are people who buy them!

When challenged, the manufacturers of such garbage will never offer technical data proving the efficacy of their product; instead they say their customers are highly intelligent discerning audiophiles who know a good product when they hear it.

I say bollocks!!!

If blind tests were carried out, I’d bet your avid audiophile wouldn’t be able to hear the difference between a wooden knob and no knob at all, monster cable and a piece of lighting flex, sonic plastic and a postage stamp!

Technology is not magic, if people just thought a little and investigated, stuff like this would die out. I once had a science teacher who said to me:

“I’m not here to make you a chemist or an engineer, my job is to teach you how to think!”

Wise words, we need more teachers like this today.