Hi boys and girls!

First day here and I'm already hemmoraging in the head...

I'm going to share a very recent experience with a "Natural Food Company". You see, I shop at a place that was once called "Nature's". It is now called "Wild Oats", and it sort of postures as a health food store, but on a scale of grand salon slickness that already gives one pause. Suffering from a head cold this week, I figured some "Organic Cocoa" would help clear my sinuses. I bought some AH!LASKA branded product. I read the ingredient list, and each one was presented with "natural" or similar wording to reassure the reader its what they wanted. The first few were what you'd expect; cocoa, sugar, rice solids. Fine, fine. At the bottom, prefaced with (less than 1%) were carrageenan and xanthan gum. We've probably all seen this stuff in milkshakes and ice cream, but do we know what it really is? I figured it was like starch; nice if it was missing, but acceptable if added. After all, the makers of these products know more than we do about making them, or we'd all make ice cream at home, eh? Instead I was horrified to learn that the FDA proposed a ban on certain forms of carrageenan as early as the 70's because it causes breast cancer, prostate cancer, and colon cancer. Worse news yet, is processes of digestion are showing up in recent research that turn high molecular weight carrageenan, the "approved" form, into the low molecular weight polygeenan that turns your insides into a festering mess. What has the FDA done about it? After 35 years, it reversed its earlier decision, and continues to give it GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status. A particular researcher, Dr. Joanne Tobacman, is waving a banner that has strong science behind it, and could force the FDA to reverse its standing. I wrote an Email to this company, asking them to reconsider the use of such an additive on the basis of the Precautionary Principle. I would be discarding their cocoa, and not purchasing products from them until the ingredient was no longer added. The response I got was the most chilling possible; namely that they were perfectly AWARE of the objections raised by Dr. Tobacman. As long as the FDA did not pass regulations against it, they were going to continue adding their (possibly) cancerous powder, regardless of my objections or common prudence, thank you very much. Despite their happy polar teddy bear waving a mug of supposedly natural hot chocolate, and many uplifting stories on their parent company website about community involvement, their actual legal stance was we can do whatever we want that will make us a tad more money, because our cocoa will taste a little smoother with this crap in it. The true irony, is one of their OTHER products is something called PumpKorn, supposedly invented by a guy suffering from CANCER looking for a natural snack.

This seemingly off-topic diatribe is anything but. It suggests that a business entity will create the impression of a whole series of things being true, but when even slightly challenged, resorts to tactics completely at odds with their stated philosophy. As a matter of fact, if a company is willing to KILL YOU with its products, and LIE to you about it, while their marketing campaigns imply they are BETTER FOR YOU than those from the other guys...

...Then why wouldn't cable manufacturers tell you anything you want to hear, to get you to spend more for cable than a set of racing tires for a Ferrari? WHAT IS IT THAT WE WANT TO BE TRUE?

I invite debate on my following premise. Most of us are NOT audio designers. This doesn't mean anything like "we are stupid". Many of us are excellent automobile drivers. Some of us may race them. Backyard mechanics, even professional ones among us. Perhaps a few have DESIGNED CARS. Or Tires. Or a turbo intake manifold. The trouble comes, when we are expected to know about fuel chemistry, too. And the wafer fab protocols for the fuel injection computer IC. Or the weaving of the wool carpet in a Porsche. Or the viscosity tradeoffs with temperature in an automatic transmission. SOMEONE knows, or at least has thought about it, tried stuff, written down their test results, and came to a decision based on a myriad of inputs. But most drivers at one level or another, have to start treating the whole car, or its major subassemblies, or detailed parts, as "BLACK BOXES". So how do many people customize their cars? Loud Exhausts, Etc. The claims I’ve seen for these things, and actual dyno measurements… All looked familiar.

I’m asking people to be honest with themselves. They really don’t have a clue what goes on in a CD player. Or a power amplifier. Or a loudspeaker. Oh, even audio designers may think they do, but then most amplifiers, speakers, and CD players would sound very much alike, and would all be quite good, at any given price point. We are limited to going out and buying some OTHER product to make “upgrades” in our systems. But hey, if the things we CAN control…. are BETWEEN the black boxes, and we are told that the differences in the wires are at least as big as the differences between the boxes themselves, tada! We have POWER and CONTROL over our surroundings again!

I think some food for thought lies in the observation that as many products get better and faster and shinier, like say… THE PERSONAL COMPUTER, more people make them, and the price FALLS. But with something like cables, more people than ever are making them, and they are supposedly better and shiner, but they keep CLIMBING IN PRICE.

Next, I challenge someone to find a subjective reviewer that found some well made, clever, INEXPENSIVE cables that beat the pants off the pricier guys. The odds are that some people might want to get their cables out there in the marketplace and make some money, but be in a different price category. This doesn't seem to be happening. To beat the odds, sometimes you have to “fix” the game.

Lastly, I have to point to one of the most abusive pricing strategies of the cable industry. Sure, if you sell bulk cable, you would think twice as much cable should cost twice as much, or maybe… you get a small price break for buying in quantity. But just check out the pricing difference between 1m and 2m versions of “high end” cable. Twice as much! Where is the second set of connectors? The labor to put them on? The second unneeded package? Can you say GOUGE?

We’ve been led to believe something by one group, to make that group rich enough to have stadiums named after them. So where is the motivation of the naysayers, the folks who have done the math and are coming up short in defending the corporate claims with anything substantive? Can science be wrong? Of course. It is part of the basic premise. But is the motivation of being recognized as “right” anywhere near as strong as taking off that white lab coat that proves you are a genius and driving a Lamborghini to the grocery store?