cables

[guydarryl]

Hi all,

Many years ago, while studying "O" level English, I remember discussing advertising and the use manufacturers make of little tricks.

For example Walls selling their sausages on the basis of their "sizzle" in the pan, no mention made of taste or quality of ingredients.

Another example used was of a washing powder manufacturer carrying out consumer trials on packaging. The company filled different coloured boxes with exactly the same powder and asked people what they thought of the cleaning power of each of the samples.
As I said at the start, this was many years ago, but I seem to remember that the public thought that the powder in the blue box was best (very good whites), the yellow box was not effective at removing stains, and the red box caused complaints as it burned holes in their clothes.

Could the same effect be used in the packaging of cables? High price - quality component; nice thick insulation - plenty of information transfered by the cable; blue colour - nice clean and clear "highs".

Perhaps "psychoacoustics" could be used to enhance the listening experience in more products

Guy

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Psycho acoustics is a very real phenomenon that showed itself very strongly in the Peter Belt / Jimmy Hughes era of hi-fi reviewing.

But this is true of all subjective assessment like wine etc. It is normal human behaviour that creates a lot of our individuality so we have to put up with it, but it is still better than brass arsed objectivism where so called reality is not allowed any individualism.

I wrote a lot about it years ago, but was called a nutter on forums. Even though for me I had a perfectly good explanation that involved our perception of energy or as the Chinese call it Qi (Chi) or Prana in the sub continent. We seem in the west to have lost a lot of understanding of life force and how it shapes us and our perception.

[guydarryl]

But this is true of all subjective assessment like wine etc.

I wrote a lot about it years ago, but was called a nutter on forums. Even though for me I had a perfectly good explanation that involved our perception of energy or as the Chinese call it Qi (Chi) or Prana in the sub continent. We seem in the west to have lost a lot of understanding of life force and how it shapes us and our perception.

How true, the number of times that I have enjoyed a superb bottle of wine while in France, only to find the same wine disappointing back home. (Adnams is a far better pint on the Suffolk coast, Black sheep are a delight in Yorkshire etc)

If you were called a nutter for recognising this then more shame on the name callers.

Guy

[Lindsayt]

When I was in Richer Sounds last year, buying a Blu Ray player I had a look at their display of speaker cables.

"They look nice and chunky." I thought before following them to their ends where I saw the bare copper strands sticking out. "They look ridiculously thin!". How come, what's going on here then? It turned out to be the modern trend for using transparent sheathing. The cylindrical shape acts as a magnifying glass making the conducting cores look much larger than they actually are. The insulation was way thicker than the copper core. You'd think it would be the other way round seeing as it's the metal bit that does all the work. Hide both ends in banana plugs and you'd never know how little copper you were buying for your money.

Clever clever marketing trick.

[terrybooth]

Of course marketing tricks can go wrong: Woodbine famously lost their place as best selling fags when they changed the packet from a 'traditional' sort of arts and crafts design to a 60s modernist design and although many people of a certain age can remember 'You'll wonder where the yellow went, when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent' not many people actually bought it. There are simple marketing tricks that work: look at all the adverts for toothpaste - they'll show an inch of toothpaste on the brush, dentists will tell you you need about the size of a pea. Adverts are there to sell produce, dentists are there to look after teeth. Now they spend time fixing grooves warn in teeth by overuse of toothpaste.

Any similar examples of failed marketing in the hi-fi world?

[Lindsayt]

Reminds me of the story of the toothpaste marketing department that were given the task of increasing sales by 5%. Do you know what they came up with? They increased the size of the nozzle by 12%.

[guydarryl]

Any similar examples of failed marketing in the hi-fi world?

Quite depressing really, but most marketing tricks seem to work in hi-fi - particularly with cables and supports (ok, go on then -LP12 ) in my opinion.

"military specification cables/components" , "aircraft grade aluminium", cones and spikes to "decouple", percieved value through using chunky insulator (as outlined above).

Guy.

[Dr Bunsen Honeydew]

Well that is US style capitalism for you it is based on lies and always has been, as soon as you have to sell a product because it cannot sell itself then it has to be lied about. What is the basis behind all selling / marketing, well according to US marketing schools it is "don't sell the meat, sell the sizzle".

Add to that the need to maintain the bottom line and short term-ism means the cheapening of product, the destruction of quality, and the increase in just buying product of perceived value instead of real value. This is fine for things like hi-fi, it hurts no one, apart from their pocket, but the food industry is based on this now, and basically we are being poisoned. Life expectancy is increasing, cure rates in major diseases are getting better, but we are basically falling apart, lack of exercise and poisoned food products means cancer rates are increasing exponentially, at the moment 60% of us are either going to die from cancer or die with it.

We are being polluted internally and externally to the point where our progress is just being nullified and probably now going backwards. And for what just so someone can see an increase in their capital, it is like a disease in itself.

[Lindsayt]

Looking at this from a purely personal point of view: it's good if more and more people are slowly poisoning themselves and therefore shortening their lives, as this will go some way to slowing down the global population growth.

Looking at it from a personal freedom point of view: I think that every adult person should have the right to put whatever substances they wish into their own bodies.

Looking at it from society's point of view: it's sad that so many people are addicted to excessive amounts of fat, sugar and salt and that so many people don't do enough exercise. It's also sad that so many foods that we buy have swept-under-the-carpet ingredients such as artificial hormones in meat that might cause long term health problems.

Another tragedy is that more and more parents allow or encourage their children to get into unhealthy lifestyle habits early on. I really don't know what can be done about that?

Looking at it from a positive point of view: with modern education and media we all have the ability to inform ourselves and make decisions based on that. Meaning that we can lead a balanced lifestyle with a balanced diet that avoids excessive amounts of potentially harmful ingredients - which will give us a good chance of leading a prolonged life in good health. Coming back to hi-fi it also means that we can make more informed decisions on what to spend our money on when it comes to consumer goods. So that we can have a good laugh at some of the hi-fi marketing ploys and spend our money more wisely than someone who has fallen for marketing tricks and bought something that is over-priced for the performance on offer.

[terrybooth]

How about some well worn marketing ploys?
How about 'timeless classics' as applied to music or writing. This usually means 'out of copyright stuff that you up anywhere for a fraction of the price of this "exclusive" offer.'