russ andrews. load of old bollox if you ask me......

just reading his catalogue now.

"star grounding block"

a peice of wood with nine "high quality" binding posts.

£80.00

Russ your having a laugh m8.

"individually hand turned from mahogany"

still dosent justify an £80 squid price tag though does it?
and to be quite honest i would rather see the peice of somewhat overly extravagant mahogany left in the amazon basin where it belongs along with all the other indangered hard woods..

perhaps if he used ivory he could put a £180 pound price tag on there. might even sound better as most of the more expencive accessories always do.

keep up the good work russ.



russ's tip for today.... if it costs a fortune its gotta be good.

 

rant over.



cant wait for the next audiophilecandy catalogue

 

I cant believe what he claims about his record cleaner

"ReVive uniquely removes the nasty-sounding film left in the grooves of vinyl records as part of the manufacturing process."

How can it be unique when its just a rebadged Knosti with an extra bath

 

I think the basic philosophy was first enunciated by W.C. Fields: "never give a sucker an even break". This is not to say that RA doesn't produce some good products, but I'm afraid I can't suspend disbelief to the necessary extent for many of his more, er, unusual offerings. However, as John Borwick, former Audio Editor of "Gramophone" once wrote to me on the subject of speaker cables:

"I would never deter an enthusiast from giving his super-system a birthday present, if paying over the odds made him feel better".

P.S. Speaking of suckers, did you see that Audusa is now offering porcelain insulators to lift your cables off the floor (see under "Audusa OOM")? When will someone start selling mini-pylons?

 

RA always intertests me and I am always the first to reply to RA threads on HFC. Andrews likes to play on whats called premium products, the idea being is that some people think that just because a product is expensive it must be good, this is exactly what B&0 and Bose do as well.

RA is not breaking the law unless there is so scientific or other proof that the products do what he claims they do. If they don't then he can be done under the trade description act. He probably gets round this by offering the money back guarentee in the hope that the customers keep the products imagining a difference in sound quality. I cannot imagine that star earh block making one bit of difference to be honest. The super cones at £75 simply take the p@~s.

Sadly think a lot of HIFI accessories you pay well over the top for such as speaker cable and interconnects.

There is no way the QED Quenex 2 should cost £30 for example, its just some basic plugs with OFC sheilded cable. Its a good cable but at £30 its over priced.

 

Revisting this RA thing:

RA - good salesman!

I first heard of RA when he sold kits for upgrading / rewiring speakers amps etc with Kimber cable and Kimber caps. He'd also do the work for you. He produced some really good speakers -RATA 3 etc.

Now he sells good mains conditioning equipment in the form of the purifier / mains blocks etc (although I'd question the Megaclamp / silencer pricing), I haven't tried his Powerpacks - which seem to be modified off the shelf switched mode supplies - yet, although they could be OK.

He distributes Kimber cables in the UK - good stuff if marked up a lot. Current 20% off online is OK, second hand is better!

As for the star blocks / supersockets /oak cones (oh dear I have some of these...) etc - good luck to him and theres the 60 day try it out and send it back if you don't like it.

Also if you drop by his shop in Stavely there is a very nice salesperson who will distract you while you look at the vintage hi fi / prototype oak cone feet etc

 

If you don't like it don't buy it. In the past these threads have degenerated into libelous outpourings about said manaufacturer that could have had serious implications for the forum host.

 

to redress the balance i'll mention again the fact that i tried out the power pak 3 on my cd player. unfortunately it didn;t better the hi-cap i currently use, in my opinion so i sent it back. my money was refunded with no hassle at all. i recieved 2 letters, one to say they'd recieved the stuff back ok and one to say the money had been refunded. on this experience if i saw something else i wanted to try in r/a's catalogue i'd not hesitate an instant.
cheers

julian

 

Jimmy Hughes has his speaker cables suspended above his floor on lots of cotton loops hanging from the ceiling. I guess only he knows what benefits this arrangement confers.

 

Could somene please shoot the berk who initiated this " I reckon it's bollox" mentality that has recently swept over our lovely forum

Material costs have little to do with perceived value, look at your speakers and electronics The world operates on a basis that you can charge what the market will stand, it's called capitalism, and it is the mechanism by which most of us afford to buy hifi in the first place.

You don't like the product, fine don't buy it. There's no one forcing you. From someone who has actually bothered to order from RA, rather than just waste their time slagging them off on the internet, I can say that many of the products you see are well researched and work. So you want all the back up, the R&D testing, and the advice for nothing do you Get real. Place an order, investigate, then come back to the forum with your findings. Your argument might then have some weight and reason behind it

 

Doubles as inverse barrage balloon network for flies, wasps, etc. in summer?

 

All these people slagging off mr andrews for the quality of the stuff he sells and the price, get real! You'd have done it yourselves if you'd thought of it first So he makes money out of gullible muppets, but credit where credits due, it works for him!

 

Merlin's quite right, also if the products did not do as advertised several consumer protection laws may be breached.

For myself you can find substitutes for many of the products at vastly reduced prices...

ie wilco's small door knobs in beech approx 50p will produce a similar to the oak cones.

If people are daft enough to spend their money with RA, I say good luck to him.

 

there is no way on gods earth i would place an order with someone who charges 80 quid for a peice of wood with binding posts on.
capitalism? your very right there but when ppl cash in on it it becomes a vicious circle. its not russ andrews fault. hes just making money and im sure that a lot of his products are worth it. but when he writes that this peice of wood will transform my listening pleasure then its piss take time.

why take a reputable name like r,a and sell over priced, rediculous products? hes not in his own boat either..audiophilecandy are by far the worst."this is the best interconnect money can buy" turn the page and guess what? "this is the best interconnect money can buy". but some of their products are just plain micheal extractors. the desk top cd washer/dryer. £780.00. i mean lets face it would you buy some of these products? and the descriptions they give you, this will transform your listening pleasure, eerm how exactly they dont tell you.
sorry for the rant but i just cant trust these ppl to sell me a product with some scientific explanation rather than "this will make your system sound like a million dollers".

 

bub,
i seem to remember someone actually measuing the emf at ground level and a few inches above. i believe the emf dropped off very sharply above the ground so a few inches may make a difference. not tried it myself so cannot comment but bathing your signal and mains cables in an electro-magnetic field can't be a good thing can it?
cheers

julian

 

But the emf of what, Julian? Of the cable itself and the magnetic field that the moving current induces in it? Surely that is not going to be affected by the fact that it's lying or not lying on the floor. If not originating in the cable, where then?

As to "bathing your signal and mains cables in an electro-magnetic field can't be a good thing can it?", I confess myself to being a complete sceptic in all matters cable. I suspect that the low fields involved make not one iota of difference, so, while it may not be a "good" thing, it is equally not a "bad" thing.

 

tones,
as this is at best 3rd hand knowledge i'm not going to defend it too rabidly - especially given the atmosphere of the forum lately. however here's what i took it to mean...

at or very close to ground level (0 - 1 inch) there is a relatively high level of ambient emf.

at 1 - 2 inches this level drops off rapidly.

putting your wires above the 0-1 inch region improved the sound (hence suspension / pylons etc.)

i'm not pretending to know the mechanism behind the generation of this 'emf' or if having your wires sat in it is beneficial or not. however it's a cheap tweak to prop your cables up off the floor on matchboxes or toilet rolls to see if there is anything in it.

i tried it but conditions meant it was difficult to tell what had changed with what alteration.

cheers

julian

 

Ah, I feel there'll be a barrage of Michaels along in a moment to extract the yellow water out of you (and probably the associated means of production too ) for taking their names in vein! :JOEL:

Seriously though...

I really quite agree! The star earth block seems to be a particularly good example though, it has to be said, unless I've missed something what is so special about this said piece of wood with binding posts on that you couldn't knock up yourself? There's nothing radical about the concept of star earthing though, it's been known about and used to good effect in many audio products for a long time, like in amps for example and certain mains distribution blocks (Music Works, IIRC).

 

Anyone who believes this crap will believe anything.

 

I would lean towards agreement, but maybe not so blunt untill tested