Audiophiles have been criticized as being a weird bunch that spend immense amounts of money for exotic equipment that may present little to no differences under blind testing, but that isn’t stopping some from profiting off of the extremes of the hobby. Over on eBay, some have begun selling $500 “Superstar” SATA cables that claim to be the best Hi-Fi options ever built for computer listening, featuring a crystal formula that’s complemented by other novelties that include wood and black quartz crystals and a 25-mm thickness. According to the installation instructions, improved sound can be achieved simply by plugging one end into the SATA port of a motherboard.
From an eBay listing:
The best SATA cable we have built. 0.5m long with standard SATA 3.0 connectors. Internally it has our classic Superstar Crystal Formula which is optimized for source components, so it’s perfect for the computer. The ends are built from wood and black quartz crystals for extra strength. The tubing is 25mm thick and contains twice the Crystal Formula over the 20mm version.
Simply plug it into a SATA port of the motherboard. The other end doesn’t need to be connected, but if you connect it to your harddrive you will get double the effect.
Discussion (14 replies)
Join Discussion →Come on they sell NETWORK SWITCHES that promise a more neutral sounds profile for audio passed through them. Why would anyone be surprised about Sata cables?
Silly people with too much money to spend buy crap like this.
Hahahaha
Huh, I didn't realize April Fools was gonna be early this year.
A fool and his money something something something
I feel like there's a buck to be made for minimal effort just by sourcing some cheap SATA cables from overseas, then paying a little more for a custom message/logo indicating for Hi-Res audio, and then voila you've got a profitable venture in the works.
Yeah this news post had me thinking I'm in the wrong business.
More like you have a scam in the works. I never had the stomach for that.
Me neither but it was easy enough to reverse engineer a thought process on how this abomination came to be.
Reminds me of the audiophile switch that was doing the rounds a while back, that was just a netgear switch with some glued on nonssense in modified packaging, that someone was trying to sell for a ridiculous amount of money.
I'm not necessarily the worlds biggest Linus fan, but he is right about this one:
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It's a scam if you know better.
Many of these idiots actually believe in the horseshit they are selling though. :/
The Premium Deluxe cables also promise to double the size of your penis and cure baldness.
My thought on these SATA cables is as follows:
These are probably an intentional scam, but they might be sold by someone who actually believes they are selling an upgrade with added isolation.
The combination of lack of understanding how things work, and cognitive bias can be a hell of a drug.
I can only think of one area in which maybe there would be a marginal benefit of added added isolation to SATA cables.
If you have a poorly isolated HD audio front panel cable running close and parallel to a sata cable there could in theory be some induced currents in the HD hd audio cable, buut...
1.) The SATA voltages here are probably way too low for that, especially compared the the relatively high power in that front panel HD audio cable that allows for driving basic headphones over a 3.5mm port.
2.) No self respecting audiophile is going to use internal audio anyway. They are going to have some sort of external DAC, or at the very least use the output straight from the back. Everyone knows those front panel cables are the worst.
That said, in all realistic use cases this is complete snake oil.
Even in realistic use cases it is highly unlikely to make a difference.
But, people will still "hear" differences, because of human bias.
Between my and job personal stuff, I have to deal with quite a few salespeople and can totally verify this. Those people don't seem to last long either. I'm not afraid to tell them when the facts don't align and I/we'll hold them to it when something comes up. I think tech sales have faster turnover rates than most fast food these days. I almost feel sorry for them because I believe many are just trying to pay the bills and just don't have the education, time, or desire to research the validity of the claims they're paid to make.