Talk is cheap, but these scams aren’t.
The audiophile world is always full of promises about amazing new technologies that can improve the listening experience. But as we’ve seen time and time again, not all that glitters is gold.
Here are six audiophile products that started with big promises but ended up being scams.
1. MQA Technology
When Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) technology burst onto the scene, it seemed too good to be true.
The pitch was enticing: compress audio files for streaming without losing sound quality. In fact, they even claimed to make the sound better than the original but in smaller file sizes.
MQA’s creators also tossed around impressive-sounding terms like “neuroscience” and “time-domain-focused filtering.” With these, they brushed off comparisons to other codecs, insisting that normal quality evaluation methods simply didn’t apply.
This should’ve been the first red flag. But, a lot of us turned a blind eye back then, as we were too eager to taste this flashy new cuisine.
Tidal, always eager to stay ahead of the curve, quickly jumped on board and promoted MQA as their ticket to true lossless audio streaming. But the honeymoon phase didn’t last long.
In 2021, a YouTuber GoldenSound decided to put MQA under the microscope.
What he discovered was far from pretty. MQA-encoded files lost a lot of high-frequency sound, which is a clear sign of lossy compression. So much for “lossless,” right?
This discovery caused a big stir among audiophiles. Even Neil Young got involved, publicly criticizing how MQA changed his music and pulling his entire catalog from Tidal in protest.
By 2023, the writing was on the wall, leading MQA to declare bankruptcy. And, by mid-2024, Tidal finally ditched MQA encoding entirely in favor of the tried-and-true FLAC lossless format.
2. Blackbody’s Ambient Field Conditioner
The Blackbody “Ambient Field Conditioner” claimed to make your gear sound better by protecting them against electromagnetic radiation.
The company argued that near-field electromagnetic interaction affects sound quality more than people think. And, it happens even without physical contact.
To fix this, the Blackbody soaks up a lot of electromagnetic interference, which they said would keep the audio signal clean.
This doesn’t need any power nor moving parts. Instead, it used a bunch of circular reflectors that act like an ideal blackbody —a thing in physics that soaks up all electromagnetic radiation it meets.
Plus, the Blackbody was also marketed as the only device of its kind, saying it could do things no other product could.
But the company didn’t show any scientific proof to back up their solution to a problem most people don’t even know exists.
Needless to say, the audiophile community wasn’t buying it. And, user reactions were mostly comical.
3. Expensive Speaker Wires
Speaker cables like Pear Cable’s “Anjou” model, costing $2,750 per meter, often come with big claims about amazing sound quality. But no one has ever proven them.
In fact, popular skeptic James Randi offered $1 million to anyone who could show these expensive cables sounded better than cheaper ones in a blind test.
Pear Cable’s response? Crickets. They claimed the challenge wasn’t legit. But it got us thinking – are we being taken for a ride?
Fast forward to 2021, Audioholics made a video proving that there’s no measurable difference between expensive and cheap speaker cables.
This led to the current wisdom to spend no more than 5-7% of your total system cost on cables.
While some cables are better at carrying current, the prices can get crazy without making the sound much better. So, if you’re buying more expensive cables, you’re mostly paying for how long they last or how they look, not better sound.
4. ‘Audiophile’ Digital Cables
The doubt about expensive cables also applies to digital cables.
A lot of people thought that pricier digital cables—like HDMI and USB—deliver superior performance. There’s always someone trying to sell you a gold-plated, diamond-covered digital cable that they say will make your system sound amazing.
But here’s the kicker: Linus Tech Tips once put a $1,000 HDMI cable through its paces and found… drumroll, please… absolutely no difference compared to the cheap stuff.
Here’s the thing about digital signals: they either work, or they don’t.
If a digital cable meets the basic requirements, it will send data just fine. So, paying more for a digital cable won’t make your audio or video better.
The only time it might matter is for very long cables, where you might need signal boosters or active cables. But even then, extremely expensive options aren’t worth it.
5. PC Power Filters
PC power filters are another product that sounds great on paper. But they’re about as useful as using paper to stop a water leak.
Take Elfidelity’s products, for example. They promised to get rid of interference, reduce electrical noise, and even make your system more stable.
But when Linus Tech Tips put these “audiophile” PC power filters to the test, the results were less than impressive to say the least.
The testing was simple: audio was recorded with and without the filters while in idle and stress mode.
Surprisingly, not only did they fail to clean up the audio. Some actually introduced more noise!
Looking closer showed even more problems.
The stuff inside didn’t match what they advertised, and some filters even slowed down fans, which could overheat your computer over time. To top it off, Linus also pointed out that some of the capacitors looked like they might be fake. Talk about three strikes!
6. Mobile Fidelity’s Digital Vinyl
For years, Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi) had built a reputation for making high-quality vinyl records. This is mostly because they hinted that they sourced everything directly from the original analog master tapes in their marketing campaigns.
But, the truth turned out to be quite different.
The cracks started showing when some listeners noticed quality issues and started asking questions. And, as people dug deeper, it became clear that things didn’t add up.
How could MoFi use original master tapes for big production runs without damaging them? And how could they avoid violating the protective policies of record labels that own these original masters?
It turns out, MoFi had been using Direct Stream Digital (DSD) files to make their vinyl, even though their marketing suggested they only used analog methods.
This led to a class-action lawsuit that accused MoFi of misleading advertising. This scandal tarnished MoFi’s reputation and started a bigger discussion about being honest when selling audiophile products.
To their credit, MoFi admitted their mistake and promised to do better. But this shows that even the most respected names in the industry cannot fully be trusted.