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Apologies (stupidly long yet likely educational)

Posted by Charles Hansen (M) on November 11, 2017 at 03:58:10

In Reply to: As Rich as Myrtle Blocks ...................................nt posted by Cut-Throat on November 10, 2017 at 16:35:36:

If either your ears are insufficiently trained or your system is so low resolution that you can't hear the difference these make, you have my condolences. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

One important point is that these retail for about $8 to $12 each, so Ayre makes around a whopping $2 gross profit on each one sold. This is not like some of the other companies making footers that retail for literally 10x the price of the Ayre Myrtle Wood blocks. Low volumes of low-profit ten dollar accessories simply don't generate the profit required to sustain even a one-man garage operation, let alone an entire small company.

On top of that, I've not heard any better footers at any price (for cables and electronics - not recommended for loudspeakers). And the kicker? We tell you straight up front that if you are skeptical, simply try using Jenga blocks (a kids game of stacking and unstacking wood blocks that is kind of fun). A new can of 50 Jenga blocks will cost you about $20 new at a Target or similar. I've bought a used set at a garage sale for $2.

That's a pretty low-risk way to test the idea. The Jenga blocks are made in China and the wood species varies, depending on what is currently the cheapest. When we first started using them over a decade ago they were using a species that I've forgotten the name of - it was a light, fine-grained hardwood that is common and low cost in the US - probably poplar.

The Jenga blocks will give about 1/2 to 2/3 the sonic benefits of the Myrtle Wood blocks sold by Ayre. They are just as easy to use under components, but much more difficult to use under cables, as the Ayre Myrtle Wood blocks for cables have notches in them to keep the cable from sliding off of the wood.

Trained listeners familiar with their system can easily hear the difference these make. I will give one example. One time a customer sent back his preamplifier that was about a year old, saying something didn't sound right, but he couldn't explain exactly what. We got the preamp back at the factory and compared it to the identical unit that was in our then-current reference system.

The entire system had dozens of Myrtle Wood blocks underneath all components and all cables (to keep them off the carpeted floor) - including 20'-long interconnects between the front end components (in a rack) and the power amp (on a low stand between the speakers), all speaker cables (bi-wired), and all power cords. Both preamplifiers and the disc player had outboard power supplies which also were on blocks. When we installed the customer's unit to listen to it, we were short one Myrtle Wood block, and instead used a single prototype maple wood block as one of the three blocks underneath the customer's preamp's power supply - the spot we thought it least likely to affect the sound.

After careful listening back-and-forth for 40 - 50 minutes (the listeners included myself and another employee whose ears I completely trust and respect), we decided the customer was right - his unit for some unknown reason sounded slightly "brighter" and "harder" than our reference unit in the factory's sound room. Luckily before we opened up the unit to try and figure out what might be wrong with it, we realized that even though we were one block short of having identical blocks under both preamps, we were only listening to one of the preamps at a time.

(Whenever we compare, we never use quick A/B switching through different preamp inputs. Not only was that impossible in this case, but we have found that having the variables of different cables and different inputs can skew the results - even if everything is nominally "identical", the amount of break-in time can affect the sound and also mask other subtle differences. Instead we typically listen to three full songs of different genres which we know very well - about 10 - 15 minutes total, then make the change and listen to the same three full songs again. By going back and forth minimum of at least three times, we can be sure that there is no variable created by the act of plugging and unplugging cables that might "clean" the contacts and change the sound. Since we normally use corrosion-proof rhodium plated connectors, we've never heard a change by doing this, although the solid-silver contacts in the volume and input selector - on Ayre products that use Shallco rotary switches - need to be rotated at least every week or two before some corrosion builds up and subtly degrades the sound. Also we have found that physically moving any of the cable changes the sound until they've had a chance to "run-in" again. Depending on the brand and construction of the particular cable, this process normally takes between one and three days. We have found that simply playing the first track of the Ayre IBE disc accomplishes the same result in literally one minute - it is the 1-minute "sweep" or "glide" tone - saving massive amounts of time when doing careful comparison testing. The point of all of this is simply to show that Ayre is extremely thorough and methodical to eliminate all possible variables when conducting listening tests. I am literally *giving* away valuable "secrets" here - and when I've done so in the past have been accused of simply pimping the Ayre IBE disc - again something that is a very low profit item for which Ayre essentially offers as a service - our business is not one of living off the sales of accessories, but rather of complete products that sell for typically 100x more than the accessories. The cost of selling a $10 product is the same as the cost of selling a $10,000 product - by the time Ayre has paid for receiving the order, placing it into the system, packaging the order, tracking it, billing it, waiting for payment, and processing the payment, we literally lose far more money on a $10 retail product than the gross profit made. That is perhaps the main reason that companies selling only accessories and low-priced products have to charge what seems like ridiculously inflated prices for them. Unless one is making at least hundreds of dollars of gross profit on every single order, the net profit - after paying all of the internal costs - is insignificant or even negative.)

Back to the preamp - once we realized that we were only listening to one of them at a time, we could move the "missing" Myrtle Wood block back-and-forth between the two DUTs as needed. Here is the kicker - having just one maple wood block (out of three) under the outboard power supply gave that unit a slightly "brighter", "harder" sound than did using all three Myrtle Wood blocks. This was confirmed by putting the single maple block under the power supply of the reference unit that had been in place for many months.

The point is that trained listeners with sensitive ears listening to music, a system, and a room with which they are intimately familiar can reliably hear small, subtle differences - even with things that by all rights and all known physics should *not* make any difference whatsoever. I have no rational explanation for how these work. I could make up some far-fetched "hand-waving" explanation that is vaguely plausible, but it stretches even *my* credulity - so I don't even bother to present it to others.

That is exactly why we call the Ayre system enhancement disc "Irrational But Efficacious" (IBE). It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, yet it works. We've sold well over 10,000 and the only person I know of who didn't like it was Art Dudley of Stereophile. He said it changed the sound of his system, but for the *worse*! I think he said it took a week or two before it sounded the way he liked it again. On the other hand ex-Sterophile columnist John Marks, loved what it did, still swears by it, and recommends it to all of his friends and readers. As does Jim Smith long-time retailer, then sales manager for Audio Research, then importer of AvantGarde horn loudspeakers, and currently consultant and author of the book "Get Better Sound". I know that JA has heard the difference it makes and agreed it was an improvement, but don't think he uses it himself, and I'm sure never recommends it to people as he is likely too embarrassed to endorse something he cannot explain. However both the Myrtle Wood blocks and the IBE disc remain in Stereophile's "Recommended Components" list to this day.

Ayre doesn't use the traditional marketing techniques of either fear ("if you don't have this great thing, you are missing out on life!") or sex ("if you buy this product, you will be more attractive and surrounded by other beautiful people") to sell these simple accessories. In fact, we don't advertise them at all, as quite frankly they are somewhat embarrassing to sell.

Many less skilled listeners (apparently including yourself) who have never heard the benefits of tweaks (I define a "tweak" as something that changes - hopefully for the better! - the sound of your system, yet has not logical, scientific, or rational explanation. This includes power cords, interconnects, speaker cables, footers, certain "room treatments", and even extends down to brands and models of capacitors, PCB materials, connectors, chassis material and construction, and on and on - the list is nearly endless.)

The crowd at Hydrogen Audio has much the same philosophy that Julian Hirsch of Stereo Review held - if you can't measure it with traditional measurement techniques, it doesn't exist and it's all in your head - a purely psychological self-deception. If I believed what they believe, I too would laugh at Ayre's Myrtle Wood blocks. Most of the people who visit this forum have first-hand experience in hearing differences in some of the above-mentioned things that don't make any rational sense, and are more open to the idea of other tweaks that they've not yet heard.

All I can do is present it to you. You can either try it or not. If you buy Jenga blocks you will be out (at most) $20 for a new set, and if you don't think they make any difference whatsoever, you can always give them away as a gift to a friend or relative - or keep them to play the game with yourself.

One thing that I think is somewhat telling is that one rarely finds them for sale on the used market. From that I infer that people who buy them either keep and use them forever, or if perhaps they do find a different footer/cable lifter they prefer that they move the Myrtle Blocks to a second system or give them to a friend. I doubt any are thrown away or burnt as firewood or spontaneously combust or vanish into another dimension. It's possible they are sitting in a closet unused, as the time and effort to sell them isn't worth it, but in that case I suspect that most would simply give them away to a friend or relative rather than hang on to clutter they don't use.

It's still more-or-less a "free country" (don't want to get off topic too much), so you are welcome to try them or not, laugh at Ayre or not. All I can say is that just as with many, many tweaks of which I was equally as skeptical, in the end I was simply kicking myself in the rear for waiting so long to even give them a try - I had been missing out on a lot of listening pleasure for years, simply because I was too close-minded to even try a low- or zero-cost tweak.

As always, strictly my personal opinions. YMMV.

PS - JA recently uploaded an old review of the Jadis JA-200 monoblock amplifiers. DO gave it a mixed blessing, but JS loved it so much that he purchased a pair. At the time (1994), he was using the Avalon Ascent loudspeakers I had designed 7 years earlier. The contrast between Stereophile's editorial content from then until today (23 years) is quite remarkable, IMO. Worth reading and linked below.

• Jonathan Scull's Stereophile Review of Jadis Amps   (Open in New Window)

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