News Sony launches high-price micro-SD 'for Premium Sound'

I think they are pretty loose on these things as I am yet to see anyone sprout wings after drinking Red Bull.

 

IF electrical interference from the SD card interface is somehow having a measurable effect on recorded audio quality, the solution is not to buy a $160 SD card, but to replace your recording device with something that does not contain such staggeringly poorly designed circuits.

It's times like these I'm tempted to buy up reels of coathanger wire, and start selling "pre-formed air-gapped audio waveguides".

 

I don't really blame Sony here. If people are stupid enough to demand such a product, Sony would be mad to miss out on selling to such an easy market.

 

Nobody 'demands' such a product.

Manufacturers making these products leads some retailers to answer 'yes' when asked if they will make a difference. It's why Monster Cables sell and yet are funnily enough.... just as good as other technically similar cables.

It's a lack of morals that brings products like this to the market. It's one step removed from cold calling on OAPs and offering to apply a waterproof coating to their already waterproof roof.

Just because some customers will pay the money, doesn't mean it's right to sell an overpriced product and make vague claims about its magic sauce.

 

Maybe I'm just a more cold-hearted cynic than you, but I actually don't have any problems with snake oil salesman except where they are specifically targeting vulnerable people (such as giving the hard sell to elderly people or kids). Otherwise it's caveat emptor - part of the bargain with having free agency in a capitalist society is taking responsibility for one's own purchasing decisions. That means doing a bit of research to avoid being ripped off. There's also the very real issue of the placebo effect - just as people perceive a wine to taste better if they think it costs $1,000 a bottle than if it costs $10 (tests have shown this with identical wine served out of different bottles), there are people who are utterly convinced that using a $300 oxygen free copper power cable or some exotically constructed HDMI cable noticeably improves the sound that comes out of their hi-fi, and if they perceive value in their purchases, then perhaps they haven't subjectively been ripped off at all. I don't see any reason why the same wouldn't apply to this SD card.

 

Are you trying to say that different headphones or different amps don't sound different? Because they most certainly do.

I always think super expensive audiophile equipment is a great idea because it means the super-rich are giving small businesses their money, which is better than having it sit in their offshore bank accounts. The sound is irrelevant if you have a hifi that cost more than your super rich neighbour.

 

The worst offenders are the one's who go by a certain publications reviews regardless of price, I know 3 people who have gone out and bought a 130 quid set of headphones because said publication rated them 5 stars, my £50 set of AKG K451's blew theirs away and were a lot cheaper.

The most important part of the process is the user's own listening style, take me for instance, I love my Sonos Play 5, is it great no but it is good and its convenient as-well and compared to other multi room streaming systems I auditioned, the Sonos matched my listening style more despite 2 of them being 'rated higher' and being more expensive.