Here's one:So many things regarding a audiophiles really bother me. Not in the sense that they're dangerous (like homeopathy is, for example). But because a lot of them, particularly when it comes to digital music, seem to be based on incredibly fundamental misconceptions of super simple math.
The first one is sampling rates. Some people seem to think that digital sampling just works something like this image:
Where a digital signal will have "steps" between samples, so higher sampling rates mean better sound with smaller steps. This is just not how sampling works, at all. And while there might be some advantages to sampling at a rate higher than 44kHz when recording sound, it's not nearly as important as audiophiles claim, and I haven't seen any real evidence that people can tell the difference in blind tests.
The other thing is the misunderstanding about how bits work. Bits are either 1 or 0. You either transmit a bit correctly, or you don't. And if you don't, the errors will be immediately noticeable. There's no real way to make a digital signal sound better by using things like super expensive cables, or by doing things like polishing your CD with God knows what. It will either work, or not.
Similarly, CDs and digital files are a perfectly fine storage media that are superior to vinyl in theory (disregarding things like mastering, or simply preferring how the imperfections of vynil sound).
And then there are just the absurd things some people buy into. Expensive power cables. The PS1 being the best audio player ever created (but only one very specific model of it). Magical $100 rocks (that's per rock. It's actually more of a small pebble, really) you put in the corner of your room or tape onto your cable. Burning in your headphones. And so many more.
You place special rocks around your system to make audio sound better.
http://audiophile.rocks/rockwood.htmlhttp://audiophile.rocks/rockwood.html
