Yup, there is a lot of snake oil in the audiophile world. The worst instance I saw was someone posting about an intermittent buzz in their system. Multiple people were recommending a full rebuild, (which would cost thousands of dollars). From what they described, it was pretty obvious that OP just needed a ~10¢ ferrite bead on a power cable, to make it stop acting as an antenna.
I was like “okay, you could try rebuilding your entire system like everyone else is suggesting… But maybe start with a ferrite bead. Here is a link for a multipack on Amazon. Worst case scenario, you’re only out like $5. And even if it doesn’t fix this specific case, the multipack is handy to have around anyways, because manufacturers often cheap out and skip adding them when their devices really do need them.” Like three days later, I got a “holy shit this actually worked. You just saved me thousands of dollars (and a ton of time) on a complete rebuild.”
Classic issue and I am a bit shocked they hadn’t run into it before, I had figured that out when i was a teen with my first stereo setup. I am also not surprised at all that they were recommended to fully rebuild lmao
I’m curious about other cases where ferrites are actually useful. I have done some access point installations where I was required to loop a patch cable through a ferrite for each. The majority of APs I install don’t get this treatment. Is it bullshit? I assumed it was, but of course I used them anyway.
Was this in a radio station (or was someone nearby acting as a radio operator, like a police station or dispatch center), by chance? Or maybe in a lab setting where they may have gear that is affected by interference? They tend to be picky about RF interference, and Ethernet can be fairly noisy on certain RF bands. In that case, the ferrite bead was likely to do the exact opposite; They wanted to stop the Ethernet cables from acting as an antenna and broadcasting RF interference.
Yup, there is a lot of snake oil in the audiophile world. The worst instance I saw was someone posting about an intermittent buzz in their system. Multiple people were recommending a full rebuild, (which would cost thousands of dollars). From what they described, it was pretty obvious that OP just needed a ~10¢ ferrite bead on a power cable, to make it stop acting as an antenna.
I was like “okay, you could try rebuilding your entire system like everyone else is suggesting… But maybe start with a ferrite bead. Here is a link for a multipack on Amazon. Worst case scenario, you’re only out like $5. And even if it doesn’t fix this specific case, the multipack is handy to have around anyways, because manufacturers often cheap out and skip adding them when their devices really do need them.” Like three days later, I got a “holy shit this actually worked. You just saved me thousands of dollars (and a ton of time) on a complete rebuild.”
Classic issue and I am a bit shocked they hadn’t run into it before, I had figured that out when i was a teen with my first stereo setup. I am also not surprised at all that they were recommended to fully rebuild lmao
I’m curious about other cases where ferrites are actually useful. I have done some access point installations where I was required to loop a patch cable through a ferrite for each. The majority of APs I install don’t get this treatment. Is it bullshit? I assumed it was, but of course I used them anyway.
Was this in a radio station (or was someone nearby acting as a radio operator, like a police station or dispatch center), by chance? Or maybe in a lab setting where they may have gear that is affected by interference? They tend to be picky about RF interference, and Ethernet can be fairly noisy on certain RF bands. In that case, the ferrite bead was likely to do the exact opposite; They wanted to stop the Ethernet cables from acting as an antenna and broadcasting RF interference.
Yes, all the ones I’ve installed that required ferrites were in hospitals or clinics.
Rebadge them with a fancy name and sell them for $20 to the gullible. 😉 “Toroid Choke Core”.
Sell gold electroplated ones with “extra EM protection” for £150