bitflipper
It amazes me that these kinds of things are often shown at AES. NAMM, I can see. But AES is supposedly attended by "engineers", whom you'd think would be a tough crowd. I sure wouldn't want to be the guy demonstrating magnet therapy at an AMA convention.

You pretty much hit it on the head!

But as bad as the foam ball is, I really felt sorry for was the clown selling power cables for several hundred dollars a piece. He had a little booth set up (not on the trade show floor, even the AES has standards) and was trying to convince folks that a power cord would make their gear sound better.

Actually, I have no pity whatsoever for folks taken in by snake oil salesmen... most of this stuff is still governed by the good old laws of physics. IF your power cord is presenting a significant impedance to the power source then it is possible that you can hear a difference if you replace it with a power cord that does not present a significant impedance. Possible... not guaranteed.
 
The catch?? Hey, when I was 20 I could not understand why anyone would spend $1500 on a microphone. I thought they were snake oil. Then a studio where I worked ended up with a U-67. You could plug that into a Norelco (really obscure reference here) cassette recorder and hear the difference.

So I learned not to use cost as the only figure of merit. Sometimes you do have to listen. Oh, yeah, you ALWAYS have to listen, but sometimes listening to common sense is good enough. And if I could come up with any reasonable explanation for power cords making a difference I'd probably give it the benefit of the doubt.

Not so long ago I designed a prototype using the InGenius input chip from THAT. I happen to know, and respect, the designer of that chip, but I still thought there might just be a wee bit of enthusiasm in the marketing copy. Danged if it did not exceed my expectations. Proof again that sometime you just gotta listen (and in this case measure.)
 
And heck, some of the best and the brightest have spent much of their time trying to align subjective and objective analysis... so I don't feel too bad being both cynical and curious<G>!
 
But the foam ball????

Here's an article in this months SoundBytes...

http://soundbytesmag.net/kaoticaeyeball/

Read the article... just goes to prove you gotta use your ears! My experience/results were just about opposite the author's, I thought that the better the microphone the worse it sounded in the eyeball. And I did not feel that the reduction in background noise was worth the penalty.

But that is me... although I still think that it is a bad idea<G>!
 

I think, for $200, I could do a much better job just "isolating" the microphone...
and pocketing about $175 of that $200..but what do I know?

I could tell you that the Bud Light Platinum Beer Can I'm drinking out of is worth $10,000,000.00....
that doesn't make it so...UNLESS you believe it...=P

I think I want that beer can!!!!!!
 
And yeah, you can do a lot better with a music stand and three Sonex Squares... but please don't ask me how I know that<G>!

wst3
I think I want that beer can!!!!!!
 
And yeah, you can do a lot better with a music stand and three Sonex Squares... but please don't ask me how I know that<G>!

I think I read somewhere that vocals sound crisper with a more focused soundstage if you record them in the freezer. The only downside is that you'll probably need a battery powered mic. Luckily though, batteries can be recharged by leaving them next to a fireplace for a couple of hours. 

sharke

 Luckily though, batteries can be recharged by leaving them next to a fireplace for a couple of hours. 

I know MY batteries are recharged sitting next to a fireplace 
for a few hours...

I got some dehydrated water for sale if anyone's interested.
 
It's called Just Add Water. I ain't got no fancy website or nothin', but I don't need one, this stuff is just flyin' out the door as it is.......
 
Grab some while you can......only $200 for as much as you like. Send me your cash now or just your bank details and passwords and I'll help myself if that's easier.

sharke
I think I read somewhere that vocals sound crisper with a more focused soundstage if you record them in the freezer. The only downside is that you'll probably need a battery powered mic. Luckily though, batteries can be recharged by leaving them next to a fireplace for a couple of hours. 

Makes stutter effects sound more natural, too. As for the battery-powered microphone, nah, if you're at all serious about this you'll have no second thoughts about drilling holes in your freezer for a pass-through. Cut the opening in the back of the freezer where it's out of sight, and don't tell your wife. She already thinks you're crazy.
 
I read Per's SoundBytes article with interest, since the author is not the sort of fellow who'd B.S. you because somebody loaned him a piece of hardware. He didn't even get to keep it, AFAIK. I was quite surprised by the positive things he had to say about the product. So surprised that I'd really have to try it myself before I'd be convinced.
 
What it's essentially attempting to do is narrow the polar pattern of the microphone to reduce extraneous noise. That's not a bad idea - it's why the SM58 is such a popular microphone. But foam is only going to do that for high frequencies, and probably not in a linear fashion. The 58 does it fairly linearly, and does it for lows and mids too.
 
Reducing computer fan noise might be a justification. But the very modest reduction Per measured could be as easily accomplished with a piece of rigid fiberglass next to the computer. Actually, that method will get you ten times more fan noise reduction than any foam can. Unless the foam was 3 feet thick, anyway.
 
My advice would be to get an SM58, which is half the price of the eyeball, and borrow a scrap of 703 from somebody who's done it right and applied acoustical absorption to his room.