consumer: $6,800 cables, anyone?
Most internet-savvy users are probably aware that Amazon’s opening up their online store to become more of a marketplace caused them to offer–via various merchants–some more interesting items than just books, music, movies and electronics. Some of the more famously “reviewed” items were Tuscan Whole Milk and Cloverdale Fresh Whole Rabbit but NYT technology columnist/reviewer David Pogue came across another one and shared it this weekend on twitter:
I LOVE when people pile onto an Amazon product with hilarious reviews–like this $7000 speaker cable http://amzn.to/g9rU93 (via @frankly)
— David Pogue (@Pogue) November 27, 2010
For years, blogs have been railing against overpriced cables, Monster Cable being one of the most frequent offenders, but this one takes the cake. AudioQuest’s K2 Terminated Speaker Cable is currently at Amazon for $6,800 (reduced from $8,450).
Consumers are fighting back the only way they know how… via the product reviews. One of my favorites is below, but they’re all worth a read. When you compare the time & effort put into writing some of these reviews to the comments you find on your average online newspaper article, it makes me wish more Amazon customers would apply this talent elsewhere online.
I have only a little time…
We live underground. We speak with our hands. We wear the earplugs all our lives.
PLEASE! You must listen! We cannot maintain the link for long… I will type as fast as I can.
DO NOT USE THE CABLES!
We were fools, fools to develop such a thing! Sound was never meant to be this clear, this pure, this… accurate. For a few short days, we marveled. Then the… whispers… began.
Were they Aramaic? Hyperborean? Some even more ancient tongue, first spoken by elder races under the red light of dying suns far from here? We do not know, but somehow, slowly… we began to UNDERSTAND.
No, no, please! I don’t want to remember! YOU WILL NOT MAKE ME REMEMBER! I saw brave men claw their own eyes out… oh, god, the screaming… the mobs of feral children feasting on corpses, the shadows MOVING, the fires burning in the air! The CHANTING!
WHY CAN’T I FORGET THE WORDS???
We live underground. We speak with our hands. We wear the earplugs all our lives.
Do not use the cables!
I hope everyone had a fun and safe Thanksgiving, Black Friday and that your internet connection stays strong* for Cyber Monday**. 
* Comcast customers–myself included–experienced DNS issues last night, not that their DNS status page reflected a thing. It seems to be back online this morning.
** But let’s be honest, if anyone’s doing online shopping, it’s from the office so how about we at least try to look productive while we do?
