The 'Y' Word and Fake IS

I hate to admit this in public, but I think I get the yips from time to time.

Before we get into that, though, I have to show you an absolutely delightful fraud. There's a point to this, don't worry. Bear with me.

This fetching little thing is a "Nobsound MS-10D Hybird [sic] Tube Amplifier." It's extremely cheap for a tube amp at $169.

It has only one little problem. According to reliable sources, it's fake. The tubes are there purely for show. It's not a "hybird" tube amp or a hybrid tube amp—it's not any kind of tube amp. It's not a solid-state amp with a "tube preamp section." The tubes are wired to...glow. That's all they do. Oh, and they're connected to the circuit so that if you remove them, the amp doesn't work (think of how it would look if that weren't so). That's the extent of it. There's no transformer and no rectifier. The tubes are decor.

But here's the fascinating part—it doesn't seem to matter to a lot of people. If you read reviews around the Web for this thing, various amateur reviewers wax poetical about the Nobsound's sound; some do comparos with other cheap tube amps; some appear to know it's a fake but give it "five stars" or other similarly lavish praise anyway. One guy—I love this—"strongly recommends" replacing the Chinese "Peking" tubes with Russian or Bulgarian tubes!  (Okay, that "review" smells strongly of being a plant, but it's still funny.)

So back to the yips. The condition is most often encountered by older golfers in putting. I believe the term was coined by Tommy Armour, a golfer whose career was distorted by the affliction. Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the mysterious malady:

The yips is the loss of fine motor skills in athletes. The condition occurs suddenly and without apparent explanation, usually in mature athletes with years of experience. It is poorly understood and has no known treatment or therapy. Athletes affected by the yips sometimes recover their ability, which may require a changing technique. Many are forced to abandon their sport at the highest level.

The yips manifest themselves as twitches, staggers, jitters and jerks. The condition occurs most often in sports which athletes are required to perform a single precise and well timed action such as golf and darts. The condition is also experienced by bowlers in cricket and pitchers in baseball.

[...]

Although the exact cause of the yips has yet to be determined, one possibility is that the condition may result from biochemical changes in the brain that accompany aging. Excessive use of the involved muscles and intense demands of coordination and concentration may make the problem worse.

It affects different people different ways. Sometimes it's temporary, sometimes permanent. With some golfers it manifests as an inability to draw the club back to commence the stroke—the great Ben Hogan was afflicted by this, and would stand at address over a putt for embarrassing lengths of time, unable to swing the putter back to initiate the stroke. Korean-American golfer Kevin Na had the same problem with his full swing in 2012. "I'm having some issues taking the club back," he said at the time. He was pilloried by the fans and the press, but his problem was psychological and involuntary—he wasn't doing it on purpose and he had no control over it. With most people, it manifests as involuntary twitching movements that happen either when you're most under pressure or when you're concentrating the hardest...i.e., exactly when you least want it to happen.

So here's my thought: what if a camera had fake image stabilization? Would it work anyway for some people, thanks to the placebo effect?

Good image stabilization has always had great appeal to me, but I've long realized that it's not entirely a technical issue. It's also psychological. Knowing that IS is there to protect me, I don't tense up. I relax. And that, I'm pretty convinced, helps me to actually hold the camera steadier. IS works very well for me, and I'm pretty convinced that part of what makes it work is the technical mechanism. I'm also pretty convinced that part of what makes it work so well for me is in my head.

So maybe I shouldn't be so critical of the Nobsound's fans. Yes, maybe it's a fraud, but maybe it makes its owners feel better about owning a cheap, low-powered amp. And maybe the presence of the glowing tubes actually makes it sound better to them, thanks to the placebo effect. Heck, what do I know? If a camera had a fake IS switch, I can't even say for sure that I might not be able to hold the camera steadier when the switch was turned to "on." Makes me laugh. I guess I shouldn't criticize!

Mike
(Thanks to Luke)

Original contents copyright 2016 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Chris Stump: "Hey Mike, this post reminds me to ask. I read some pundit's opinion that turning IS on degrades IQ...that all things being equal [adequately high shutter speed, etc.] an image taken with IS on will be slightly degraded compared to the same image taken with IS off. Wondering what your thoughts are on this? For my money, I've decided the stabilization is worth having on."

Mike replies: The baseline is that if you're using a shutter speed where you'd get obvious camera shake 100% of the time and stabilization allows you to get a more usable shot, then it's an improvement. How things work from there on out is a judgment call that you'll have to make yourself; experience helps.

It's not necessarily "testable," either. I made repeated attempts in the '80s when I was writing for Darkroom Photography to test my ability to handhold slow shutter speeds, and all I learned was that the test conditions couldn't replicate normal shooting conditions well enough to yield any useful information.

Technically, different IS systems are different. Some have been tested to degrade IQ very slightly at higher shutter speeds and on a tripod, and it's recommended to turn those off and on according to need. Others don't seem to have any deleterious effect when not needed, and can be left on all (or most) of the time unless it drains the battery more quickly and that's an issue.

Generally the best advice is to learn about your specific camera, both from an overview of others' comments about it online and through experience of using it yourself. Gradually a protocol will develop which will guide your use of that feature (as with any other feature). More than most things, this isn't a good time to place trust in a sweeping general do-or-don't rule—your equipment, your chosen focal lengths,the conditions under which you shoot, your ability to handhold, even the types of motion you yourself typically introduce when you move the camera—all these things will have an effect, so you just have to do the work to learn what works and what doesn't...for you.

David Boyce: "Well, having built a couple of their kits for friends, and pulled apart a couple of 'Nobsound' amps to upgrade caps and resistors, I can say that the ones I have been near have either been point-to-point-wired tubes or hybrids with a tube buffer or tube preamp section. Haven't seen this one, so can't say yea or nay, but their amps are actually pretty reasonable and with a few upgrades can be really good."

Jonas Yip: "'The Yips manifest themselves as twitches, staggers, jitters and jerks.' Perhaps this will be our new family motto."

Mike replies:  :-)

Foo TS: "Mike, I am the one who, according to you, 'planted' the review on Amazon. As a photographer myself (by the way, I am a RIT graduate), I don't see the relevancy to use Nobsound as your example. Nobsound is all about good sound and good value (have you even heard one yourself? At least I own three sets). Yes, you may think it is a fake but don't impose your opinions on another person. Of course, you are subjected to freedom of speech and others have their freedom to speak too, including me. And I am here to tell you, order a set and listen to it yourself. If you are curious, remove the tubes and see if it still works. Then 'roll' some Russian and Bulgarian tubes. After this, write a follow up. Tell everybody in your absolute honestly, what you think."

Mike replies: How about if I just admit that I could be wrong? Unfortunately I don't have time to take you up on your quite reasonable challenge. Thanks for being courteous in your reply.

Comments

[Glenn Brown]

This is the real deal, have owned Fat Man for years. gb.
http://www.fatman-audio.co.uk

[KeithB]

I know it won't work for me. My son had turned off IS without me knowing and my images were *terrible*.

Not exactly the yips, but Carson the butler in the last Downton Abbey was extremely frustrated when he could not pour the wine because of his advancing palsy.

[Marty4650]

Another mediocre "retro look" product expressly designed for 28 year old Hipsters who are spending their parents retirement funds!

Yes, it seems bizarre, but some very clever companies are tapping into this market. You really can't blame them.

[Hendrik Broekman]

The yips, hmmm, I wonder. Probably what’s commonly called “nerves” in music circles. My teacher had them. She could play, say, the Goldberg Variations stone-cold perfect in the studio in the afternoon and melt down on stage the same evening. Insecure in public? Worried about the review? Who knows. I’ve had them and they do play hob with public performance, when there’s only one chance to get it right. Any fully-learned, coordinated activity remains extraordinarily sensitive to small disturbances in thought. Mistakes must be accepted and put aside immediately. Stray thoughts are attention killers. I’ve found the most reliable way around “nerves/yips” is to cultivate the sense that I am engaging in this highly nervous-making activity for the sheer joy of being immersed in the moment while playing and ignoring the outcome. With a camera, I frame the image and then exhale, relax and press the shutter release for the sheer joy of hearing the sound of the shutter. That usually works… IS helps.

[Jim Woodard]

Lets take this a step farther, instead of choices for portrait, sports, landscape how about choices for Weston, W. Eugene Smith, etc. Fully programmable of course by sub- menu for a selection of photographers. And maybe, just maybe, a custom setting for your very own photography?

[Patrick]

Do surgeons get the yips?

[I believe they quit if they do. I know a guy who was a very high-level heart surgeon at the very top of his game, lots of experience, very well regarded, and he started to get tingling in his little fingers from a pinched nerve in his neck. He essentially quit practicing as a surgeon overnight. He now runs a company that helps large institutions adapt to the new healthcare laws. --Mike]

[Andy F]

The weird thing with those fake tube amps is it literally does make the amp sound better to people who are under the placebo effect – their brains actually respond as if it sounded better.

To quote a random person off the head-fi forum, "there’s no direct, unproblematic relationship between perceptual experience (e.g., hearing) and external physical reality (e.g., physical properties of an audio signal)"

[Anthony Shaughnessy]

Perhaps Leica ownership is the same? If you think you own the best camera then you take better pictures?
Anthony

[Robert Roaldi]

How about a real tube amp with fake solid-state circuit boards for show?

[Severian]

And Mike demonstrates again why he's so good at this blog.

I have near zero interest in amplifiers and an even lower one in tubes. I am somewhat hostile to golf ("A good walk spoiled" - Mark Twain) even though intellectually, it is a wonderful game. For me, it just involves too much looking for lost things (the ball) to enjoy.

However, Mike manages to make this all relevant to photography and interesting to read. Well done! May you never be "blocked" or "yipped" in your writing!

[John Krumm]

I don't think the fake IS would work for me, but practicing good shutter technique might. I'm a little rough and sloppy with my shutter finger and the IS has saved me many times. I noticed this after getting back four rolls of developed and scanned film that I had shot with my Contax G2. I had terrible results with 1/30 and lower. I have to take that little extra time to be mindful of my squeeze. Of course sticking to 1/45 and higher with a 45mm lens would help too. I'm not good enough for it to be the yips.

[Richard]

Remember when cell phones had little extendable/retractable antennas that did nothing?

[Chris]

This does raise the question of how much audiophiles really can hear differences between sound systems. There are huge reinforcement effects due to expectations, price paid, and group effects. Much as there are with other hobbies associated with wealth, taste, and one-upmanship generally. Photography comes to mind as having similar issues (Zeiss vs Leica etc), as does being a wine and spirits connoisseur.

[Joe Holmes]

This is vaguely related to the Nobsound news: The Vibrophase is a guitar vibrato/flanger stomp-box that's powered by a candle and Stirling engine: http://www.zvex.com/zvex-candela-vibrophase/

At least the candle-power is real, but I think the appeal of the thing must be that flame, right? Does it get cooler than that?

[Gordon Lewis]

One of the most important things that distinguishes human beings from other life forms here on Earth is our ability to ideate and live lives based on abstractions. For example, God, money, authenticity, and yes, yips mean nothing to primates, but they are very real to us. That's why it's no help for someone else to say to you, "Yips are all in your mind." Your response would likely be, "I know that. What I don't know is what to do about it."

Just for the sake of discussion though, do you tend to tense up only when shooting certain subjects or with all subjects? I can understand being nervous about photographing people; nervousness around domesticated animals and inanimate objects is puzzling.

FWIW, I view image stabilization more with suspicion than with relief. I feel as if I can never completely trust how effective it will be. If I need a shot that's free of camera motion I use a tripod. If it needs to be free of subject motion I use a fast shutter speed or electronic flash. I also find that some cameras have much smoother shutter releases than others. A hitch in the shutter release action might not cause yips, but it certainly doesn't help.

[John Camp]

There is a whole series of Yamaha guitar amps (the THR series) that contain orangish LEDs, so that when you turn them on, you get the tube glow through the speaker cover. There are no tubes in the amps -- the clue that they're not real is that when you turn on the power, the glow is there instantly. Weird thing is, I have six or seven guitar amps, all tube amps, and you can't see the tube glow in any of them, because you look at the front of the amps, and the tubes are all in the back.

[Rodger Kingston]

Mike, as always your timing is impeccable; your description of "the yips" comes just in time to explain Carson's strange hand tremors in the final episode of Downton Abbey.

[Eric Rose]

This would have made a perfect April Fools posting. It would have been a double gotcha.

[Kenneth Tanaka]

I can absolutely attest that optical image stabilization DOES WORK. The most vivid practical demonstration I've had of its effectiveness are when I use my Canon binoculars that feature their optical IS system. Press the IS button and I get an immediately steady image. Release the button and it looks like I'm riding in the back of a a Conestoga wagon on the Chisholm Trail.

My Sony in-body IS systems work extremely well, too. This is most evident to me when hand-holding my A7RII. The higher the resolution the harder it is to hide tremors. So that 40+ mp sensor doesn't leave much room to hide.

But I've learned that you do need to be reasonable with your expectations and to understand what the system's limits are. You have to know when to disable IS for the best results.

I suspect that the average IS-equipped camera / lens owner gives little thought to the system, and mostly afterthought. And that's reasonable, too.

What proportion of my own favorite images have been captured with the aid of IS? Interestingly, a casual survey suggests a tiny percentage, perhaps 5% or less.

[David Kieltyka]

There's a disorder suffered by some musicians, particularly guitarists and pianists, known as focal dystonia. This involves a loss of coordination when performing intricate musical passages requiring precise fine motor movement, and typically shows up only after many years or even decades of high-level playing. Focal dystonia differs from "nerves" in that it's a genuine neurological problem but it could be related to some manifestations of "the yips."

[Ken Sky]

Let's not go into high resolution audio. The field is littered with hucksters & fraudsters making outrageous claims that can't be verified scientifically. It seems that audiophiles are more susceptible to deception than enthusiastic photographers - and that's going some.

[Al C.]

Those wood side panels call to mind the shapely wood grips of Hassey rebranded Sonys.

Audiophile-land is a veritable asylum where delusional, golden-eared patients merrily spend thousands of dollars on cables (including digital interconnects) and power cords. The only other philedom which comes close is the oenophile. Neither obsession survives the dreaded double blind test. By comparison, photog-philes are a boring, rationalist breed indeed.

[Nigel]

Nobsound ?
Really ?

For a British audience, the clue is in the name.
:-)

[Richard]

Interesting post. I start a lot of IV's at work and occasionally find myself locked in a negative feedback loop where my normally minor palsy becomes much worse. Not career ruining, re the surgeon comment above, but certainly disconcerting for my patients and person.

I've found there's a strong correlation between the shaking and how recently I've eaten. Maybe it's a blood sugar thing... whatever the cause, I can commiserate.

Thankfully it hasn't intruded on my photography as taking pictures generally puts me in a happy place and unplugs my "critical mind".

[mike plews]

Decorative tubes, decorative wood, they should add a couple of zeros to the price and call it the Nobsound Lunar Edition. Can't explain why but I kind of like it anyway. I guess the idea of dressing up a solid state amp just to appeal to people like me is a kind of compliment?

[Oskar Ojala]

I'm sure the fake IS would work to some extent, probably well enough to fool some people. But IS is so good these days that there's no way the average shooter could get anywhere close as stable as IS with their best hand holding technique.

Incidentally, was just talking about how the electronics revolution has made even many affordable amps good and how problems often lay in different parts of the system. Thus, I'm not surprised that many people would be happy with the fake hybrid amp, especially since tests that are not double blind are notoriously unreliable. I don't see the point in tube amps either, maybe the buyers of the said amp are better off with transistor only :-)

[Phageghost]

Nearly everything in audio besides speakers is placebo effect. The engineering challenges of decoding and amplifying 20-20 kHz signals with sonic transparency were solved decades ago. All amps with reasonably low distortion and noise sound the same in double-blind testing but very different when subjects can see them.

Speakers (and headphones) are still a work in progress . . .

[Ken N]

I've listened to the Nobsound amp. The funny thing is that it actually does sound a bit like a tube amp until really pushed. At normal power levels, it's halfway decent. The sound quality is good, and there is a bit of circuitry to mimic the eq and compression characteristics of tubes without actually using tubes. For $169, there are MUCH better amplifiers out there, but for a good sounding amp with built-in tube emulation, it's acceptable. Personally, I'll stick with my self-powered near-field studio monitors.

[MarkR]

When I had an early Pentax (K100d) I might have agreed with this thesis. The IS (OS, VC, whatever) was small enough in effect that it might have been a placebo.

But now I have an Olympus EM1, and have had tack-sharp pictures at 1/2 second exposure, and that is most certainly not a placebo effect.

[Denisio Fabuloso]

The perfect device for the age... captures the zeitgeist perfectly. Selfie with that there amp anyone?

[David]

His amp is also marketed by Monoprice for $150. And there are reports online that tube rolling the "Nob" branded-one does result in different sound, and that sometimes when just turned on there's a bit of tube roar and other artifacts

Only

Associated

With

Tubes.

That Amazon review mighta been wrong.

[Richard Parkin]

"I don't tense up. I relax. And that, I'm pretty convinced, helps me to actually hold the camera steadier". Trying to hold something still is counterproductive. A brief experience at target shooting with a rifle and telescopic sights will show you why.

[Steve Smith]

Most audiophoolery is fraud.

[Dr Tom Bell]

Surgeons don't always quit!!!
Actually I worked as an Anaesthetist in the 80s and there was an old an eminent surgeon who was an Opthalmologist .. Eye Surgeon. He had a terrible shake all day long .. terrifying .. until the second when he started operating. IT ALL WENT. Good results every time. Best not to shake hands with the patient though!!!

[Luke]

I have had a small tremor in my left hand for most of my life. I'm 62, and it's steadily getting worse, but I can usually mentally switch on my own internal IS that works pretty well. My stabilized Canon 16-35 still helps a lot. And my Canon stabilized binoculars work astoundingly well.

Also: This Z.Vex guy knows his stuff. I have one of his tiny stereo amps with tiny ex-military tubes.

[Steve Muskie]

Why isn't there a link to buy the Nobsound MS-10D? You might be missing out on some income, Mike!

[robert e]

David Kieltyka beat me to it. Most non-musicians have never heard of focal dystonia, but in classical musicianship it seems to be a well-known and surprisingly common problem, and, at least among pros, shrouded in secrecy, shame and paranoia. It was the first thing I thought of as I read the description of "yips". The big difference is that FD usually isn't as obvious as tremors or jitters. As DK says, it's a loss of control or a seeming loss of connection. And it's as little understood as "yips".

As for IS, what little hand-holding skill I ever had seems to have almost disappeared during my years with an IBIS body. So these days I have to be extra careful when I "go commando". (Of course, I could be blaming IS for what is really an aging-related issue.) I've even thought about quitting coffee... just for a fraction of a second... and yet, more than once. That's how bad it is!

[Peter Croft]

Having been through the "Golden Ears" period of hi-fi, where even the power cords had to be gold plated and cost $1,000, and "skin effect" was made a big part of audio (any technician knows that skin effect applies only at high radio frequencies), I often wonder how those golden eared writers regard Blue Tooth audio connections, wi-fi audio, switch-mode power supplies, mp3 audio and all the other travesties we have today.

This reverence for valves leaves me cold. Any audio signal can be made to sound like anything you want. We have never had such fidelity available with digital amps and processing. People delude themselves. Just enjoy the music.

[Paul De Zan]

Since I tend to think of the entire analog audio revival movement as fake, the Nobsound is doubtless the finest such device yet produced.

Subjectivity is freedom.

[Erik Johansson]

The yips? I'm more worried about your memory Mike:
http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2014/04/the-yips.html

:-)

[Nobody remembers the past.

Besides, if I had to worry about repeating myself, I'd never write anything. I really mean that, too. When I remember something, I have no idea if it's something I actually wrote, or just thought. --Mike]