I do not promote cables, but I accept that there are cable differences. WHY? I cannot precisely say. That is why I took up looking in QM books about 15 years ago, to see if I could find anything. Lots of clues, nothing definite.
The most expensive connecting cable that I use also measured best in my low level distortion tests compared to Radio Shack, etc, so I went for it.
The other two were through golden eared friends and I got a discount on them.
The most expensive connecting cable that I use also measured best in my low level distortion tests compared to Radio Shack, etc, so I went for it.
The other two were through golden eared friends and I got a discount on them.
There is certainly more. You left out the most important factor in understanding hearing and perception with respect to fashionable wires.
Well years ago , I measured and all have different rlc/phase properties, you could predict what they would sound like when looking at the bandwidth phase, positive above 9K, it softens the sound, negative in the bass it leaned the bass out, making for a leaner sound.
I'm sure shielding (reduced noise interference) also opening up the cable, (big difference on power cables because of such)this would vary based on environment and noise added by components, unlike it's rlc makeup.
Whether you consciously care or not is immaterial to your understanding of your perception and the causes.
15yr old data, lost now as i did not have files after leaving the company, i can run test on the wires and interconnects i have now, of course not the full inventory the company had from the major players of the time ...
Well, for cables the first thing to do is to hardwire them into whatever test rig is used to compare - remove the connectors and contact quality from the equation. A friend swore by an expensive cable, vs. normal stuff, so I suggested soldering the two types of raw cable in situ. Poof! - the differences vanished ...
Differences tend to vanish when DBTs are done but then the howling that arises after the "golden ears" find out that they really can't choose their favorite cable from the "lowly" cheaper one tends to drown out any semblance of acceptance on their part. They prefer to blame the DBT as being not done well or even not good enough to begin with. For instance just ask Jason Serinus or John Atkinson over at Stereophile about DBTs and you get all sorts of excuses as to why they don't bother with them.
So do SOME cables sound different? No doubt they do but like I stated earlier, if they change the sound like a tone control then they are faulty. Who wants to introduce distortion into the signal and call it "better"? Only a moron.
So do SOME cables sound different? No doubt they do but like I stated earlier, if they change the sound like a tone control then they are faulty. Who wants to introduce distortion into the signal and call it "better"? Only a moron.
Everything does not have to be so black and white. So you now accept that all cables are not the same, or whatever you were saying earlier?
I would be interested in seeing some measurements between some different cables just for curiosities sake.
I might even be tempted to do a little experimenting myself if I thought I could measure inductance accurately enough.
Or I could be lazy and use an online calculator Inductance of a Straight Wire: A Calculator
I wonder what the effect, if any to these measurements would be if a sinusoidal signal of around 50V were imposed on the cable?
I myself don't worry about it from a practical standpoint. There are usually other more noticeable things to improve upon. I would certainly never spend any exorbitant amount of money on cabling.
Quality cabling is nice, by this I mean brand name (Belden etc.) of proper voltage rating with nice rugged insulation that is easy to strip.
Anyhow I would like to hear what would be a suitable measuring apparatus for doing some comparisons.
I have seen measurements of many of the big names in cable. The performance is all over the map especially the characteristic impedance. I trust the person who did the measurements and the equipment he used. Some are quite good and others aren't. You wouldn't run test equipment with most of them though.
A good scope a square wave generator and a GS bridge will do the job.
A good scope a square wave generator and a GS bridge will do the job.
See Richard Greiner's papers. This was done decades ago. Plain old R, L, and C are what matter, especially R. Characteristic impedance is meaningless in the context of tiny fractions of a wavelength.
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