It may surprise you to discover that I and others do not lose any sleep trying to figure out the cause of a phenomenon which cannot happen. I do not even lose sleep wondering why some people believe it does happen.soongsc said:
Maybe you should lose some sleep trying to work out how to measure it. If it is a real electrical phenomenon then it is measurable. You just have to work out how.
People usually start "work" on audio cables because they do not understand audio cables. Such people usually understand them even less when they have finished their "work".
How so ?.
Which 'rubbish designs' ?.
What suitable connectors are better and why ?.
What is so different about the connection arrangements in other connectors ?.
Dan.
For clarifying the audiophile friend issue: he was dissapointed beacuse he don't test his favourite analog cable due to absence of analog connectors, thanks to internal DAC. For me, the best wire is no wire and the best connector is no connector (that results into integrated systems), but since I like to test/change different systems/amps/etc (most that I made, some commercial from friends)... Of course maybe he will try to test the TOSLINK cable (in this project I only included optical inputs) 
.
About RCA: for me is fine, if shield is very conductive (thick, low impedance), and system without ground loops. My system is utter silent even with RCA (the loudspeaker system; the Stax one is mentioned above). I isolate digital sources with TOSLINK cables, and isolate the analog ones with the selector switch including ground (not only L,R). I regard XLR for studios and people with a pile of Krells and so (not exhaustive examples).
Strictly from a design point of view, really the RCA is a trash...
.About RCA: for me is fine, if shield is very conductive (thick, low impedance), and system without ground loops. My system is utter silent even with RCA (the loudspeaker system; the Stax one is mentioned above). I isolate digital sources with TOSLINK cables, and isolate the analog ones with the selector switch including ground (not only L,R). I regard XLR for studios and people with a pile of Krells and so (not exhaustive examples).
Strictly from a design point of view, really the RCA is a trash...
To be fair the 2 pin DIN was only used for speaker cable and it was crap.
Not sure about the electrical quality of the more usual stereo 5 pin DIN.
The connection is like this: pin 1 L+, pin 2 screen/return, pin 3 L-, pin 4 R+ and pin 5 R-.
I don't know if they would be preferable to RCAs as interconnects
electrically or electro-mechaniclly because by the time I was old enough to care about electrical connections DIN plugs had effectively ceased to exist.
The physical quality was of course abysmal as everybody who ever stepped on one knows.
Rhodium ???Other thing, to fire the thread, what about connectors and metal quality? Or the use of dissimilar metals on interconnnect plugs? Some strrange effect will occur? Audio differences?
Questions
I prefer to use similar connectors makers and metals (eg. all Amphenol gold) for long life without one metal interacting with other and making surface corrosion.
I have seen "wall outlet plugs" (stickpropp in Swedish) sold for sizeable amount of money and the claims of sound quality enhancing is equally sizeable.
I'd argue ideology is more important than money as a motivation, but nonetheless.
Just remember that we're the close-minded lot, because well, things that work correctly are so passe.
I just started work on an audiophile, unbalanced supercable.
Basis is RG58 which is proven linear enough with documented and guaranteed values for R and C as well as resulting attenuation. To that I will attach L C and R decades on one end so you can dial in "the best sound" and it might even show some type of directionality.
This finally will be a cable that does what cables are supposed to do. Shape sound.
Basis is RG58 which is proven linear enough with documented and guaranteed values for R and C as well as resulting attenuation. To that I will attach L C and R decades on one end so you can dial in "the best sound" and it might even show some type of directionality.
This finally will be a cable that does what cables are supposed to do. Shape sound.
Last edited:
I am a proponent of quality RCA connectors. They have been the default standard for ages, and that is what new audio equipment usually comes with. To change, one would have to replace the RCA connectors already on audio and visual equipment, or even worse, make adaptors, that would further compromise connections and be even more expensive. Now, what is a QUALITY RCA connector? First, is should be non-magnetic. Just test one with a magnet. If there is a strong attraction, reject the RCA connector. Second, it should be gold plated or at least gold flashed, to keep corrosion to a minimum over time. In the early days, like 50 years ago, there were no quality RCA connectors, but today there are lots. At least at the primitive level of mid fi, which most here are at.
The only quality RCA connector I've seen so far are the Neutrik ones that have spring suspended ground collars to transform the RCA connector, which, looking at it's history probably never was meant to be used as it is today, to something with sense. At least it makes it possible to follow the convention to first make and last break the ground connection.
5-pin DIN in metal bodies are in my experience pretty good. Nice firm contact, seems to self clean (useful as silver plated in the spec). Ground connects first. Naim still swear by their very expensive versions of them. I am going to use them in my latest phono preamp as tinyXLR (the other option) are a tad pricey.
DB9 connectors are rather good for audio too!
DB9 connectors are rather good for audio too!
- Status
- Not open for further replies.