I remember those DIN connectors from my childhood!
Their main problem was that they were nowhere near physically robust enough.
If you step on a cheap rca it might crack but it will likely still work, if you stepped on a DIN connector it deformed, you couldn't plug it in and your party was a bust.
Their main problem was that they were nowhere near physically robust enough.
If you step on a cheap rca it might crack but it will likely still work, if you stepped on a DIN connector it deformed, you couldn't plug it in and your party was a bust.
The plastic ones were crappy, but the metal shell ones are pretty tough*. I'm using them on my new preamp build as take up less space than XLRs. Mind you I am a sinner and consider speakons acceptable on the speakers
*and hurt when you tread on them barefoot Somwhere between lego and 8 pin DIL on the arghhhhh scale.
*and hurt when you tread on them barefoot Somwhere between lego and 8 pin DIL on the arghhhhh scale.
What type of current are you thinking? DC? Would you change your opinion if the current is of even lower densities, but higher frequencies? And what if we consider different shapes of conductors, let's say round cross-section vs. maybe ribbon cables. Let's assume now that the annealing of silver now takes place... would you change your previously formed opinion, i.e. when the silver conductor was "non-annealed"? We are "isolating" the conductor here, similar to observing its characteristic in ideal condition - not influenced by placing it into an actual interconnect cable, and not having it connected to imperfect grounds... and similar "external" non-desired influences...
Thank you.
Electromigration is a threshold thing, requiring the electrons gain enough momentum between collisions that they are capable of knocking a metal atom out of place. It happens at current densities 4 to 5 orders of magnitude higher than a metal conductor in free air or insulated is capable of surviving. For example, a 16 AWG wire carrying two thousand amps.
There are two conditions where I personally see this effect. First, on integrated circuits where they kept making the aluminum interconnects smaller. The silicon acts as a heatsink, so electromigration was possible. The SEM pics of hillocks and erosion is classic.
The second is where I solder superconducting cables together. The lap joints have to be of sufficient cross sectional area that the tin/silver solder carries less than 1000-2000 amps per square cm. supers carry 1000 amps per square mm as a comparison.
The interconnects between dipoles in the LHC at CERN was one place where they really violated that rule, they were running 10,000 to 100,000 amps per square cm at their interconnects if the superconductors quenched at the joint. It was caused by their lack of paying attention to the solderability of the copper they used for the splice pieces.
Jn
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NORDOST seems to hold two patents only from what I have found searching USPTO.
D747,641 Ornamental design cable dampener
D826,868 Ornamental cable holder
They claim another but I can not find one for the "Micro Mono-Filament technology" which they tout in their description of the QRT QKoil QK1 Load Resonating Coil and QRT QKore Ground Unit.
It appears to me that they are claiming at least one patent they do not hold.
The two patents they do hold are solely "ornamental" and claim no technological advantage.
D747,641 Ornamental design cable dampener
D826,868 Ornamental cable holder
They claim another but I can not find one for the "Micro Mono-Filament technology" which they tout in their description of the QRT QKoil QK1 Load Resonating Coil and QRT QKore Ground Unit.
It appears to me that they are claiming at least one patent they do not hold.
The two patents they do hold are solely "ornamental" and claim no technological advantage.
@Bill: Too late by then.
Up until the early '70s every connection of every piece of audio kit was DIN (Remember I am this sites cryptogerman! ) and half the things we wanted to do with them at school didn't happen. The cause was invariably a deformed or damaged DIN plug!
People serious about HiFi always had a healthy stash of replacement plugs just in case.
DIN connectors had disappeared from domestic (or school) stereos long before MIDI came along.
Up until the early '70s every connection of every piece of audio kit was DIN (Remember I am this sites cryptogerman!
) and half the things we wanted to do with them at school didn't happen. The cause was invariably a deformed or damaged DIN plug!People serious about HiFi always had a healthy stash of replacement plugs just in case.
DIN connectors had disappeared from domestic (or school) stereos long before MIDI came along.
Excellent post, jn
I've seen people report significant change in sound from using low resistance strapping between audio devices in the replay chain - I've no doubt this changes the current return pathways.
You specified two battery powered devices in your example for simplicity, I guess? Can you expand on mains powered devices, please? I imagine the complexities of larger ground loops (I presume that is why you suggest signal cables alongside power cables?) but what about leakage currents & transients generated by the AC to DC conversion?
@billshurv, doesn't a line transformer have a certain leakage current caused by real world implementation issues & not completely isolating at all frequencies?
Yes.
I put the signals next to the power so that the power ground conductor was close to the signal ground conductor to minimize loop. It was not because of complexity, just for reduction of loop area.
It's also important to worry about power cable twist pitch in relation to the twist pitch of say, balanced interconnects, they cannot be multiples of each other or they can communicate.
There's lots of ways to work on that, I merely discuss how to close the loops to prevent that particular avenue of intrusion.
I must note that my diagrams in the gallery are not solutions to every predicament, but moreso to show others the mechanisms, so that they can consider their specific situation and solve it.
Jn
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Why don't some of you read a couple of basic electronics books and learn some (very) basic physics? Some of the sheer, wrong-headed stupidities shown on this forum are simply embarrassing!
A few basic truths are needed. They'll completely destroy many of the fondly held beliefs of the Audiophools, but we really need to stop these "esoteric audio" companies ripping off the gullible!
No mains lead is going to affect the way an amplifier or preamplifier sounds, as long as it can convey the current required to power the equipment. It doesn't matter if the conductor is copper, gold, silver, platinum or carved platypus bill, as long as the current is sufficient to operate the gear....
The same goes for speaker cables. Nothing you can do ("oxygen free" is particularly amusing) will change the way they convey the signals from the amplifier to the loudspeakers. If that distance is considerable (like in a stadium), then resistivity may come into play, but at the kind of distances we're considering in the domestic (or in my case the recording studio) environment, the cables don't matter. Cheap twin lighting flex will work just as well as $1000/metre "magic" cables.
Interconnecting cables don't matter either. If you're going to use RCA connectors, they should be made of a metal that won't tarnish, but apart from that they don't matter. Anybody who believes that changing the cable between their pre-amplifier and amplifier affects the way their system sounds is either deluded or has defective equipment.
Cables cannot be "burnt in". If the characteristics of a cable change with use, it's defective.
Anything with valves ("tubes" - US) is inferior to its solid-state equivalent - except when it comes to musical instrument amplifiers, where the distortion imparted by valves tends to be concordant rather than dissonant, so is to be preferred. Anyone who tells you that their valve amplifier sounds "nicer" than the "sterile" semiconductor-based units is just enjoying the increased harmonic distortion imparted by valve technology. There are many good reasons that serious audio reproduction equipment moved to solid state very quickly when it became available....
There's little point in having amplifiers with ever increasing zeroes after the decimal point in their distortion specifications when loudspeakers generally introduce several percent distortion themselves.
Again - people who claim to be able to hear the difference between some $50000 audiophool amplifier and a competently designed $250 consumer-grade one are deluding themselves. They really can't - in true double-blind testing - unless the expensive amplifier has an obvious audible "signature", which is just another name for distortion.....
Amplifiers and preamplifiers can't be "burnt in" either, unless their design is incompetent or they are faulty.
The audio fraternity need to realise that there's little point in having all this wildly esoteric and expensive equipment. The gear in the recording studio certainly wasn't highly expensive or specialised. The recording they're listening to used cheap "dynamic" or "capacitor" microphones, was mixed on a console full of cheap op-amps and transistors, and then either recorded on to magnetic tape (usually through a compressor / limiter to reduce the dynamic range) or on to tape or digital memory if the studio uses that technology. The source material that they're listening to has been equalised and highly manipulated in the studio.....
If they're playing CDs, the frequency response doesn't go beyond 20 kHz (FM radio is 15kHz), so having frequency response into the ultrasonic doesn't matter. The limited sample rate and word size of CDs means that they impart significant distortion of their own.
LP records are much the same. They're measurably degraded by about the fifth play, and have a very limited dynamic range and frequency response.
Digital sources are severely limited in their bit rates, word size and frequency response, and mp3 is a particularly appalling way to treat music!
Now back to recording the clowns in the studio......
A few basic truths are needed. They'll completely destroy many of the fondly held beliefs of the Audiophools, but we really need to stop these "esoteric audio" companies ripping off the gullible!
No mains lead is going to affect the way an amplifier or preamplifier sounds, as long as it can convey the current required to power the equipment. It doesn't matter if the conductor is copper, gold, silver, platinum or carved platypus bill, as long as the current is sufficient to operate the gear....
The same goes for speaker cables. Nothing you can do ("oxygen free" is particularly amusing) will change the way they convey the signals from the amplifier to the loudspeakers. If that distance is considerable (like in a stadium), then resistivity may come into play, but at the kind of distances we're considering in the domestic (or in my case the recording studio) environment, the cables don't matter. Cheap twin lighting flex will work just as well as $1000/metre "magic" cables.
Interconnecting cables don't matter either. If you're going to use RCA connectors, they should be made of a metal that won't tarnish, but apart from that they don't matter. Anybody who believes that changing the cable between their pre-amplifier and amplifier affects the way their system sounds is either deluded or has defective equipment.
Cables cannot be "burnt in". If the characteristics of a cable change with use, it's defective.
Anything with valves ("tubes" - US) is inferior to its solid-state equivalent - except when it comes to musical instrument amplifiers, where the distortion imparted by valves tends to be concordant rather than dissonant, so is to be preferred. Anyone who tells you that their valve amplifier sounds "nicer" than the "sterile" semiconductor-based units is just enjoying the increased harmonic distortion imparted by valve technology. There are many good reasons that serious audio reproduction equipment moved to solid state very quickly when it became available....
There's little point in having amplifiers with ever increasing zeroes after the decimal point in their distortion specifications when loudspeakers generally introduce several percent distortion themselves.
Again - people who claim to be able to hear the difference between some $50000 audiophool amplifier and a competently designed $250 consumer-grade one are deluding themselves. They really can't - in true double-blind testing - unless the expensive amplifier has an obvious audible "signature", which is just another name for distortion.....
Amplifiers and preamplifiers can't be "burnt in" either, unless their design is incompetent or they are faulty.
The audio fraternity need to realise that there's little point in having all this wildly esoteric and expensive equipment. The gear in the recording studio certainly wasn't highly expensive or specialised. The recording they're listening to used cheap "dynamic" or "capacitor" microphones, was mixed on a console full of cheap op-amps and transistors, and then either recorded on to magnetic tape (usually through a compressor / limiter to reduce the dynamic range) or on to tape or digital memory if the studio uses that technology. The source material that they're listening to has been equalised and highly manipulated in the studio.....
If they're playing CDs, the frequency response doesn't go beyond 20 kHz (FM radio is 15kHz), so having frequency response into the ultrasonic doesn't matter. The limited sample rate and word size of CDs means that they impart significant distortion of their own.
LP records are much the same. They're measurably degraded by about the fifth play, and have a very limited dynamic range and frequency response.
Digital sources are severely limited in their bit rates, word size and frequency response, and mp3 is a particularly appalling way to treat music!
Now back to recording the clowns in the studio......
I can find his ExactPower patent but nothing on a cable. can you remember where you saw this?
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