I'm not buying silver as a meaningful upgrade at audio frequencies.
Its not relevant at SPDIF frequencies. It could be relevant for cables
that must simultaneously carry other data, like video...
But what would be relevant at any frequency is the non-linearity of
many dielectrics at the zero crossing. I have measured many times,
even the most expensive caps are not the same with/without bias...
You get slightly exaggerated measurement when no bias is present.
Solution is to always bias your dielectrics and avoid crossing 0V.
Most differential logic signals these days have a DC bias, and I
suspect that's not merely a convenience bias for direct coupling.
So, I ask if you price-no-object wacko's ever bother to bias your
signals or shields to set the behavior of the dielectric?
A highly resistive shield between signal and GND could be pulled
up or down oh-say 9VDC, and provide equal and opposite biases
with cancellation of dielectric distortions. Just sayin'
Its not relevant at SPDIF frequencies. It could be relevant for cables
that must simultaneously carry other data, like video...
But what would be relevant at any frequency is the non-linearity of
many dielectrics at the zero crossing. I have measured many times,
even the most expensive caps are not the same with/without bias...
You get slightly exaggerated measurement when no bias is present.
Solution is to always bias your dielectrics and avoid crossing 0V.
Most differential logic signals these days have a DC bias, and I
suspect that's not merely a convenience bias for direct coupling.
So, I ask if you price-no-object wacko's ever bother to bias your
signals or shields to set the behavior of the dielectric?
A highly resistive shield between signal and GND could be pulled
up or down oh-say 9VDC, and provide equal and opposite biases
with cancellation of dielectric distortions. Just sayin'
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I guess the point has already been clearly put by E_Boky; this silver cables are inteded for wealthy audiophile believers.
Being wealthy they can even do without belief. They just get the best stuff. Better (may we say high value) materials, better construction. Redundant performance for the task involved.
Period.
Analogy: what about wrist watches? What tells you the time better? A $20 radio controlled or a $50.000 Omega? Which of both do wealthy people get?
Being wealthy they can even do without belief. They just get the best stuff. Better (may we say high value) materials, better construction. Redundant performance for the task involved.
Period.
Analogy: what about wrist watches? What tells you the time better? A $20 radio controlled or a $50.000 Omega? Which of both do wealthy people get?
I have used silver plated OFC for my internal speaker wire, just because I had some laying around (actually leftovers from work). Not in S/PDIF connections, because of the reasons already mentioned. How would the skin effect be reduced / affected by a solid silver wire? Actually Litz wire should be better in this case..
the most basic mod I do on equipment that costs in excess of $15,000 is just the replacement of the copper hook-up-wire with silver ribbons. This is by far the best bang for a buck modification that does provide excellent results; in fact, sound-wise, it provides much better return than spending extra $10,000 to upgrade the equipment. The difference blows everyone off their feet. I've also done multiple comparisons between two identical pre-amps, for example, where one is modified, and the other stays in its original condition. The difference is so obvious that even the hard-core non-believers start to beg for the same mods... I’m not going to say how much money I can charge for this relatively simple mod that costs me very little money in parts.
People pay because they can hear the difference.
People pay because they can hear the difference.
the skin effect can be reduced if you use multiple runs of solid core silver wire, in parallel. I did not say at any stage here, to use silver plated copper wire.
Why do you think that the litz wire will be better? You may think that the more is better, but think also about signal consistency.
Of course, you can also try for yourself.
The 6C33C (well, it is actually 6S33S) single ended amp we make, has the output transformers' winding (and all of its internal hook-up wiring) made of pure silver. Sound made in heaven... but it usually takes time and getting used-to to accept that sound can be as fast as live performance, for example. It's the mind-set change.
Well the skin effect theory -in a nutshell- tells us that the higher the frequency the less penetration of the current in the conductor. So many thin wires carrying the current should be less effected than a couple of thick wires.
You make an interesting point when you say that the difference is easy to hear, if so it should also be relatively easy to measure, A THD+N vs. Frequency graph + an IMD measurement of both the original and modded amp can tell us a lot.
You make an interesting point when you say that the difference is easy to hear, if so it should also be relatively easy to measure, A THD+N vs. Frequency graph + an IMD measurement of both the original and modded amp can tell us a lot.
Would you like to publish your results? I have seen claims of zero-crossing behaviour before but never seen any evidence, apart from clearly non-linear dielectrics which people are unlikely to use for audio.kenpeter said:
That suggests a new low-level distortion or frequency anomaly, which ears take time to adjust to. Not that surprising in 'high-end' equipment.Extreme_Boky said:
have a look inside the unit... I bet it doesn't have the pulse transformer neither. Few high end manufactures claim that pulse transformer does not bring any benefits compared to capacitor coupled S/PDIF input...
how does the DAC sound?
Boky
So it does matter but it doesn't matter that much..?
We are talking about high end audio equipment. I don't think it'd hurt the price that much if they have to install BNC instead of RCA connectors. My guess is that they don't do it because it's redundant.
Is there any high end audio DAC sporting BNCs, or in that regards, any connector other than RCA?
It doesn't matter enough to actually affect anything. People are accustomed to seeing RCAs, and that's what's on just about all equipment (including TV sets, set top boxes, DVD players...) so that's what's used. The cable peddlers are happy because it's easy and inexpensive to terminate with the same RCAs they use for their bling audio interconnects.
It matters: RCA is not 75R so it will create an impedance discontinuity.sextaafondo said:
It doesn't matter: digital audio is robust enough not to be bothered by this as the only effect is a little (very little!) high frequency jitter which the receiver PLL is designed to filter away, and anyway the connections to the RCA (or BNC) at each end are likely to be not 75R either.
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