I don't believe cables make a difference, any input?

[lieven]

admit it, cables are female. (At least from my point of view,hehe)


hype, high price, a good mood, cabernet etc. is viagra. It can help...

[ThorstenL]

Konnichiwa,

Originally posted by mrfeedback

Yes, very well said.

Thank you. I find it frustrating when seperate issues are mixed up.

Originally posted by mrfeedback

Another skill is to be able to divorce expectation from the sonic evaluation/judgement equation.

Indeed. I have made similar remarks on the neccesity of such skills and their development in the introduction to my Article:
"The Freakzoid Tweekaloid Strikes Again", which I recommend to those who wish to know how and exactly where I stand on Tweaks, cables etc....

Originally posted by mrfeedback

I have repaired and then listened to thousands of pieces of audio gear that do not belong to me so I therefore have no vested interest, and I find this allows me to make unbiased and balanced judgements of this gear.

I approach listening to such equipment with an open ear, and I don't actually care how it sounds, so long as it is working to factory standard - usually my reaction is 'ho hum so what', and sometimes I am pleasantly surprised and enjoy the sound of the device under test.

I ahve only come across 100's. I no longer "fix" gear, except when I do (foolish consistency is the hopgobblin of small minds - Emmmerson) but I used to. My experiences mirror yours. Most gear is just Ho-Hum and cost, marketing and reputation have little to do with it. But from that I would not conclude that "most gear sounds the same".

In fact all the "Ho-Hum" stuff sounds "Ho-Hum" in different ways, it just faisl to grab my attention enough to analyse the "how" of the "Ho-Hum". Be it in reviews or for my own use, life is too short for boring sounding HiFi, so I threw such back in with the rest....
;-)

Originally posted by mrfeedback

Many 'audiophiles' allow themselves to be mesmerised - wether it be the flashy brochure, the pretty front panel, the flashy connectors and cables sheaths, the price, etc..... hypnosis is hypnosis, and many follow like zombies by not discounting the above psychological influences, instead of listening to musical presentation and then being able to distinguish subtle sonics changes due to subtle changes such as cables, passive components and active components, and tweaks.

Very true.

Sayonara

PS, all my cables are male, as they have some protusion that penetrates into some depression, except my XLR cables which are obviously bi-sexual....

[IanHarvey]

Believer: I changed my old speaker cable to Brand ABX, and the sound now is just fantastic.

Atheist: Rubbish - I bet you didn't even do a double-blind test.

B: Even my tortoise can tell the difference. My friends tell me I'm a changed personality since discovering Brand ABX.

A: You must be making it all up. Brand ABX's sales literature is full of claims which respected physicists can categorically disprove.

B. You must be deaf if you can't hear...

(cont p94).

Spotted the flaw in this yet? Most of the time this argument comes up, we never get to find out what the old speaker cable was.

Is anybody claiming that silver, or solid core, or multicore, or anything, somehow cleans up the signal passing through it, and extracts details that weren't there before? I don't think so - the only mechanism at work here is therefore that the old cable behaved poorly in some way which the new one doesn't.

Examining what was happening in the old cable is crucial, but we almost never do it! An obvious illustration is that the old cable may just be worn out - its connections may be faulty or corroded; its strands may have become broken through flexing. If this is never established there's really no point having the argument.


Believer: I replaced 30m of 10-year old bell-wire with something decent, and the sound now is just fantastic.

Atheist: Yes, I can appreciate how that might be. Fancy a glass of wine?

Cheers
IH

[SY]

I don't think so - the only mechanism at work here is therefore that the old cable behaved poorly in some way which the new one doesn't.

One of two possibilities, anyway. The connection stuff you mention is often responsible for "improvements" among nonaudiophiles that I know. For people who aren't geeking around and attaching/reattaching cables on a regular basis, connections loosen, slip, and oxidize. Wire in transparent insulation goes green. One cannot overemphasize the importance of solid connections and clean wire!

The other possibility is, of course, our human nature.

[ThorstenL]

Konnichiwa,

Originally posted by IanHarvey
Believer: I changed my old speaker cable to Brand ABX, and the sound now is just fantastic.

Atheist: Rubbish - I bet you didn't even do a double-blind test.

Yes. And the sceptics actually write articles within which they do detail what was replaced, what was observed and venture POSSIBLE explanations as to what MAY be happening and mnay or may not have done blind, double blind or even double deaf tests and no-one takes note....

Sayonara

[Pjotr]

Originally posted by SY

Wire in transparent insulation goes green. One cannot overemphasize the importance of solid connections and clean wire!

Only transparent isolation? It is my experience that bare copper in black and other coloured isolation oxidises as well, only you don’t see it And who has figured out that oxidised copper sounds worse? For the same “reason” it sounds good. Mind you, within a while there comes a cable maker claiming their “Green oxidised” cables sounds the best of all. BTW all copper oxidises immediately at its surface, it is the nature of copper.

[Joel]

Originally posted by SY
...One cannot overemphasize the importance of...clean wire!

Really?
What happens to the signal when the wire gets "dirty"?

[SY]

Yes, copper can oxidize in other colors, too, but it does so most readily and rapidly with clear insulation. An increase in the normal impedance rise with increasing frequency is seen, which can be significant if you've got a speaker with a falling HF impedance.

[fdegrove]

Hi,

Only transparent isolation? It is my experience that bare copper in black and other coloured isolation oxidises as well, only you don’t see it And who has figured out that oxidised copper sounds worse? For the same “reason” it sounds good. Mind you, within a while there comes a cable maker claiming their “Green oxidised” cables sounds the best of all. BTW all copper oxidises immediately at its surface, it is the nature of copper.

Yeah...and there's life on mars too.

And, naturally, copperoxide is a good conductor, or...is it?

I think the main reason for transparent insulation to be one of the worst is that it reacts to U.V. radiation faster.

If you want to avoid it use enamelled or kapton coated wire.
And if you're double lucky you may find some companies that coat their wires as they're drawn and cryoed.

The only things that's likely to degrade over time with these wires are the contacts...

Which is something worthy of a thread all by its' own, provided it hasn't been discussed here already.

Molto mayonara and french fries,

[ThorstenL]

Konnichiwa,

Originally posted by SY
Yes, copper can oxidize in other colors, too, but it does so most readily and rapidly with clear insulation.

That is chemically pure horse droppings (bing polite).

The copper oxidises further (despite being sealed from athmosphere borne oxigen) because of the outgassings from the PVC insulation. As long as your insulation is PVC your surface will oxidise, no matter what the colour of insulation. Of course, clear insulation will make you SEE the problem, unlike opaque one....

Next thing we know the colour with wich you paint the edges of your CD changes oxidisation in the Alumium layer (AKA CD-ROT) too. Boy - please try at least to pick up some basic philosophy (as in Philae Sophia) starting with basic chemistry/alchymia and physicks/metaphysics.

Originally posted by SY
An increase in the normal impedance rise with increasing frequency is seen, which can be significant if you've got a speaker with a falling HF impedance.

That is a first order effect evaluation using steady state, single frequency signals with (due to the methodes) huge amounts of averaging applied. In fact, the very point that this can actually be observed using conventional, readily used AUDIO measurements should put the fear of the unknown into any orthodox audio engineer....

Anyway, ahat does that tell us about the effects on using a pseudo randon, noise type signal (which MAY be music but which may non-musically artificially generated, such as military radio traffic)?

Absolutelyf....king ZIP, ZILCH, ZERO, NADA, NULL, Freak Yourself....

So, got any topically relevant contributions, defensible using the emirical scientific method, if shaving closely with the Razor proposed by William of Occam?

Sayonara