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

[J.R.Freeman]

Originally Posted by wicked1

I recently replaced about 2m of cable from some old cheap RCA's to new RCA's ...The difference is HUGE.

Good story! A+. Case closed.

[fdegrove]

Hi,

Originally Posted by wicked1

This thread is far too long to follow, but I noticed it just keeps on moving along..

I recently replaced about 2m of cable from some old cheap RCA's to new RCA's I built using some shielded guitar cable.. (so, 1/4" thick coax).

The difference is HUGE. Everyone notices. It's a much larger change than swapping different types of coupling caps.

If anyone is still questioning cables, they obviously haven't tried swapping them on their own systems. I don't see why this thread continues. If it's just cause everyone likes to hear themselves type, then keep on going, I guess!

Contacts do suffer from wear and tear and oxidize as well so replacing on old cinch for a new or just cleaning the old one with isopropyl should already make for an audible difference.

Add some "Tweak"* to the contact area and that too should reduce contact resistance.

*No idea if those little magic bottle are still on the market but that snake oil actually worked a treat.

Cheers,

[Curly Woods]

*No idea if those little magic bottle are still on the market but that snake oil actually worked a treat.

If its not there are other contact enhancers that are at least the equal to it.

[planet10]

Originally Posted by boconnor

As I understand it "good" hearing is that a person's hearing loss does not exceed some specified db amount, for a specified frequency band. Of course hearing loss is also age related, so listening panels tend to not have many people over 50.

As the papers i pointed to earlier point out, the machaisms for spectral (FR) hearing and for time related hearing are 2 different physical mediums. So despite a fall-off in HF response as measured with FR test, the ability to distinguish time-smearing does not degrade anywhere near as quickly.

Training also can make a big difference in a persons ability to use both of these mechanisms.

All this plays a role in people being able to distinguish features that are often dismissed because "they are above the limit of human hearing" Turns out that is a much smaller time interval than previously thot. (ie <5uS)

dave

[fredex]

Originally Posted by Steve Dunlap

In my case, about 21mm.

For me it used to be 17.2mm

[Steve Dunlap]

*No idea if those little magic bottle are still on the market but that snake oil actually worked a treat.

They are.

Parts Express: Featured Categories

[auplater]

One wonders what rubbing alcohol (isopropanol) does to oxide layers on interconnects? Simply unplugging and reconnecting an interconnect may remove "oxides", but isopropanol won't.

Gold plated interconnects are immune to oxidation (at least if the gold is more than a couple of microns thick, and has a nickel underlayer (most decent ones do)) since gold oxides are thermodynamically unstable wrt elemental gold.

All the cramolin etc. contact enhancers do is prevent re-oxidation of contacts IF they are clean in the first place. To TRULY de-oxide a non precious metal surface (solder, nickel, chrome, silver, etc.) you need (usually) STRONG ACID solutions, and the deoxidized metal will only remain so for a very short time period unless protected by a subsequent layer of (wax, another metal, glue, plastic, pick your poison)

As for the esoteric arguments re: dielectric loss/absorption, electron pools, single crystal topologies, micro-diodes, or simply I hear a difference so something must be different, unless some sort of reference is made to the degree of the effect, what's the point of discussion? No one will ever agree if some sort of metric is not applied, and the subjectivists ABHOR metrics.

All those who bought a Sham Wow in the last month raise their hands...

John L.

[rdf]

Originally Posted by auplater

No one will ever agree if some sort of metric is not applied, and the subjectivists ABHOR metrics.

While 'objectivists' apparently can't wrap their heads around the concept of airborne pollutants not related to oxidization or, heaven forbid, that the listener might cook or smoke. One wonders what magic they believes transpires when they clean their inside windows. Oxidized glass?

[Pano]

For those of you who think that the audio crowd are the only ones who have trouble with DBTs, here is a good read.

A Hint of Hype, A Taste of Illusion in the Wall Street Journal.

.

[godfrey]

Bob being the guy at "Snake Oyl R Us" that paints the arrows on.

Each day Bob sets himself down in front of a large box of cables, pulls them out one by one, paints on the arrows and tosses them back on the conveyor.

Sometimes Bob screws up and paints arrows both ways on the same cable.

Mr Oyl used to get mad at Bob when that happened. Then one day he realised he could just mark up the "rejects" an extra 30 percent and sell them as "special" bi-directional cables.

Sales have been brisk.