It all goes to show that no matter what I say, it will be criticized, and even my learned references will be discredited, mostly by personal opinion, than any real proof. I have come to expect this.
However, the people that I learn from the most, I have met personally, had long discussions with them, and I have followed up on any criticisms of them by people here, on occasion, just to see if there was any merit in the criticism by people here. So far, nobody who criticizes wire differences here has PROVEN anything useful. Instead, people are encouraged to ignore their listening impressions, and to suspect anybody who seriously looks into audio problems, like me, for making some sort of living from audio itself. Sorry guys, I am not wealthy, and I CHOOSE to design audio equipment to maintain my bank account, so that I don't become a 'street person' or something close. This does not bias me to strive to find out how to make better audio equipment, including using the listening opinions of my colleagues as part of the process.
The exact reason WHY wires or something else makes an audible difference is not as important as finding WHAT really works best in a specific audio system.
However, the people that I learn from the most, I have met personally, had long discussions with them, and I have followed up on any criticisms of them by people here, on occasion, just to see if there was any merit in the criticism by people here. So far, nobody who criticizes wire differences here has PROVEN anything useful. Instead, people are encouraged to ignore their listening impressions, and to suspect anybody who seriously looks into audio problems, like me, for making some sort of living from audio itself. Sorry guys, I am not wealthy, and I CHOOSE to design audio equipment to maintain my bank account, so that I don't become a 'street person' or something close. This does not bias me to strive to find out how to make better audio equipment, including using the listening opinions of my colleagues as part of the process.
The exact reason WHY wires or something else makes an audible difference is not as important as finding WHAT really works best in a specific audio system.
With a 1,000,000 ohm load the source impedance from any real generator is unimportant. You could have complained about what high impedance is compared to the cable resistance. In audio use today 10,000 ohms is high impedance. In the vacuum tube days it was 1,000,000 ohms.
The source impedance should be low from your standard generator. Typical is 50 ohms, but if you want to use a voltage divider try a 1 ohm resistor fed through a 1,000 ohm unit. The source voltage should be 10 millivolts. That results in a very very small current through the cable. The measuring instrument should ideally be capable of doing FFTs and have an input impedance much higher than the cable resistance 10,000 ohms or so.
The test will mostly show losses at the connectors. Reversing them often shows a change. But for really interesting effects use a repeatable noise source (Digital synthesis) and a filter centered around 3,000 hertz with an ISO standard 1/3 octave bandwidth. Then compare forward and reverse FFTs of the minute voltage across the cable.
Now what voltage level do you expect from the voltage drop across a standard interconnect cord fed from 10 millivolts into a 1,000,000 ohm load?
People aren't necessarily told to ignore their listening impressions. Ultimately, real or imagined, I *hope* that our goal is a healthy form of hedonism. Why do audio if it doesn't make you happy?
On the flipside: realize when you're trying to violate physics and/or make magical claims of effects that, at best, require LIGO-levels of sensitivity to pull out of the noise floor.
The MH essex echo article is always touted as the reason why cables sound different.
As in..."see, this is the physics reason".
The article has enough technical content to fool many who do not do this for a living into believing it might be correct.
It isn't. It was a botch job from the jump. Bad assumptions, terribly bad experimental design, tweaking the conductor material to actually see the waveform desired...
Not science, by any stretch of the imagination.
Unfortunately, there are some here who blindly believe such shoddy articles as being representative of scientific endeavor.
John
I, on the other hand, detailed to Malcolm exactly where he erred in his thinking and analysis, what he did wrong at the test end, how to do it right, and what error traps to look out for. But then again, you already knew all that as you were included within the E-mail discussion.
His response to corrections and an offer to provide assistance within MY area of expertise? "I stand by my assumptions"
No discussion at all. Just ostrich-like behavior...
From you, "" I have come to expect this. ""
Over the years, I've offered my technical assistance to you and others.
Air silence has always been the response.
John
Yes the voltage across the cable should be about 1 nanovolt! So you will need to do many FFT averages. (Most of the voltage will be across the 1,000,000 ohm termination resistor.)
Because there are changes when you insert and remove the connectors, so after a few repeats it seems to smooth out. You certainly can do more. But at a single forward and reverse it could be anything from random chance to dirt.
BTY the best kind of cable for this test is one of the RG59 to RCA "Video" cables.
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Which is it, 10mV or 1nV? Perhaps you could sketch what you're talking about to remove the ambiguity.
JN did criticize Malcolm Hawksford's measurement, BUT he did not PROVE it! He just stated what MIGHT go wrong in his opinion. I spoke personally to Malcolm Hawksford AFTER the JN criticism, and Malcolm says his measurements are OK. Now who do I believe? JN who goes after just about everybody when it comes to wire differences and measurements, or MH who teaches the stuff at university?
I'd write the circuit equation for you.... Source voltage through wire under test to a load resistor of 1,000,000 ohms. This forms a voltage divider between the wire's resistance and that of the load. A perfect wire would have no resistance and thus no loss or voltage across it. A real wire has some small resistance and hence a voltage will appear across it. That is what you want to measure. If it is an OHMIC resistance from the wire the result should have no harmonics and not be influenced by directivity. A very simple experiment.
But either you can't follow or just want to confuse the issue.
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You seem to be using "across" to mean different things. That's why a simple sketch can remove the ambiguity.
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