John Curl's Blowtorch preamplifier part III

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#20,883
Zung said:
The paper is white, mostly, so scottjoplin is happy.
The dark side is implied: the author starts by saying "... Cables should not be tone controls...", which implies their audibility.
Just to be clear: I love snake oil, I heard improvement in sound going from zip cord to star quad to Kimber.
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Kimber keeps poppin up.....The 4pr is available bulk,reasonably priced. ( under $4/ft)

May have to throw that in the ring also, can’t find the specs on it though?

4vs has low capacitance just over $5/ft
 
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#20,887
#20,889
gpapag said:
Iconoclast Cables by Belden "Must Read" - Audionirvana.org
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"In fact I have seen and heard cables radically improve modest systems making the cables perhaps one of the most “cost effective” improvements in a system." 😀

Jakob2 said:
That´s an interesting topic, but maybe it would be better to split the topics and open new threads instead of merging it all together in the poor "Blowtorch threads".
Otoh if doing so, one has to take the risk that these other threads will be more often closed as close minded individuals can´t behave.
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I see this thread as a sanctuary for freaks, misfits and the socially inept mainly 😉
 
#20,891
Zung, I'm with you. I like tweaks and mods, and I find that they often work. Why? I don't often know for sure. I personally don't like the really expensive Vishay resistors that much, but I use the DALE (Vishay owned) resistors, that were measured by Ed Simon to be better than average. Roederstein (sp) resistors are my fave, and OLD (non-magnetic) Holco resitors (almost impossible to find today) and I have thousands of them in my lab. I have been getting resistor samples from China, but I haven't tested them for audio, and will probably avoid using them for anything that I really care about sonically, they could work with servos, for example.
For the last 40 years+ we have concerned ourselves about speaker and interconnect cables. That is when I first found that the all silver, 1 meter pair from Japan that was so bright and disappointing. Even 40 years ago, we found that silver plated copper was problematic, depending on the method of applying the silver. If it was put on by an electrolytic process, it could sound really bright and bad. Probably due to impurities in the process. If the silver was clad processed, it apparently sounded better. I really don't like silver plated copper cable, unless I need to 'brighten' a dull design.
 
#20,893
I have tried to be open to tweaks that should not make any difference, yet I heard a difference. That includes cables, added components, etc. I make a serious attempt to stay neutral, and I think that I usually do, but I'm sure that sometimes I can make a mistake. Still, the search for the best sound quality in my system is always elusive, and I will keep trying new things as they come up. I think that cables are now overpriced compared to the rest of the audio system. We can pay big bucks for a small improvement through upgrading cables, but I think that the mark-up is too much on cables. Maybe that is the only way that the audio dealer can make a profit these days.
 
#20,896
Max Headroom said:
Here in Aus we have 240V 10A rated flexible 'lamp cord' available in insulation colours of black, grey and white. White insulation in this and other 240V cable cable contains titanium dioxide as filler and pigment. I find this pigment to sound clear and even, with a pleasantly slightly 'damped' characteristic.
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Dan,

Maybe you have picked up on something of significance here. If the white flex contains titanium dioxide as a colouring agent, then presumably the black flex will more than likely contains carbon. Both carbon and titanium dioxide have electromagnetic properties, and if so, then those properties should be measurable. If they have a subjective effect upon musical playback quality, those said properties will be objectively tunable as per situational requirement.

ToS
 
#20,897
scottjoplin said:
I was reading this sentence and I thought (stupidly as it happens) things are looking up, and then I got to the last three words :sad: I thought JN was wasting his time (10 years did he say?) worrying about ITD modulation jitter, but this really takes the biscuit 🙄
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Fried or baked?
At any rate, once you take into account that he is in audio business, it clears things up. :nod: I like grain of salt on my biscuit. :yummy:
 
#20,899
tapestryofsound said:
Dan,
Maybe you have picked up on something of significance here. If the white flex contains titanium dioxide as a colouring agent, then presumably the black flex will more than likely contains carbon. Both carbon and titanium dioxide have electromagnetic properties, and if so, then those properties should be measurable. If they have a subjective effect upon musical playback quality, those said properties will be objectively tunable as per situational requirement.
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May-be i'm totally wrong, not being a specialist in that matter, but my thoughts where those:
- I hardly believe a cable manufacturer can build an AC wire with an isolation that is more or less ... conductive. So, I think the particles of Carbon (or titanium that are used to color the isolation are ... isolated from each others inside the plastic.
- As Titanium as well as Carbon are non magnetic components, what kind of "electromagnetic" properties, even considering "Eddies currents" could-we expect ?
 
#20,900
john curl said:
... I like tweaks and mods, and I find that they often work. Why? I don't often know for sure...
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John, that's KEY!!!
Sadly, that's also what the hard science folks fail to understand.
Here's my view; I think I said it before, but WTH:

  1. Discovery: you find something that works repeatably. Great!
  2. Discovery sharing: it's your discovery, it's up to you to keep quiet about it, or monetize it, or just give it out for free. It's all good. Often, at this stage, there's no proof (yet), other than experimental.
  3. Discovery quantification, theorization, modeling: these can be very costly in terms of effort, and I can understand they got pushed back, unless you're doing a PhD or something.
Until you reach stage 3, you'll have all the hard science folks screaming at you: Witchcraft! Heresy! There's nothing new under the sun: look at all the voodoo from people such as the Curie's, Pasteur, and so on. Life goes on, and the screaming wil continue well after stage 3 anyway.

Me, if somebody I trust gave me something at stage 2 for free, I'd say thanks and I'd try it out myself. But then it's only me.
 
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