Hmm, looks exactly like my clothing cabinet handles. I guess that makes me one of them old folks.
The main problem I often encounter is the snake oil that has a small kernel of truth in it.
I care a lot about wires, cables and connectors and pick them with very much thought.
I use budget line Reon/ Neutric and Amphenol RCA connectors, as cheaper ones are less reliable, but I do not spend more than 2$ on one.
Perfect professional quality.
I use shielded wire with a 100% copper shield and additional carbon layer, as they are safe to use even in cramped, noisy situations and last for ever. Cheap wires sound worse near AC lines. I spend between one and 2.50 $ a meter (=yard). Sommer Cable Spirit for example. looks and feels great, too.
I use shielded AC cable, because if RCA is run in parallel to it, there is less noise than near a cheap AC cable.
Lap Oelflex 1135303 Classic 110 CY for 2 to 4 $ a meter.
Conectors are high quality, low price, from reputable brands with solid copper or brass conductors inside. 1.5-4 $ each.
,
So all wires in one of my set-up's cost less than a singel, beautifull made High End RCA plug from WBT. Don't buy WBT for sound...
So IMO wires do matter for sound, yes. My wires can sound better than cheap stuff if things get critical. 100%.
On the other hand, I do not belive that any 5000$ AC, RCA or loudspeaker cable will even have .1% better sound than what I use. No wire can change the sound quality for the better. Yet it is possible that connections not up to the task degrade sound audible.
Snake oilers make people think they could get more than 100% from such simple components, just because there ist cheap stuff around that does degrade a signal in the worst case.
How can someone with a lot of free income, but no practical experience and insight, see this border where things can and do not get any better, whatever you pay?
* There are various other brands that make great products, just like the ones I can source and buy locally, they are just examples*
I care a lot about wires, cables and connectors and pick them with very much thought.
I use budget line Reon/ Neutric and Amphenol RCA connectors, as cheaper ones are less reliable, but I do not spend more than 2$ on one.
Perfect professional quality.
I use shielded wire with a 100% copper shield and additional carbon layer, as they are safe to use even in cramped, noisy situations and last for ever. Cheap wires sound worse near AC lines. I spend between one and 2.50 $ a meter (=yard). Sommer Cable Spirit for example. looks and feels great, too.
I use shielded AC cable, because if RCA is run in parallel to it, there is less noise than near a cheap AC cable.
Lap Oelflex 1135303 Classic 110 CY for 2 to 4 $ a meter.
Conectors are high quality, low price, from reputable brands with solid copper or brass conductors inside. 1.5-4 $ each.
,
So all wires in one of my set-up's cost less than a singel, beautifull made High End RCA plug from WBT. Don't buy WBT for sound...
So IMO wires do matter for sound, yes. My wires can sound better than cheap stuff if things get critical. 100%.
On the other hand, I do not belive that any 5000$ AC, RCA or loudspeaker cable will even have .1% better sound than what I use. No wire can change the sound quality for the better. Yet it is possible that connections not up to the task degrade sound audible.
Snake oilers make people think they could get more than 100% from such simple components, just because there ist cheap stuff around that does degrade a signal in the worst case.
How can someone with a lot of free income, but no practical experience and insight, see this border where things can and do not get any better, whatever you pay?
* There are various other brands that make great products, just like the ones I can source and buy locally, they are just examples*
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Exactly!
I've been saying for ages that copper wire is....... copper wire.
You can dress it up in silk and satin, adorn it with diamonds and pearls, but it's just copper wire.
Yet, I sometimes get annoying feedback from the non-believers, the dumb nutbags, that I'm wrong.
They've "bought into" the false misleading hype of miracle wires, not me!
@mountainman bob "Wiseoldtech, Imagine the blissful sound you’d have in your kitchen if you used them as drawer pulls"
Or... imagine if I had those things as grab bars in my bathroom!..... then while singing in the shower, I'd have no more resonance off the tile walls!
LOL!
Or... imagine if I had those things as grab bars in my bathroom!..... then while singing in the shower, I'd have no more resonance off the tile walls!
LOL!
And make your cooking taste betterWiseoldtech, Imagine the blissful sound you’d have in your kitchen if you used them as drawer pulls
If for you a feedback is annoying when it disagrees with your beliefs then please do not read the following since it would be just to inform you that a wire of copper is not just a wire of copper, since they exist Different Grades of Copper.
Here you can see 4 different grades of copper quality https://www.belmontmetals.com/different-grades-of-copper/
Pure Coppers
Oxygen Free Coppers
Electrolytic Coppers
Free-Machining Coppers
Here are the different grades of pure copper that are commercially availablle https://www.belmontmetals.com/product-category/copper/
99.9% Electrolytic Copper
#325 Granular Copper
99.5% Minimum Electrolytic Copper
CDA 101 OFHC Copper
Please note that the above are not inventions, but the descriptions of an American metallurgical company founded 127 years ago in Brooklyn:
Belmont Metals was founded by George Henning in 1896 as a non ferrous dealership on Brooklyn’s Belmont Avenue.
Do you think it may be enough for you?
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Joking aside, there is actually one instance that I can think of where a cable assembly (wire + connectors) would have a preferred hookup "direction." According to Bill Whitlock, when using twisted shielded pair cable with the shield grounded on one end only (OEO), the shield connection should be at the driver end. This improves high frequency common mode rejection.
I agree that there are different 'grades' or formulations of copper, just as there are various grades of any metal, plastics, wood, etc.
But please don't try to convince me that one grade of copper wire is better than another for transmission of audio frequencies through a couple of feet of wire in someone's home, or that those tiny little electrons know the difference (which they do not) in how they travel down that wire.
Because that is pure nonsense dreamt up by eccentric, confused, and obsessed goonbags.
You know the ones I mean - internet-taught, misinformation spreading dummies with too much time on their hands.
Let's stick to the versitality of the Snake Oil thread, and not turn this into yet another boring 'wire' party.
Make that our lives. Got a phone call this morning, Chinese speaker. Figured my wife could handle it, so handed the phone to her.
It was a scam artist calling via an 800 number, assume hijacked. Said her phone, which turned out to be a land line in New York state, had been jacked and over 600 calls placed to residents in Shanghai. Was told that the FCC would have Sprint shutdown all phones registered in her name. She told him she didnt have a phone (was talking on mine).
The guys like "What?" (But that's the whole basis of our scam!) Then went on with it, to which she played. Said she needed to speak with the Shanghai Police and give them her "information". She said "I dont know how to contact them". They said they'd connect them for her. 20 seconds later another fellow answers. Said he's from the criminal investigation dept.
She knows a couple things about the Chinese police. One is, you wont get to anyone in 20 seconds, Two is criminal means things like murders, bank robberies, the big stuff. She started drilling the guy on why was she connected to the criminal section, when she should have been directed to the "petty" section - or the lobby.
The guy's like "What? - You're challenging me on what department should be handling this? It's 2:00 in the morning!" She noticed that the background was absolutely silent in both connections. Well, needless to say she gave them nothing, whereas someone falling for it may have provided the supposed "Shanghai police officer" with all kinds of personal information, starting with Name...
She filed a report with the FTC using the fill-in form on their website. After calling the FCC and Sprint, who confirmed the BS.
@jjasniew
Yep!
Ya can't turn around anywhere these days without some loser trying to steal info or money from you.
I get several BS calls daily from the various idiots trying their scams.
It's gotten so that I let the answering machine take them - and I screen the call.
If it's someone I know, I'll pick up.
Same goes for those automated Robo-Calls...ignore them.
I don't talk to robots, sorry.
Yep!
Ya can't turn around anywhere these days without some loser trying to steal info or money from you.
I get several BS calls daily from the various idiots trying their scams.
It's gotten so that I let the answering machine take them - and I screen the call.
If it's someone I know, I'll pick up.
Same goes for those automated Robo-Calls...ignore them.
I don't talk to robots, sorry.
Or to change it once in a while... I keep trying to convince my dad to change his number... He's had it for 38 years bu h could count his contacts on one hand... Gets lots of spam calls... Now, he just ignores like me. "Didn't leave a message? I guess it wasn't important"
Meanwhile, I wish I could disable voicemail entirely...
Meanwhile, I wish I could disable voicemail entirely...
Sorry, these days that unlisted number is not a problem for the Spammers.
Numbers are dialed randomly from a computer, so any number is vulnerable.
Ya this functionality is built into the Google Phone app on Android...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer&hl=en_CA&gl=US
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