Fancy Interconnects? How about a potato, or even mud?

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Pano

Pano

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#1
OK, we've all heard or read the sales pitch for interconnects of fancy materials and geometries, I've got them all beat.

Did you know that you can pass a line level audio signal thru a banana? How about a sweet potato or even a bucket of mud? You can, quite easily. No joke, it really works. You can even stick two wires in the dirt in the back garden and pass an audio signal thru the dirt.

I spent this afternoon doing just that, and making recordings of it. This is no April Fool joke, it really works. If any of you are interested in what it sounds like, you can do it yourself, or I can post samples here.

You'd be surprised at what a musical signal sent thru a banana, a potato or a bucket of mud sounds like. Cyro that, cable guys! 😀

Anyone care to hear it? Anyone care to guess what it sounds like?
 
#2
Hello Pano, I would be interested in hearing the recordings you made. I am curious what kind of attenuation/filtering characteristics the different materials have with an electrical signal, particularly audio.

We cryo dirt here in Vermont every year. We call it winter. Brrrrr.

Peace,

Dave
 
#4
OK, I'll post some later. I can post some 320K MP3 s here, will find a way to post some lossless somewhere and provide a link.

Dave, I didn't have any frozen mud, you'll have to do that test this winter. 🙂
 
#6
So have you tried various different brands and formulations of dirt (potting soil, gardening soil, etc.) and if so can you pontificate on the audible if not technical merits of different formulations.. Have you experimented with different sorts of fertilizers including manure for a more or less odoriferous listening experience? 😛
 
#7
And to continue with Kevinkr's theme, what is the sonic difference between a banana and a plaintain? A sweet potato vs. golden russet vs. blue potato?😉

Doubt I will be testing frozen ground next year. Hope to be living in a warmer climate by that time.

Peace,

Dave


kevinkr said:
So have you tried various different brands and formulations of dirt (potting soil, gardening soil, etc.) and if so can you pontificate on the audible if not technical merits of different formulations.. Have you experimented with different sorts of fertilizers including manure for a more or less odoriferous listening experience? 😛
Click to expand...
 
#9
If we run it thru hot chocolate, will it warm it up? Or thru Tabasco sauce for some spice?
We'd want Mississippi mud for the Delta Blues, of course.

What kind of listening test should we do? I have 4 versions of the same file:
  • Original from the CD
  • DA/AD loop with normal copper cables (Canare brand)
  • DA/AD loop run thru mud
  • DA/AD loop run thu a potato on the left, a banana on the right
Should I identify any of them, or just let you guess?

FWIW, of the things I tried, an orange was the most conductive, followed by mud, potato and lastly the banana. Levels were adjusted to compensate.
 
#18
Initial impressions... and there's not much in it 😀 so at the risk of making a total plonker of myself,

A) The best with the most consistent imaging and best "hf" detail. Sharply focused image.

B) Generally excellent, with good timbre but image seemed to be biased to the left (very very slightly).

C) This was the one I couldn't pin down. Something about the vocals and the vocal image varying "in height" yet a good overall image.

D) This was the worst with almost a "forced" quality, a poor image and an underlying weird kind of distortion (a coarseness) to the vocals.
 
#19
Do try steel wool, too. That kind of furry madness ... zillions of pretty good conductors with really terrible ohmic contacts between them. Ought to be instructive. And of course a pencil. You know, the graphite which historically has been called "lead", though it has been 300 years since real lead was in the pencil. And what about a waterhose? Good ... long distance conductor, if filled with saline water. Even has an insulator on the outside, making it almost a coax. Hey... there's the answer to the "spaghetti inside a macaroni" coax idea. Spaghetti inside a hose inside a bucket of water. I'm thinking that any flesh might work well: a pork chop with wires attached. Wouldn't want to use chicken though, since everything already tastes like chicken. Oh, oh! A snake! Perfect dimensions too. Does snail or slug slime conduct? Printed circuit boards with snail slime! Ewww... for really long conductors, there's lianas, vines and kelp-bed stalks. Salty that kelp, too. Tough. Worms dry out too quickly.

Random thoughts. What a wonderful thing, is a mind to waste.

GoatGuy
 
#20
I think someone already did the water hose thing.

This thread is hilarious!!!

Thanks for the laughs.

Clip A sounds better than the others, so I would guess that it's the direct CD source. That's about all I can say.
 
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