The noise came from high impedance materials in the open air. A fault of the test apparatus, not the materials per se. It was my digital noise reduction you heard. I've already built a test rig to shield the materials under test, so noise reduction should not be needed this time around.
That said, no one was very good at telling mud from copper by ear. Even steel wool passed the test.
That said, no one was very good at telling mud from copper by ear. Even steel wool passed the test.
Wonder if this bunch could tell silver from mud The Audio Society of Minnesota Conducts Cable Comparison Tests | Stereophile.com
probably not
probably not
Which go hand in hand ... . If the quality of the connection leads to greater levels of noise, then greater amounts of noise reduction must be applied. And if the latter does more 'damage' to the waveform than the actual connection quality effects, then the end result is still effectively the same - the poorer the connection, the worse the final impact, in one way or another ...
Which, in an overall sense, has been my experience all the way through my audio adventures - every weakness, no matter where it is and how it manifests, drags the quality down just that little bit, which may be, oh so subtle in itself. Add enough of those weaknesses together though, and you invariably end up with 'just a bit crappy' sound ...
Which, in an overall sense, has been my experience all the way through my audio adventures - every weakness, no matter where it is and how it manifests, drags the quality down just that little bit, which may be, oh so subtle in itself. Add enough of those weaknesses together though, and you invariably end up with 'just a bit crappy' sound ...
Fancy magents in interconnects This one is new on me.
He has numbers that appear to show a difference, what's actually going on here I don't for one minute believe that the guy who used to glue sand and metal filings into hose pipes has hit on soemthing that actually does work...
He has numbers that appear to show a difference, what's actually going on here I don't for one minute believe that the guy who used to glue sand and metal filings into hose pipes has hit on soemthing that actually does work...
Wonder if this bunch could tell silver from mud The Audio Society of Minnesota Conducts Cable Comparison Tests | Stereophile.com
probably not
I read that as you implying that the audience was incompetent, defective in hearing etc.
Sure. But in the case of my tests it was simply high impedance leads without shielding. A string of resistors in open air would have done the same thing. AFAIK, the noise came from the environment, not the materials under test. I had to remove noise so as not to give away what was what.
It was a fault of the test, not of the materials. Of course it would be silly to use interconnects with a DCR of 50K or more, but we often use resistors of that value in our circuits.In the next round there will be much less noise (I hope) so no need for digital noise reduction. Then you'll be able to hear the materials themselves straight up.
I don't know if it was ever patented, but Mr. Isoda made magnetic speaker cables back in the 1980s. It was a large stranded cable with a mildly magnetic core. Did it sound different? Yes, a little. The main trick with Isoda cables was the "Multi-Metal". He used strands of different metals (Copper, brass, steel, lead, etc) all braided together for the particular sound he wanted.
obviously they have a "Stepford Wife", I have tried this and it is a fallacy...New speakers, new amps, you name it, sit Her down expecting words of praise and wonder, what do I get, "yeah!" or "well", jeez I added 4 15" drivers and she didn't notice!!!
Haha, I had the same basic problem until my wife one evening went shopping. She just happened to wander into the audio section of a big dept store and decided to listen to some systems.
She got home and told me she had decided to listen to her all time favourite audio system whilst she was out.
I said what was that?
she said "A bose lifestyle".
I though Oh my God here it comes...
She said. "it was absolutely crap!!" She then said she listened to some more expensive speakers. Still crap. She then listened to the most expensive speakers in the store. Still crap!! She then told me it was ok to do my 10" stero subs, provided I made them look nice as my speakers were much better than anything in the store, and if I could make them even better then that was great!
I nearly fell over
Up until that point, there had been nothing but complaints about how my speakers were ugly, or not modern, or whatever. That was now pretty much insignificant.
Tony.
PS. love the comment about how she did notice in the next post
You know the last time I mixed those three things I got a heck of a belly ache!
Cliff, speedskater was correct. It's the thickness of the insulation which will affect the capacitance per foot and the inductance per foot. The balanced cable will become a bit unbalanced if the two inner conductors act differently at frequency.
I believe the discussion is not about core diameters, but insulation thickness around the cores.
jn
Very true that a good coax makes a great interconnect, especially those that are fully shielded. The only downside is they tend to not be very flexible. But add some sleeving, quality connectors, a little heatshrink and you have great looking and sounding cables on the cheap.
No, I meant they can be just as right or wrong as all of us on here!
Do you know them? were you there? can you add to the article?
Not sure of your point if not
OK. Not too relevant for short connections in a fairly benign environment?jneutron said:
Thin flexible coax is available in the more common impedances. Note that cables with a given impedance and given velocity factor will have exactly the same capacitance whatever their diameter. C = 1/(k c Z) F/m, where k is velocity factor (typically 0.6-0.8)6speed said:
@davym
That is my point.
My understanding of such testing is that we are looking for preference not expertise. If anyone is lying and saying A is better/different than B as a lie, then of course results are meaningless.
But if a statistically significant (and here one does need expertise, but not in audio!) prefer A over B, that is a meaningful result.
The participants are NOT right or wrong, unless the question is "is A more expensive than B"!
I think you need to read up on testing. SY is one of the experts here.
That is my point.
My understanding of such testing is that we are looking for preference not expertise. If anyone is lying and saying A is better/different than B as a lie, then of course results are meaningless.
But if a statistically significant (and here one does need expertise, but not in audio!) prefer A over B, that is a meaningful result.
The participants are NOT right or wrong, unless the question is "is A more expensive than B"!
I think you need to read up on testing. SY is one of the experts here.
I have read through plenty of test results, I even understood most of it.
plenty of people seem to hear fairly noticeable differences upgrading from cheap zip cord. The problems appear to start with comparisons between decent cables and extortionate ones. This is where personal opinion and/or preconditioning takes over from science, as far as I can see. This makes agreement highly unlikely and we probably should not expect it either.- Status
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