Which ones? They make cables with a variety of coax. Its a blanket statement and is like saying "Sennheiser headphones sound different and bad...."
in an high-Z (typical hi-fi) situation, the capacitance per foot of the cable may be of interest to the user...
...others have reported hearing differences in the type of metals used (the conductors), but many do not think this is true or hear such a thing.
...others have reported hearing differences in the type of metals used (the conductors), but many do not think this is true or hear such a thing.
The regular Bluejeans cable sounds bad, and different by a fair bit from just regular twisted pair (I own several BJC's, don't use them for anything because they don't sound as good as just two pieces of wire twisted, not by long shot). So I concluded based on AndrewT's comment they must have some sort of defect.
DF96, I guess your comment isn't wrong necessarily except we're talking about a home stereo so there's no real to start with the assumption you'll get hum.
DF96, I guess your comment isn't wrong necessarily except we're talking about a home stereo so there's no real to start with the assumption you'll get hum.
You mean my statement might be wrong sometimes? Under what conditions might it be wrong?Destroyer OS said:
Are you saying that hum is never a problem in home stereo?
Hum almost only occurs if the cables are used between turntable and preamp. Any other time it has occurred (at an audible level) IME is if something is the equivalent of broken or designed all wrong. I have yet to come across properly working equipment that had an issue from the cables and hum.
So maybe you are talking about the low source impedance situation which was already covered in my original statement?
We seem to have moved from 'DF96 was wrong' to 'DF96 was wrong part of the time' to 'DF96 was mostly right'. Can we make 'DF96 was right'?
We seem to have moved from 'DF96 was wrong' to 'DF96 was wrong part of the time' to 'DF96 was mostly right'. Can we make 'DF96 was right'?
If your original statement was edited to "unshielded twisted pair is fine unless" as opposed to "unshielded twisted pair is not suitable unless", which reads as a predominance for shielded, then sure. We are talking about home audio here in this topic, not a broadcasting center.
Shielded single core (solid or flex) is the correct cable for an unbalanced connection. Under certain circumstances you can get away with other cables, such as unshielded twisted pair. I am puzzled why many people find this so hard to grasp.
It's correct for voltage distortion from noise, at least as it appears. But I find the rate of success for it sounding good is nill. They sound like a failure compared to balanced cables, and yet unshielded sounds fine; much closers to balanced even. Perhaps this could be prevented somehow, but as is I haven't found a solution.
I'd appreciate an explanation but since you believe cables that are correct - yet sound far from a supposedly superior cable - are your go-to, I'm not expecting one.
I'd appreciate an explanation but since you believe cables that are correct - yet sound far from a supposedly superior cable - are your go-to, I'm not expecting one.
Pay careful attention to your soldering here. It's not as easy as it might seem to be, especially as this is your first time assembling IC's.
Anything specific tips here?
I built a cable with the same Mogami for my HD650 and it was pretty straight-forward
Nothing specific just keep things clean. If you've already soldered up a headphone cable then you have it down good.
If two shortish cables genuinely sound different from each when used between competently-engineered equipment then at least one of the cables is faulty or inappropriate. Using the wrong cable (e.g. unshielded twisted for an unbalanced connection) invites RF interference etc. This usually will not be perceived as such, but the resulting intermodulation can be heard as extra spurious 'detail' or 'sparkle'. That is why horribly incompetent DIY cables are preferred by some people. There is RF everywhere these days, but we can't hear it so we forget it is there.Destroyer OS said:
If you believe cables to have a sound then unless you accept my explanation above I can't really expect you to fall into line with ordinary boring (but correct) engineering of audio systems.
Again, shielded unbalanced sound farther from balanced (shielded) cables than unshielded unbalanced cables. I can only find fault in shielded unbalanced cables. The detail aspect can be true since some equipment has no ability to reject RF, but that's no explanation of why balanced and unshielded-unbalanced sound good (and much more similar) and shielded-unbalanced sounds dead, like compression.
Obviously horrible RF is correct among DIYers, according to you.
Obviously horrible RF is correct among DIYers, according to you.
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A cable is completely incapable of compressing sound. When driven from a well-engineered source, a cable cannot modify the audio frequency response to any significant extent.
The effect of the wrong cable on the signal can be explained by engineering, based on science. The effect of the degraded signal on the listener is much more complicated, and to some extent depends on taste and expectations. If the cable you dislike the most is the one which is the most correct from a signal integrity point of view then I can only assume you particularly like degraded signals and miss the degradation on those occasions when you have tried the correct cable.
This assumes, of course, that your source has low output impedance so can drive the slightly higher capacitance of the correct cable. If it is an idiosyncratic (I am being polite!) 'high end' source then it may have high output impedance and you are just hearing the HF rolloff of the correct cable.
The effect of the wrong cable on the signal can be explained by engineering, based on science. The effect of the degraded signal on the listener is much more complicated, and to some extent depends on taste and expectations. If the cable you dislike the most is the one which is the most correct from a signal integrity point of view then I can only assume you particularly like degraded signals and miss the degradation on those occasions when you have tried the correct cable.
This assumes, of course, that your source has low output impedance so can drive the slightly higher capacitance of the correct cable. If it is an idiosyncratic (I am being polite!) 'high end' source then it may have high output impedance and you are just hearing the HF rolloff of the correct cable.
The BJC interconnects probably sound be because you have come to enjoy the small amount of background noise that the unshielded cables add to the sound.
EMI/RFI expert Henry Ott writes:
What can be done to minimize the possibility of problems when using this very common
unbalanced interconnect system?
b]Second, minimize the resistance of the interconnecting cable shield. Use cables with a
copper braid (or even spiral copper) shield instead of a foil shield. Use cables with the
heaviest shield possible, or with double shields in order to minimize cable shield
resistance. Do not use cables with aluminum foil shields, since their resistances are much
higher.............. Also keep cables as short as possible, since this will also reduce
the total shield resistance.
What can be done to minimize the possibility of problems when using this very common
unbalanced interconnect system?
b]Second, minimize the resistance of the interconnecting cable shield. Use cables with a
copper braid (or even spiral copper) shield instead of a foil shield. Use cables with the
heaviest shield possible, or with double shields in order to minimize cable shield
resistance. Do not use cables with aluminum foil shields, since their resistances are much
higher.............. Also keep cables as short as possible, since this will also reduce
the total shield resistance.
Using twisted pair for unbalanced almost does the opposite of what Ott recommends! It maximises the resistance of the return conductor - unless of course you also consider pathological cables with a return even higher in resistance than the signal.
I know everything you guys are saying, including having read Ott. And IME unshielded unbalanced still sounds closer to balanced (which measure the best) where as the shielded unbalanced sound just plain wrong.
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