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Giz Explains: Why Analog Audio Cables Really Aren't All The Same
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Giz Explains: Why Analog Audio Cables Really Aren't All The Same |
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
04/19/09
If lower resistance is what you're after, I guarantee you can achieve it much more cost effectively by using a larger gauge ordinary copper cable than by switching to exotic materials or manufacturing processes. This addresses impedance too. It does not address capacitance and inductance, but then neither do the exotic materials or processes in themselves.
All this golden-ear voodoo hurts my brain. I think if people want to listen to music, they should listen to the MUSIC, not the equipment. But hey - if you want to listen for the flaws instead of the performance, and you have the money to spend on it, more power to you (so to speak).
09/08/09
Mind over matter and all that.
04/14/09
04/14/09
It is only important what YOU can hear, and what the value equation is to YOU! What is expensive to one person is not expensive to someone else. It is all relative.
Everyone has different opinions on restaurants. The same Joe that tells you it is the best Italian place in the city may also think that Applebee's is their favorite place to eat. The same goes for audio equipment. There are a million different know it alls.
When buying audio components there is only one thing to do; take the item home (whether A/V amp or cables) and try them in your house and with your equipment! It will sound different on every different set up out there. Any reputable sellers of audio equipment will allow you to return the items if you don't like them.
-Do some research. AVS Forum is a GREAT place to start.
-Buy what you think will work for you situation (equipment and budget).
-Make the decision that fits your situation. Only you can make the value equation based off your situation.
04/14/09
The same goes when people collaborate and they say one thing is good, but they only agree together because they don't want to be an outcast.
My tip would be to go with what's financially satisfying then performance.
04/14/09
Why did I choose teflon? Because you can't legally run PVC in the plenum (the space between the dropped ceiling and the real ceiling of a commercial building). PVC, when it burns, makes nasty smelly gasses. Teflon doesn't burn.
So I can see where teflon coated wires would be expensive, but only because of the teflon. I really don't expect to hear a difference in the audio if I used it.
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But seriously, reading you remind me of some people who I have met who have sternly believed in something for so long w/o ever actually studying/doing a double blind study. When you tell them/show them they are wrong, they get this look on their face. Like the three or four people I "revealed" to that men and women have the same number of ribs.
04/14/09
I'm a little disappointed you didn't mention the significance of a cable's gauge. Gauge vs Length plays a big role in a cable's impedance.
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LOL
04/14/09
This firefox tab currently says:
"Gizmodo - Giz Explains: Why Anal..."
That is all.
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[www.amazon.com]
04/14/09
to mikeness: I think the point is clear, you're a sound engineer so my guess is you're either preserving soundstreams onto a analog or digital format or you're playing them back on 10's of 1,000's of dollars worth of highly amplified equipment. It's also possible you have certain interconnects that span 50 feet or more.
I'm not saying people shouldn't use good cables in their home systems because quality doesn't matter, I'm saying they shouldn't use overpriced/over-engineered cables in their home because for the 10 feet or less that they need to run between their amplifier to their drivers, you're not going to pick up quite as much interference, resistance, or delay. You will pick up SOME, but you will never hear a difference between a mid-range $30 cable and a high-end $130 cable on a high-end home stereo system.
04/14/09
FTR, I can hear the difference between the $30 cable I've tried and the higher end cable I use. Unless you have really crappy ears, you could too. Then again, you seem to believe that only sound engineers run sophisticated equipment, which is untrue.
04/14/09
Level 1) Geo Metro - It works, but not great, and until you've had better you don't really know what you're missing. But it is cheap.
Level 2) Ford Focus - It works, it's OK, still not great, but definitely a better ride than the Geo.
Level 3) Toyota Camry - It works, it's reliable (will survive several moves), it's a better ride than the Ford Focus, and for your money is a pretty darn good value.
Level 4) Yadda.
Pretty much up until midpoint you don't see a huge jump in quality. Then after midpoint jumps in quality are smaller but the price tends to double (or more) as you bump up the scale.
Sure, you own the Ferrari of speaker cables, but other cables will come very close to the performance (but not refinement) for about 1/2 the price. And, unless you are capable of driving the vehicle (face it, most of us are not...) it's a waste in our hands.
I've been in Monster Cable's factory South of SF. (Maybe you West Coast Gizzers can get a tour?) And had various priced speaker cable demoed for me. With my hearing damage I cannot hear any improvement above midline cable.
So, guess which cable I buy?
04/14/09
that saying, I don't really care about quality right now... cheap is key (for a college student, that is...)
//computer science freshmen looking at electrical enginering as dbl major
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Then you're in luck, as quality speaker wire is cheap. Go to monoprice.com, and get a 50-foot spool of cable for about $15:
[www.monoprice.com]
Or get some 14 gauge electrical wire from Home Depot.
Either will sound as good as any cable on the market, including the $5,000/foot stuff.
04/14/09