Interesting article on the cable debate

[BeerCan]

I found this article on the cable debate to be very interesting.

http://stereophile.com/reference/1095cable/

[Negotiableterms]

Great article!!

I can vaguely recall touching on this stuff in college, although my classes weren't nearly at that level of sophistication. For all this time, I've kept in my head that there's a lot of math involved in a "simple" cable, and that the effects are predictable and measureable.

Now, whether or not they're audible to my 51-year-old ears is another matter!

[SolderIron]

A good article to read. I just wish he came out with practical example at audio frequency.

Gee, he didnot even cover the effect of rubrictron. <naughty grin>

[datsunmike]

The question most of us middle classers have is the mathematical equation of $$$$ +/-/= $$. Concluding, that we have champagne tastes and beer budgets. Do we spend $800 on a cable or do we spend the $800 on better equipment?

Where is the most effective use of $800? The equation is stated thus: :wtf:

[BeerCan]

The question most of us middle classers have is the mathematical equation of $$$$ +/-/= $$. Concluding, that we have champagne tastes and beer budgets. Do we spend $800 on a cable or do we spend the $800 on better equipment?

Where is the most effective use of $800? The equation is stated thus: :wtf:



The 800 is best spent on the music :)

[GaryP]

No, no, no - it's all a matter of timing! And being at the right place at the right time! :)

A lot of members here seem to come across $400.00 receivers for $25.00, so they buy it! So if one comes across a $800.00 cable for $100.00, buy it!

Makes sense to me.... I guess the only difficulty is finding that cable!

[Paul C]

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/interconnects/truthcablesinterconnects.php

And a LOT of interesting cable and other articles here:

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips/audioprinciples/index.php

[reggaenaut]

Well it looks like there is a lot of sophisticated maths involved in cable theory. The maths is way over my head. In the final analysis my conclusion is that after looking at the type and quality of the wires of my speaker crossover and those going to the transducer itself I am not going to get crazy about speaker cables.

[HiFiber]

Hey without starting a new thread. Im using 12 guage speaker wire with bi amped speakers, so 4 equi-distant wires (1.5m) each with about 100 watts rms available to them.

Is this the right choice of wire in terms of science?

[GaryP]

...looking at the type and quality of the wires of my speaker crossover and those going to the transducer itself I am not going to get crazy about speaker cables.

I tried upgraded speaker cables with my 25 year old speakers. There was a significant difference.

So I changed the internal wiring of my speakers, too.

Result: :music:

To each his own!

[old_tv_nut]

OK - I DO follow the math that shows surprisingly slow propagation of the loss field in the copper. BUT - what is the magnitude of the resulting error? No magnitude scales on either the calculated or measured graphs, just a note that the measured effect has a much different scale from the input. I also follow the math that a wire small enough to minimze skin effect will minimize this effect; but how big is it with a thick wire???? Is it -40 dB? -60 dB? - 90 dB? Why aren't the numbers given?

[old_tv_nut]

The equation below figure 4 on page 3 states that the loss current is related to the longitudinal current by 1/sigma.

NOTE that sigma for copper is a large number (page 2, table 1): sigma = 5.8 x10^7, or 58 million. Therefore, the loss error current density is the normal conducted current density divided by 58 million, or 155 dB below the conducted current. This leads me to admire the accuracy of analysis, but to dismiss the result as totally insignificant.

I believe, as stated on p.3, there is an additional factor of the length of the cable in meters, which could add 9.5 dB for 3 meter cables, i.e., 145 dB below the main signal. The effect is still totally insignificant, even for fat cables.