Does length matter?

[Sipher 0]

mackie is a stock agent/broker?

[Mackie 0]

No lah.......into research now....used to work for various off-shore banks in their Treasury depts.

[matbon0013 0]

Mackie, Do I see an LP12 on your avatar?

[N@Z 0]

Thorerns... click on his profile!

[matbon0013 0]

Ooopppzz! Thanks N@z!

 

[bummer 0]

Hey Matbon, where did u get your mini to mini interconnect? Is that a high quality interconnect? Still new at this

 

Thanks

[matbon0013 0]

bummer,

N@z swapped it for some Ety's filters, I believe he said JMT from Head-Fi.org made them. They are Silver Kimbers IIRC with Switchcraft 90º mini jacks! If you have any questions please do ask in my Headsave META thread I'll be happy to oblige

Thanks!

[jasonhanjk 0]

Yes!!! The longer the better...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oops, you meant cable.

 

3 meter should be OK, make sure they are individual shield for best config...

[Charismatic 0]

There are 2 school of thoughts on this matter which Naz has already touched on. There's no absolute superiority of one over another but this is what I can share with U.

 

All cables has resistance/impedance and this is broken down to two main elements ie, reactance and capacitance. High reactance impedes low freqs and capacitance on high freqs. On a well-balanced sounding interconnect, unless capacitance is very low, long runs are not ideal for the the final sound can become less airy owning to a cap on the extreme highs. Similarly, reactance will also increase with long runs and this can result in a compromise on the bass punch and depth. Next come RFI/EMF, having longer run means your interconnect is more exposed to such interference albeit shielded. However, long runs may work if your entire system sound bright and bass heavy and U wish to use the interconnect as a tone control.

 

The same theories apply to speaker cables but on a lesser extent as the signals have already gone through amplification and any detriment introduced is less pronounced. Where do I stand in your scenario? I would choose the 1m cable, provided speakers are far apart enough to present a wide soundstage (not possible unless bi-amping). The reason being a shorter run will carry less impedance and also delay time for the signal to pass from amp to speakers. Long runs of speaker cables like those used in Home Theatre systems cause delay and that's why AV amps provide options for adjusting time delays to compensate for the long runs and also positioning of the center and rear-centre speakers to coincide with the front main channels.. This allow the signals to reach the listener ideally at the same time....minus the various time delays for surround channels.

 

In the end, I would not shift from these ideals unless environment calls for it ie, location of speakers and rest of the rig. I think everyone should be happy with 1-1.5m interconnects and 2.5m speaker cables....unless cost is an issue.

Mackie,

 

did u try using the same brand of IC but of diff length, say, one is 1m and another one is 2m to connect between cdp & hp amp? If so, any findings in term of sonic?

 

Thanks!

 

[Mackie 0]

Hi Charismatic,

 

Technically speaking, if there's an obvious audible difference between the same 1m and 2m interconnect connected to a setup U'd mentioned, I have only 2 conclusions. One being the listener has truly Golden Ears and the other being cable's quality is compromised.

 

Let me elaborate on the latter a bit. Control of capacitance carries higher priority than inductance in interconnects. The reason being high capacitance will result in time delay and act as high-pass filters, thus, treble is affected. The difference in length between 1 and 2m should be audible. If it is, I can only conclude the capacitance inherent in this pair of interconnects are not low enough and therefore inferior.

[Charismatic 0]

Morning Mackie,

 

I have no Golden Ears, i can't hear 30hz< and >18khz (Confirmed, period.).

 

I tried the following setups

 

1) CD5000 -> (1m)monster400mk2 ->obh11->hp

 

the sound is too forward like it got truncated.

 

2) CD5000 -> (2m)Ed acoustic ->obh11->hp

 

it sounds right on time.

 

3) CD5000 -> monster400mk2 -> obh11+obh2 ->hp

 

it sounds right on time.

 

4) CD5000 -> (2m)Ed acoustic -> obh11+obh2 ->hp

 

it sounds right on time also.

 

 

That's why i suspect the length does matter, I suspect only and I have no evidence at all. Moreover the ICs are of different brands.

 

 

As u have explain earlier, it's a big topic as there is even school of thought on the lengthy issue.

 

[jtfoo 0]

Hi Charismatic,

 

Technically speaking, if there's an obvious audible difference between the same 1m and 2m interconnect connected to a setup U'd mentioned, I have only 2 conclusions. One being the listener has truly Golden Ears and the other being cable's quality is compromised.

 

Let me elaborate on the latter a bit. Control of capacitance carries higher priority than inductance in interconnects. The reason being high capacitance will result in time delay and act as high-pass filters, thus, treble is affected. The difference in length between 1 and 2m should be audible. If it is, I can only conclude the capacitance inherent in this pair of interconnects are not low enough and therefore inferior.

Being a high pass filter it should be the bass that's is attenuated and thus suffers. When doing up a amp with DC blocking cap, I usually try not to use a cap with low values, becoz being a high pass filter, the lower frequency tend to be attenuated and thus bass suffers.

[fishball79 0]

Here's fishball's school of thoughts

 

High capacitance from cables are due to use of insulation material of lousy dielectric rating like PVC.

 

This result in a perceived loss in the highs yes but i think the problem lies deeper, in timing. Some cables has a warmer, or even more bass than other cables.

 

One common example is that when a stereo's cables are switched from copper to good silver ones, the listener senses a loss of bass. Thus saying that silver cables have lean bass. I'd tend to believe that silver, being a slightly faster conductor of electricity than copper, actually transmitts the signal source to end more faithfully than the previously used cables. Thus, the previous cables actually have a timing problem, that is, signals of different frequencies do not all arrive on time.

 

If you have bass frequencies and high frequencies not arriving at the same time, the bass might sound confusing, muddled and in some positive case, warm. Bad timing in the highs might mean that details in up there would be lost as it wasn't transmitted completely. Like some sort of time based smearing effect .

 

I was tempted to answer charismatic's question but i did not have first hand experience with same cables of different lengths. However, i am quite sure that the longer it is, the more of the characteristics of the cable will be imposed on the sound. But you'll have to compare say 1m vs 5m. I've know people buying long lengths of interconnects as to them, it improves the sound.

 

What do u guys think?

[fishball79 0]

jtfoo,

 

DC Blocking caps = decouple caps? Those connected from signal path to ground?

I have a 0.1uf cap in my cdp output just before the rca caps and wonder if that is what it is,

[Mackie 0]

Hi Charismatic,

 

Technically speaking, if there's an obvious audible difference between the same 1m and 2m interconnect connected to a setup U'd mentioned, I have only 2 conclusions.  One being the listener has truly Golden Ears and the other being cable's quality is compromised.

 

Let me elaborate on the latter a bit.  Control of capacitance carries higher priority than inductance in interconnects.  The reason being high capacitance will result in time delay and act as high-pass filters, thus, treble is affected.  The difference in length between 1 and 2m should be audible.  If it is, I can only conclude the capacitance inherent in this pair of interconnects are not low enough and therefore inferior.

Being a high pass filter it should be the bass that's is attenuated and thus suffers. When doing up a amp with DC blocking cap, I usually try not to use a cap with low values, becoz being a high pass filter, the lower frequency tend to be attenuated and thus bass suffers.

U are tight to correct me as I shouldn't equate higher capacitance with high pass filtering in the discussion of cables; rightly pointed out by Fishball the dielectric being the culprit in this case which leads to a drop in high extensions. My earlier theory should only apply to electronic components. Thanks for pointing our this fact to everyone here.