jasonhanjk 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 Did your camera have a macro features to take picture of really near object? Anyway, a pure copper cable would definately sound better huh. Does that means no phase shift what so ever? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fishball79 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 Jason, Have not heard of cables shifting phase. Only know crossovers would affect the phase of signal. Good cables merely transfer the signal with as little detrimentation as possible. I wrote a VERY long post on cables.. will find it and show here again... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jasonhanjk 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 Thanks. I guess individual shield cable will always be better. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fishball79 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 The sum of 4 parts of a cable makes up its sound. Here's my short misinformed guide on cables. I might not be correct so please correct me i AM wrong 1 - dielectric. The material next to the conductor is its dielectric The primary dielectric affects the sound the most. In a way more so than the conductor itself. That is because some of the worse material one should use is commonly found in commercial cables. An example would be PVC. It has a dielectric value of 5.0. The best dielectrics and their ratings in order are, vacuum(1.0), air(1.1), teflon(2.0), teflon derivatives(2.1-2.4?). Dielectrics act like capacitors, storing some energy as a signal passed the conductor it wraps around and releasing it slightly later. A good dielectric would store less and releases faster. One very common sound characteristic with thick PVC insulated copper wires would be its round mid bass. It could be simply be that the PVC insulation messes up the timing of the bass. Hence most DIY guys who want really high end cables makes their own with silver in teflon or soemtimes, no telon at all. 2 - Magnetic Fields When electricity passes through a conductor, a magnetic field is created surrounding the conductor. The size of this field depends on size of the current. If you have more than one conductor bunched together, they would affect each other's magnetic fields! Why is this important? When a conductor's magnetic field is distorted whilst transferring a signal from A to B. The signal received at B is also distorted. I'm not sure which aspect of the music will be affected, i think its the timing and dynamics. 3 - Connector RCA plugs are a neccesary evil but why Neutriks? They cost like what, $40? That's alot of money when you are talking about budget diy interconnects. If you want easy to use connectors then consider the lower cost Canare. I didn't compare Canare vs Neutriks in terms of sound but I'm thinking that someone who'd bother to make himself these interconnects are music lovers on a shoestring budget and of the $60, $40 goes to connectors! If you are indeed after sound, shoot for the Eichmann Bullet plugs. The cable with the best high fidelity reproduction and least signal loss i have ever made were pure silver ones with bullet plugs. This pair of cables happen to sound good immediately with soldered joints still too hot to touch. Having experimented with quite abit of cables, they all have this characteristic sound before 'burning in'. That is, harsh, sibilant, lacking in details and uncontrolled mid bass and maybe no low bass at all. Shouldn't these characteristics be more obvious in a new pair of SILVER interconnects? This made me conclude that a big portion of the burn in process is for the connectors. Why is this so? The common RCA plug from $2.5 black nakmichi knock offs i LOVE to the Neutriks are all hefty and full of metals. The eichmann is a tube of dense plastic with 2 copper nibs. Following the same sch of thought as Eichmann plug designs, I searched for one with the least amount of metals. I found a $0.70 all plastic rca connector with folded steel shield and conductor. These could well be the poor man's Eichmann. If you could bother, try making another stock 89259 with such connectors and compare. It should sound better than the neutrik profi. 4 - Geometry & Topography I have so far done 3 kinds of wire geometry designs used for single solid core cables. The most minimalistic is a parallel run held at equal distance away from one another by tape ALA DNM Reson design. Another is the tri braid design ALA Kimber KCAG. The third is simply twisting 2 runs together loosely but evenly. A fourth geometry is from IXOS. Very densely braided cables to ensure the crossing conductors are perpendicular to one another. This effectively cancels any magnetic field interference between the two crossing runs. Another thing is solid core or multistrand? The higher the frequency, the closer to the surface of the conductor the signal of such frequency travels on. I personally prefer single solid core designs as theorectically, such conductors would have less conductors for the signal to jump around. Another reason is that I've personally heard solid core cables have better bass than multistrand ones of higher gauge. 5 - Application If you are curious how the most transparent cable one could made from commonly available parts sound like, buy silver wire & teflon tubing from here and terminate em with Eichmann. 6 - Ironicities Despite spouting so much (seemingly) knowledge, the OCOS loudpeaker cable, a coaxial copper design when partnered with my previous speakers, dynaudios, sounded the best with better detail retrieval and had the most accurate tone. These were the best of the lot and this lot included skin effect reducing Goertz, solid core braided Kimber 8TC and so on. Its got something to do with the cable being impedance matched to dynaudio drivers. The combo is so good OCOS are almost a must with speakers that has dynaudio drivers. This goes tos show that there might be some other aspect about cables that aren't well known that affect the sound. 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fishball79 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 Jason, best sounding cables i heard are non shielded ones. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jasonhanjk 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 All right... THANKS!!! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jasonhanjk 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 You're right. Even PPL says something similiar... http://headwize2.powerpill.org/ubb/showpag...d=4158&fdays=20 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
N@Z 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 You techy guys are making me dizzy with all the tech talk! But I like it! Wanna learn too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jasonhanjk 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 I am still learning to listen to cables... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sipher 0 Report post Posted June 22, 2003 I am still learning to listen to cables... does cable talks?? hahaha joking Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jasonhanjk 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2003 does cable talks?? Try loh... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fishball79 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2003 The proof of the listening is in the eating... i mean pudding... listen cables... eat pudding... listen more Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mackie 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2003 Next step in learning.......listening to how power cords sing......ah. this will be tougher than interconnects. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
fishball79 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2003 Mackie, What i have experimented results in this: the further the element is from the loudspeakers/cans the less audible difference there is. What do u think? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mackie 0 Report post Posted June 23, 2003 Hi Fishball, I have an opposite view. Any changes nearer to the source will be more audible for me. Henceforth, I always reserve the less favoured power cord/interconnects to the amp stage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
