Most Important, Unloved Cable...
The same argument has been leveled against power coming in off the grid and how could a high quality power cable in the last couple of feet “rescue” an already polluted AC source.While I agree the same argument has been leveled, the people the level the same points about a power vs Ethernet don’t know what they are talking about. Unlike power, every port that data passes through is a reconstruction. |
knownothing sez: "A quality Ethernet cable, or analog interconnect, or power cable keep signals intact and in their appropriate lanes in a cluttered environment around your gear, so you deliver as close to the initial output at the other end of the cable as you can get without picking up or transferring interference from or to other cables or gear in the vicinity." Exactly! And a "quality cable" needs not cost more that a few dollars a foot. Spending more makes them look prettier and more impressive but does nothing to improve, enhance or increase the quality of the sound. |
jinjuku, yes, of course a digital signal is handled completely differently by the sending and receiving device compared to AC power supplies. The analogy is very broadly drawn here. My point is regardless of the type of signal or how the signal is handled at either end, if something bad happens to it in the wire, or it does something bad to a signal in adjacent wire in your system, it can affect the overall sound coming out of your speakers or headphones. Your point does argue for better implementation of devices and error correction in data reconstruction - and perhaps why optical toslink should not be the first choice for digital data transfer - but I don’t think your point obviates the need for good cabling. Maybe we agree on that. |
dynaquest4, yeah, I guess that is why they use $few a foot power cables in all major recording studios. Or maybe not... http://shunyata.com/2015/04/01/grant-samuelsen-visits-astoria-studios/ and this, referring to a specific Shunyata power cable: ”The Anaconda Alpha wasted little time in becoming a power-line reference used by major music and film studios, electronics manufacturers, reviewers, music producers and mastering engineers. Studios such as Sony Music (Japan) and Philips (Crest National-US) adopted the Anacondas for reference playback and mastering. World-renowned mastering engineers Doug Sax and James Guthrie also endorse and use the Anaconda Alphas, as do Record Producer Rick Rubin and a host of other industry luminaries.” I realize this statement is part of a sales pitch, but I was in a relatively low rental rate basement recording studio recently and even they were using high end cables. When it matters, at least some of the folks that are laying down what we are listening to at night want every advantage to get the sound they are after in the final product, and $few a foot wire apparently doesn’t give them what they want. I tend to agree based on my experience that the right premium cables, power, analog and digital, make a positive difference in my playback systems. Again, YMMV. |
