Balanced cables

Well, let’s be honest. Recording engineers get what, about two years of training? I wouldn’t necessarily call it an engineering education since they actually don’t take any of the real important and difficult engineering and science courses, you know, like dynamics or even statics, or thermodynamics, or nuclear engineering. Besides, isn’t it the recording engineers that have been aggressively compressing our favorite tunes for the last 20 years, with no let up in sight? Thanks a bunch, guys!

I must also add I have tried the ground cable from T/T on Pre-Amp, when using standalone Phono. So if Cheater Plug works what is the procedure then?

An isolation power transformer might be used so as to isolate the grounds. Or you could send it back to the manufacturer and see if he can fix it. Hint: if you can measure the resistance between the chassis and the ground side of the RCA connectors and its about 1 ohm or less, then it is vulnerable to ground loop issues.

There are recording studios, recording engineers, mastering engineers, etc... who really go out of their way to use premium cables in their studios. Audiophile approved cables and gear.

There are, but as many recording engineers (many of whom do have a 4-year degree or more) know, if the balanced standard (AES file 48) is observed in the studio, there is no need for ’audiophile approved’ cables as Mogami, Canare and Belden cables will indeed work just fine, and by that I mean won’t sound any different then audiophile cables that cost $1000/foot.

Again, if you are hearing big differences between balanced line cables, what that means is your equipment is somehow failing to support the balanced standard.

The post is way over the top in projected falsehoods: cast and directed scorn, vitriol, and denigration, combined with unsubtle blunt force trauma delivered appeals to authority.

Actually the post to which you refer is pretty truthful whether we audiophiles like it or not. I straddle both sides of this issue, as I simultaneously operate a high end audio company where we routinely see cables making a difference (as I have previously harped, we see both balanced and single-ended operation with our gear) and I also run a recording studio complete with LP mastering capacity. In that studio we are careful to make sure that we do things that will result in good sound, but that does not include high end cables (don’t think we’ve not tried) as such is completely unnecessary if the balanced line standards are observed. This is a very easy thing to do in the studio, as the equipment designed for it observes AES file 48. So the sonic problems we encounter aren’t cable related- they are equipment related and usually pretty easy to spot.

I also agree that far too much compression is used! We had a guest engineer in our studio ruin a session because he over-used a compressor. Yuk.

Just to clarify, even if there are some recording engineers with 4 year educations they are not equivalent to 4 year science or engineering educations, you know, like BA Physics or Aerospace Engineering or Engineering Physics or EE. That would be expecting a little too much, no? In any case, my point is that whatever education a recording engineer has doesn’t automatically bestow on him the right to win every argument even if the argument is right up his bowling alley.

Actually EEs are not that rare in the recording world. There also those that are entirely by gosh and by golly. But like any field, they also attend the school of hard knocks. So its unwise to assume that without an education that they also don't know what they are doing.

How many have EEs, anyway, would you guess, 5%? 2%? 😛 They all have to do what their boss tells them, I hear. Even the EEs. 😀