I read with some interest the piece Douglas Schroeder wrote about his experience with the "Schroeder Method" of interconnect cable combinations in parallel. Like Douglas, I also have the Teo Audio "The Pre" passive preamp and a few sets of Teo Audio liquid metal signal transmission cables. In my set-up, I am running the Teo Audio interconnects from my source(s) to The Pre and then from The Pre to a pair of self-powered ATC monitors.
Glorious sound, indeed, but how does the audio possibly sound better by implementing the Schroeder Method for those Teo Audio cables running between the sources and The Pre? At the outset, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the Teo Audio cables would benefit from this method. Their bandwidth is said to be huge (1GHz+), and the nature of internal reflections of signal propagation reduced owing to the fluid transmission medium. My excitement was tapped down by my confusion about the theory.
I then read a reply to Douglas’ piece from Bob Smith. Mr. Smith suggests that cables can be modeled as inductors and suggests that running 2 sets of cables in parallel extends their bandwidth by nearly 2-fold while reducing their characteristic impedance by 2-fold. Mr. Smith suggests that the benefit is the potential reduction in reflected energy and/or standing waves within the cable, which might translate into reduced phase distortion artifacts within the audible range. (Mr. Smith’s piece is long and well worth a detailed read; I apologize for the Cliff Notes’ summary here, which might not be entirely faithful to the original text.)
Presumably, these effects would affect both the signal and ground legs of the interconnect. From my limited understanding of the composition of my particular Teo Audio cables, only the signal conductor includes liquid metal medium, with the ground conductor being solid wire. So perhaps the ground conductor being solid wire explains why Teo Audio cables benefit from this method, per Mr. Smith’s explanation.
But to hell with theory, trying is the pudding of life!
Glorious sound, indeed, but how does the audio possibly sound better by implementing the Schroeder Method for those Teo Audio cables running between the sources and The Pre? At the outset, I was somewhat surprised to learn that the Teo Audio cables would benefit from this method. Their bandwidth is said to be huge (1GHz+), and the nature of internal reflections of signal propagation reduced owing to the fluid transmission medium. My excitement was tapped down by my confusion about the theory.
I then read a reply to Douglas’ piece from Bob Smith. Mr. Smith suggests that cables can be modeled as inductors and suggests that running 2 sets of cables in parallel extends their bandwidth by nearly 2-fold while reducing their characteristic impedance by 2-fold. Mr. Smith suggests that the benefit is the potential reduction in reflected energy and/or standing waves within the cable, which might translate into reduced phase distortion artifacts within the audible range. (Mr. Smith’s piece is long and well worth a detailed read; I apologize for the Cliff Notes’ summary here, which might not be entirely faithful to the original text.)
Presumably, these effects would affect both the signal and ground legs of the interconnect. From my limited understanding of the composition of my particular Teo Audio cables, only the signal conductor includes liquid metal medium, with the ground conductor being solid wire. So perhaps the ground conductor being solid wire explains why Teo Audio cables benefit from this method, per Mr. Smith’s explanation.
But to hell with theory, trying is the pudding of life!