I've never believed much in cables, that said... (USB)
Darko has a great podcast on how digital signals going into DACs can be affected by cabling: https://soundcloud.com/johnhdarko/why-digital-audio-isnt-just-ones-and-zeroes I upgraded from a $10 generic coaxial cable to an AQ Carbon and the difference was night and day. |
ower cords also baffle me as to why they would make a difference after miles in the walls...If one uses "water" analogy, one might think so, but electricity is not water and how electric current flows sometimes can be counter-intuitive. For example, one would think the bottle neck is the tiny little fuse in the amp, but obviously it's not. |
Congratulations on discovering (Frustrating, isn't it, to learn that the supposed authorities are wrong, and you believed them!) how important cables are in a rig. You've only begun to find out HOW important. :) BTW, aftermarket fuses are also efficacious, as I have compared them. :) Every wire, every location. Take nothing for granted. |
One of the differences (among many) between water and electricity is that before turning on the faucet in your kitchen, the kitchen does not have any water in the first place. But with electricity, even before you turn on the switch of the amp, the amp internally already has a bunch of electrons just waiting to get moving. So intuitively, you think if the tiny fuse is the bottle neck because all the electrons have to be "squeezed" through such a tiny space, so why then adding a big fat power cable would make a difference? One possible explanation is that electrons are so small so there are so many more of them than needed even through the tiny fuse. Another thing that helps is that the physical length of the fuse is very short so the electrons would just shoot through it without having any noticeble resistance or phase shift. Now if you increase the length of the fuse to say a "foot" then may be that could cause some problem. The other explanation is the potential of the electrons in the fuse is at 120V they have a bit more juice before down converted through the transformer. |
I used to build Curious Cables on the Gold Coast in sunny Queensland Australia (as an employee). If you use annealed silver off the reel the correct direction as the data signal wire and use (hope nobody gets offended) wire that was unused for USAF for fighter aircraft wiring (how it made it's way to Australia is mind boggling). And a guy designing it, with well over three decades hi-fi experience.. you can make a pretty decent USB cable. That you can request to have the power with a disconnect plug inline on the external power supply lead if you so choose. Yes USB cables as do other cables can make a substantial difference. I use Lenehan Audio Ribbonflex interconnects and speaker cables, and they make a difference! Soon I will try Wegrzyn cables from Arizona, I've been reading good things about them. |
