Cable design is a lot like creating a pizza
If you look at the construction of an RCA cable it can be very simple or can be very complicated. Eg. Audio quest higher end interconnect cables are extremely creative, the diagram on their website is visually stunning.
Ultimately, Cable design in many cables involves coloring the tonal signature. Cooking a pizza is all about making all the ingredients come together so it tastes amazing. Some do it a lot better than others and Pizza is a lot cheaper.
For cables, There are conductors, drain wires, shielding, Airfilled tubes, different gauges, etc…. Then there’s the copper strands which can be very detailed and numerous and twisted. So much going on.
With pizza you have cheese and sauce and spices and the dough and it’s all mixed together with all kinds of variation. Ultimately the sauce makes or breaks the success of a pizza slice.
With audio cables, hi end Cable designers are endlessly trying different ways to do all this. In the end they find something that sounds kind of nice. They may not know exactly why it does sound the way it does.
So that’s my take on Pizza design and cable design.
*L* Another forum that starts off cheesy, chills, and everyone gets stuck and strung out....into cable consternation....yet again. @holmz ...cables as a very subtle form of eq....and brag rights, I suppose. I don't make claims to perfection, so feel no need to get involved..... "If it makes you happy, why are you so sad?" |
Nice post Jerry. Well - for me the unhappiness is that everyone is piling on with “just listen to it” like a “supreme” pizza where the majority of poster are the same toppings..
This could actually be a great thread if people talked about the dielectric and insulation material, voltage biasing, shielding, weave patterns, and even silver versus copper and solid versus stranded cables. Then we could actually have some adult conversation as to what/how these things might contribute to some sound signature. And whether those things are additive and act in a synchronised manner, or whether some negate the other. |
Anyone needing a rationale for experimenting with new cables in their system and/or feeling dissuaded by the Church of Denyin'tology's antiquated electrical doctrines: take heart! Many new electrical facts have been established in the past 100 years, that support audible differences, between various cables, etc. I couldn't find anything like, "Updated Electrical Theory For Idiots", but- did manage to find something resembling a cartoon, that even a child could follow. It neither mentions AC/sinusoidal waves in wires, nor does it go into the photon propagation of electromagnetic waves. It does, however, emphasize/demonstrate how Electrical Theory has progressed, since the 1800s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGJqykotjog The following presupposes a certain amount of knowledge, in the field of modern Electrical Theory. Click, "more" in the first link's first answer, to get it's entirety. Note how it mentions the OLD, "... commonly held misconception that the flow of electricity through a wire resembles a tube filled with ping pong balls...", to which most Denyin'tologists fervently adhere: and: https://van.physics.illinois.edu/ask/listing/2348 It's an established (measured) fact that an electromagnetic wave's propagation and speed, are dependent on the materials of which the transmission line (cable) are made (ie: Dielectric Constant/permittivity). The better (lower) the Dielectric Constant the better the flow and the longer it takes for that material, to become polarized. One reason anything that comprises an RLC circuit (ie: capacitors, cables, PC boards), takes time to, "form" or, "break/burn-in".* *Something that makes the Denyin'tologists apoplectic. https://resources.pcb.cadence.com/blog/2019-dielectric-constant-of-pcb-substrate- materials-and-signal-integrity and (note: frequency figures in EVERY equation and our typical music signal is comprised of a VERY complex mix of information/frequencies, potentially lending to multiple time smears, if not handled correctly): https://unlcms.unl.edu/cas/physics/tsymbal/teaching/EM-914/section5-Guided_Waves.pdf Even the most inane (regarding the Sciences) must admit; braiding and twisting wires eliminates/reduces EMI interference. That, of a necessity, lends credence to various cable geometries. That better dielectrics enhance the propagation of electromagnetic waves (ie: your music signal), lends the same credence to choosing cables with better materials (ie: Polypropylene, Teflon, air, etc). Of course: anything the Church of Denyin'tology's popes can't fathom, they'll summarily dismiss (uneducated twits that they are). To me: it appears a tad more complex than assembling the typical pizza (and I LOVE to cook)!. Happy listening and (as Richard Feynman would often encourage): NEVER STOP LEARNING! |
@rodman99999 am I correct to assume that you place the dielectric constant of the insulation as having a higher importance than the particular metal used? |
