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A hard look at the effect of cables

Hey guys
A fellow EE audionut directed me to these articles and I thought some of you might be very interested to read them too. Two arguably qualified engineers went through the pains to take high quality measurements of the effect of cables and their interation with a complex electrical load, such as a full range loudspeaker, and with a complex signal, such as music. The link below is to the final installment but be sure to also read parts 4 and 5 very carefully. Part 5's Figures 6.8 and 6.9 are really amazing. I had never seen such measurements and they definitely seem to correlate with what we hear. The cables lengths are longer than normal but I think the point is well made. Hope you enjoy this read as much as I did.

http://www.planetanalog.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=202102592

Arthur
aball
sherod
1,690 posts
 
"Wire has acquired such magical properties in recent years that soon we will be able to eliminate speakers, amps, sources, etc. and the magical cables will make music all by themselves."

http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~argon/nanoradio/radio.html

psacanli
535 posts
 
I guess this is why Spectral had MIT design some cables for them. At least MIT demonstrates an appreciation of some of the basic interface problems when they provide for impedance matching? Not magic, just solid engineering features.
psacanli
535 posts
 
Knownothing, not to criticize but the jury is "definitely" 'not' out on the hi fi benefits of using a sub, and hasn't been for a very, very long time. JBL was making dedicated subs(350 & 460 in the early '80's if memory serves) that dramatically improved the mid & upper range clarity and dynamics for high quality full range speakers as well as enriching the bass response & quality. The level of quality available today is jaw dropping as is the ease of set up provided by the sophisticated units from Revel for example.
psacanli
535 posts
 
Arthur, thanks for providing the great post and link. If only more Audiogoners could only follow your example in brevity, clarity, usefullness and supporting documentation.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
my personal experience points to the source as having a significant affect upon the performance of a stereo system.

thus, the signal from a cd player passes through 2 interconnects and a preamp before it reaches the amplifier.
it is this link that has a greater audible impact than that of speaker cable, amp and speaker.

the signal fed to the amplifier is critical, for obvious reasons.
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