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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
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.
Ag insider logo xs@2x
knownothing
1,584 posts
 
Psacanli, It's OK to criticize, but I don't have to agree. My limited experience is that subwoofers are not embraced by the all members of the audiophile community. Can they enhance bass response and overall system performance? YES. Are they easy to match with your system and room and set up to create coherent and musical reproduction? NO. Just my opinion, but I know it is shared by at least a few other dinosaurs.

PS - I own a subwoofer in my HT set up, and it enhances reproduction of both soundtracks and music. But it isn't perfect and I am not pining to add one to my modest hi fi-only set up, even though bass response is far from Full Spectrum. Maybe I should check out the Revel model you mentioned...
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