A New Believer

No hyperbole-just scientific facts.

Sorry but to call a few meters of copper wire working at analog audio frequencies a complex load is pure hyperbole. And one does not even need a degree in electrical engineering to know this - because it is common knowledge.

However, snake oil and pseudo-science seem to have a stranglehold on the audio cables business. No doubt even mass retailers like Best Buy subscribes to this viewpoint because it is a nice kicker to sell $300 of cables (at 300% markup) with that CD and amplifier purchase (at 40% markup).

Shadorne:Interesting but the rise and fall time of the signal is relevant and therefore the impact of the impedance is also relevant even at "audio" frequencies. I suppose, by analogy you believe that there is no problem with CD sound because the 44.1 Khz meets the Nyquist criterean, and we cannot hear beyond 20 khz anyway, and that jitter and the steep Digital filter do not have effects on CD sound....

FYI the cables I suggested are, I believe, $80 an 8 foot pair more expensive than zip cord but I assure you better sounding and vastly cheaper than the hype out there.

Stops, I never said any of that. I simply took issue with the grossly inaccurate use of "complex load" to describe a few meters of copper wire at audio frequencies. It perpetuates the myth that cables are critical.

In our hobby in general, there is far too much exaggeration of the effects of cables when it is the active components (source, amplification) and passive components (speakers, crossover) and room (speaker placement, listening position, acoustics) that have, by several orders of magnitude, a much greater impact on the sound.

04-20-11: Stops
Shadorne: Interesting but the rise and fall time of the signal is relevant and therefore the impact of the impedance is also relevant even at "audio" frequencies.

Keep in mind that the risetimes and falltimes of the source material, the source component, the amplification, the speakers, and our ears are all limited, and with the exception of some amplification components do not extend into the rf region.

And even if "transmission line" or other cable effects that occur at rf or upper ultrasonic frequencies were somehow audible despite the limited bandwidth/risetime/falltime of everything else that is involved, there would seem to be no reason to expect those effects to be predictable, or to be consistent from system to system, or to be significantly correlated with price.

I certainly agree, though, that impedance can be important in analog audio cables. But the reason for that is because of the interaction of its constituents (resistance, inductance, capacitance) with the impedance and other characteristics of the components the cable is connecting. Those interactions are technically predictable. More importantly, pretty much any given set of impedance parameters is obtainable across most of the price spectrum.

Regards,
-- Al

Al: Thanks for the balanced comment. That is what I said in my original post. And that is why I recommended the Anti-cables. They are simple in construction and more likely to be a better match to the driving amplifier.