RCA cables

[RobinKidderminster]

I cant really comment on the validity of this test but if it was really THAT easy and THAT obvious ............

 

[Glacialpath]

Here is a link to the audio of an experiment I did with my Guitar rig.

https://soundcloud.com/the-cable-madman/sets

If youo can see the wave form is in 4 sections. Again there is little difference between the 1st quater where I have changed the mains cable to a Chord Company Superscreen and added the TCI Constricter in too. There is a bit more of a difference between the 2nd and 3rd quarters where I change the head to cab lead from my cheap one to the Chord Comapany Head to Cab lead they are currntly lending me.

If you let the first quarter play then jump to the last quater you will hear the biggest difference. The last quater is where I have added my Chord Company Cream cable between my guitar and Amp head also with the Chord Head to Cab cable, mains cable and TCI mains block

 

[BenLaw]

Here is my evidence what do you think guys?

http://s102.photobucket.com/user/Glacialpath/story/28505

You can see the tail end of the first sound bite which was an Alter Bridge song, then an Aerosmith song in the middle of the 3 wave forms then a Deathmetal song by a band called Nile. The top wave form is my system playing these songs with cheap skinny back mains cables and interconnects and without my DAC in place. There isn't much visible difference against the 2nd wave form of the same 3 songs with the only addition being my DACMagic 1 but to my ears there was much more body and punch to the tracks telling me the DAC magic is much better than the DAC in my CD player which is a Delta Sigma DAC.

The 3rd Purple wave form is my system playing the same songs with the DAC and all my Chord Company cables connecting up the Hi-Fi. Nothing was done to the recorder (Zoom 4) for each take. As you can see it set up on my bed. There it stayed and I just started and stopped it recording each time I changed the Hi-Fi or added the cables.

There is a visible difference in the width from the 2nd to 3rd wave form showing the cables allowd more information to come through and output a stronger signal.

If that isn't proof enough cables make a difference then I don't know what is.

This is positive and a genuine attempt to demonstrate a difference. I would need to see it replicated before I bought into it but it is useful evidence. (It is fundamental to scientific experiments that they are repeatable by anybody anywhere.)

Chris

Admittedly I can't zoom in on my phone, but it just looks louder to me. That's all an 'increased width' is.

 

[Vladimir]

@Glacialpath

When you made the recording of the stock cables vs the audiophile ones, did you record the same song playing two times with the stock cables and match the waveforms to check for differences?

 

[TrevC]

Here is a link to the audio of an experiment I did with my Guitar rig.

https://soundcloud.com/the-cable-madman/sets

If youo can see the wave form is in 4 sections. Again there is little difference between the 1st quater where I have changed the mains cable to a Chord Company Superscreen and added the TCI Constricter in too. There is a bit more of a difference between the 2nd and 3rd quarters where I change the head to cab lead from my cheap one to the Chord Comapany Head to Cab lead they are currntly lending me.

If you let the first quarter play then jump to the last quater you will hear the biggest difference. The last quater is where I have added my Chord Company Cream cable between my guitar and Amp head also with the Chord Head to Cab cable, mains cable and TCI mains block

Mains foo only muddies the waters, don't bother with stuff that can't change anything.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

You seem to be recording differences that others.including cable compankes cant. Maybe the scientific method is flawed? Good effort CableMadMan.

 

[ISAC69]

Here is my evidence what do you think guys?

http://s102.photobucket.com/user/Glacialpath/story/28505

You can see the tail end of the first sound bite which was an Alter Bridge song, then an Aerosmith song in the middle of the 3 wave forms then a Deathmetal song by a band called Nile. The top wave form is my system playing these songs with cheap skinny back mains cables and interconnects and without my DAC in place. There isn't much visible difference against the 2nd wave form of the same 3 songs with the only addition being my DACMagic 1 but to my ears there was much more body and punch to the tracks telling me the DAC magic is much better than the DAC in my CD player which is a Delta Sigma DAC.

The 3rd Purple wave form is my system playing the same songs with the DAC and all my Chord Company cables connecting up the Hi-Fi. Nothing was done to the recorder (Zoom 4) for each take. As you can see it set up on my bed. There it stayed and I just started and stopped it recording each time I changed the Hi-Fi or added the cables.

There is a visible difference in the width from the 2nd to 3rd wave form showing the cables allowd more information to come through and output a stronger signal.

If that isn't proof enough cables make a difference then I don't know what is.

+1 :cheer:

 

[abacus]

Here is my evidence what do you think guys?

http://s102.photobucket.com/user/Glacialpath/story/28505

You can see the tail end of the first sound bite which was an Alter Bridge song, then an Aerosmith song in the middle of the 3 wave forms then a Deathmetal song by a band called Nile. The top wave form is my system playing these songs with cheap skinny back mains cables and interconnects and without my DAC in place. There isn't much visible difference against the 2nd wave form of the same 3 songs with the only addition being my DACMagic 1 but to my ears there was much more body and punch to the tracks telling me the DAC magic is much better than the DAC in my CD player which is a Delta Sigma DAC.

The 3rd Purple wave form is my system playing the same songs with the DAC and all my Chord Company cables connecting up the Hi-Fi. Nothing was done to the recorder (Zoom 4) for each take. As you can see it set up on my bed. There it stayed and I just started and stopped it recording each time I changed the Hi-Fi or added the cables.

There is a visible difference in the width from the 2nd to 3rd wave form showing the cables allowd more information to come through and output a stronger signal.

If that isn't proof enough cables make a difference then I don't know what is.

Good attempt, but unfortunately the resolution of the photo is too low to make any meaningful comparison.

If you could post a higher resolution photo it would help greatly.

Bill

 

[MUSICRAFT]

atc. ?

Hi ISAC69

Very funny

and to think i was going to be even nicer to you

Anyway you're a legend

and i love it

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

The power of subliminal messaging.

Hi Vladimir

He's alright.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Hi Rick

I respect your selling attitude but I can assure you that I am working with a honest dealer and I did hear major differnece between cables

I started with basic ones than made some upgrades till I got the natural , neutral and detailed sound I wanted with the Tellurium Q cables . it took me a long time and efforts to find the cables I wanted .

Wish you all the best .

Hi ISAC69

Thanks. I appreciate it.

Anyway you're alright :cheers:

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[Glacialpath]

Good attempt, but unfortunately the resolution of the photo is too low to make any meaningful comparison.

If you could post a higher resolution photo it would help greatly.

Bill

Hi Bill. I did try and get a screen shot from my PC but couldn't work ouot how. Anyway here is a link to my Cable Madman Facebook page where I have posted the photo again. you should be able to see it nice and clear when you click on the picture in the post.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=669525796427977&set=pcb.669532769760613&type=1&theater

Cheers

 

[Glacialpath]

Admittedly I can't zoom in on my phone, but it just looks louder to me. That's all an 'increased width' is.

That is a very valid point. It dose just look louder. I can say on hear that the music was much clearer but that relies on you guys taking my word for it an I appriciate that's not proof enough. I will try it again with some of my own music which means I should be able to post the audio up on sound cloud. I couldn't with these samples as copyright lwas come in to play.

 

[Glacialpath]

@Glacialpath

When you made the recording of the stock cables vs the audiophile ones, did you record the same song playing two times with the stock cables and match the waveforms to check for differences?

Good question Vladimir.

I only recorded each song snipit once for each Hi-Fi configuration so 3 passes in total for each song. I will do the experiment again using music I have written and recorded myself and I will record each snipit 2 times to try and discount any varyations as you suggest I will include the sound of the CD being set back to the beginning of the track too and mayby my voice stating Take 1 and Take 2.

I was hoping to post the audio along with the picture last time but can't for copyright reasons of course and I wanted to keep the sound bites short so as not to bore people. I should be able to post a link to the audio with my own music though.

 

[Native_bon]

Here is my evidence what do you think guys?

http://s102.photobucket.com/user/Glacialpath/story/28505

You can see the tail end of the first sound bite which was an Alter Bridge song, then an Aerosmith song in the middle of the 3 wave forms then a Deathmetal song by a band called Nile. The top wave form is my system playing these songs with cheap skinny back mains cables and interconnects and without my DAC in place. There isn't much visible difference against the 2nd wave form of the same 3 songs with the only addition being my DACMagic 1 but to my ears there was much more body and punch to the tracks telling me the DAC magic is much better than the DAC in my CD player which is a Delta Sigma DAC.

The 3rd Purple wave form is my system playing the same songs with the DAC and all my Chord Company cables connecting up the Hi-Fi. Nothing was done to the recorder (Zoom 4) for each take. As you can see it set up on my bed. There it stayed and I just started and stopped it recording each time I changed the Hi-Fi or added the cables.

There is a visible difference in the width from the 2nd to 3rd wave form showing the cables allowd more information to come through and output a stronger signal.

If that isn't proof enough cables make a difference then I don't know what is.

yea good enough. But can you hear the difference?

 

[BenLaw]

Admittedly I can't zoom in on my phone, but it just looks louder to me. That's all an 'increased width' is.

That is a very valid point. It dose just look louder. I can say on hear that the music was much clearer but that relies on you guys taking my word for it an I appriciate that's not proof enough. I will try it again with some of my own music which means I should be able to post the audio up on sound cloud. I couldn't with these samples as copyright lwas come in to play.

If it was louder it would sound clearer.

 

[Native_bon]

Admittedly I can't zoom in on my phone, but it just looks louder to me. That's all an 'increased width' is.

That is a very valid point. It dose just look louder. I can say on hear that the music was much clearer but that relies on you guys taking my word for it an I appriciate that's not proof enough. I will try it again with some of my own music which means I should be able to post the audio up on sound cloud. I couldn't with these samples as copyright lwas come in to play.

If it was louder it would sound clearer.

REALLY?

 

[Vladimir]

Admittedly I can't zoom in on my phone, but it just looks louder to me. That's all an 'increased width' is.

That is a very valid point. It dose just look louder. I can say on hear that the music was much clearer but that relies on you guys taking my word for it an I appriciate that's not proof enough. I will try it again with some of my own music which means I should be able to post the audio up on sound cloud. I couldn't with these samples as copyright lwas come in to play.

If it was louder it would sound clearer.

REALLY?

Yes. Amplifiers with higher gain in the preamp, going louder earlier on the volume knob, are more popular buy and favorite with reviewers. An extra +3db louder in the preamp is a big sell with amplifiers, giving the fake impression of punchier, clearer, more dynamic, PRAT! Human hearing is not linear, I'm sure you know that, you probably heard of the Fletcher-Munson curves.

Naim amps have so much excess gain, they sufficate in noise. The difference between the Caspian and the Kandy is +3db gain in the preamp for the Caspian. Guess which sounds clearer, punchier, "more powerfull despite the power specs".

Ahahahahaahaha

 

[Glacialpath]

yea good enough. But can you hear the difference?

You would have to take my word for it. Yes you can hear the audio is much clearer and easier to understand just buy putting my Chord cables on my system.

For the last ten years my job has been using my ears and eyes to spot errors during the manufacture of DVD and BD discs. Some of which you may have in your collection. People used to come to me or ask me to listen to their headphones/surround sound system in our QC suites to confirm if there was an audio issue if it wasn't obviouse. It would then go back to the sound department where they could see the issue on the wave form and correct it.

Granted some tings got through but not because we didn't report them. It was down to the client budget and secs.

 

[ISAC69]

cable is a conductive a good cable will allow more information to come through and output a stronger signal.[/b]

 

[ReValveiT]

So expensive cables have now taken on an amazing ability to act as volume controls?

Quick someone alert the manufacturers. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to use this new-found ability in their foo-vertising!

 

[andyjm]

cable is a conductive a good cable will allow more information to come through and output a stronger signal.[/b]

Cables do not work in isolation, they are part of a circuit that includes the output impedance of the source and the input impedance of the amp.

Home audio systems are not impedance matched, the source impedance is a few tens of ohms, the amp input impedance in the order of 10K ohms or so. A typical screened audio cable will be a handful of ohms, so a rudimentary understanding of ohms law would illustrate that even if the resistance of the cable was to double or halve, it would make no noticable difference to the signal level received by the amplifier.

So absent a duff cable, whatever you are doing to change the level isn't as a result of swapping the cable.

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Browsing several cable manufacturers web sites (a bit sad but just havin' a cuppa) there are no charts or claims supporting these kinds of measurements and differences between cables. Most claims are vague and frequently refer to flexibility and even attractive looks. I dont like to negate efforts to measure properties scientifically I do think that if these kinds of measurements were repeatable then manufacturers would be the first to show differences in signal transmission in their cables. Maybe they do sound different but surely these measurements are flawed in some way.

 

[ReValveiT]

Browsing several cable manufacturers web sites (a bit sad but just havin' a cuppa) there are no charts or claims supporting these kinds of measurements and differences between cables. Most claims are vague and frequently refer to flexibility and even attractive looks. I dont like to negate efforts to measure properties scientifically I do think that if these kinds of measurements were repeatable then manufacturers would be the first to show differences in signal transmission in their cables. Maybe they do sound different but surely these measurements are flawed in some way.

Indeed.

Unless a really bad cable was used against that Chord, and when I say bad, I mean absolutely not fit for any purpose, then there is no way on earth they could be producing volume differences of such magnitude. Nowhere near.

A better test would be to simply run your source (CD player, streamer etc.) straight into a PC using something like Soundforge to record using the different cables. I would bet my head there would be nowhere near those kinds of differences unless you're using a really terrible cable as your 'cheaper end' sample.

Something is flawed in that test.

 

[abacus]

Good attempt, but unfortunately the resolution of the photo is too low to make any meaningful comparison.

If you could post a higher resolution photo it would help greatly.

Bill

Hi Bill. I did try and get a screen shot from my PC but couldn't work ouot how. Anyway here is a link to my Cable Madman Facebook page where I have posted the photo again. you should be able to see it nice and clear when you click on the picture in the post.

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=669525796427977&set=pcb.669532769760613&type=1&theater

Cheers

Much better but still not quite as I would like, however the difference in amplitude (Volume) definitely shows up, (Although without a frame of reference it is difficult to say by how much) but the actual waveforms themselves appear to remain the same. (Differences may be visible at a higher resolution)

Assuming nothing else had changed, then even 1db can be perceived by the human ear when compared against one another in close succession, so I would say the resistance between the cables is definitely different (This is down to CSA) and if you measured their resistance you would find that the cables with the highest volume will have the lowest resistance. (And probably the largest CSA as well), however because the waveform has not changed (From what I can see) the main sound characteristics are identical for all cables, therefore once the volume discrepancies are removed, you would not hear any difference between them.

Thanks for posting, as it’s good to see someone that is actually prepared to try and quantify what they hear.

Bill

 

[CnoEvil]

Thanks for posting, as it’s good to see someone that is actually prepared to try and quantify what they hear.

100% agree.

There is nobody keener than me to see someone to prove that cables make an audible difference.....but I'm very aware that an increase in volume will make the sound appear more dramatic. So you need to know that you are not just measuring a louder signal.

@ Glacialpath

Keep up the good work.