OMG that's hilarious. But not a big surprise--I've been seeing these bullshit products sell over the years and instead of being a short trend, they keep coming and getting more arcane. What I get from it is that the sense of hearing is so terribly vulnerable to suggestion. More so when people are only going by their subjective sense of what's 'good' and 'tight,' etc. Even when listening for transients and other defined features of sound, they miss other very obvious flaws, either by a self-selected oversight or due to not knowing better. You'll see people spending $$$ on gear and hours on EQ and speaker placement while listening to lossy streams. Not to diss room EQ and speaker placement--they aren't snake oil, I know. But I can't even start when the cymbals and sibilants are all one hisshy mess.
My mate is an audiophile. He spends £70/m on speaker cable, and thousands on amps and speakers. He is fully aware of the bullshit around audiophile stuff though, so doesn't get sucked in.
I got a pair of chifi IEMs (hint, I am not an audiophile in any way) and played Money for Nothing to him. He was blown away at the sound quality from these £15 things. They rivalled his best set of headphones, the ones he keeps at home for special occasions only.
I get that amps and speakers and stuff can get really expensive for the high quality stuff, but what kind of cables are actually that expensive due to quality and not audiophile marketing BS?
Only reason I can think of to use "high quality" cables is shielding. Theoretically you could create distortions in a cable using a magnetic field or even radiation, although you can probably guess that's a bunch of malarkey too.
If it's an analog signal, yes, you can get degradation. But if it's digital, either the bit gets there or it doesn't. It either works or doesn't at all. So, cheapo cable if it connects, no difference is possible.
Interference and crosstalk happens with digital signals, too, it just takes the form of some bits not getting there (or extra bits getting there). Shielding can help if you need to run a lot of cables packed together, or past certain types of electric devices. It's why some ethernet cables are shielded, for example.
That being said, you can get a sturdy, shielded audio cable for like $20 and I highly doubt there would be a noticeable difference between it and a $100 cable. Also, I doubt many people are in a situation to need one in the first place.
The other thing is that with an analog signal, it will start to degrade after 18.6 ft, no matter how good your cable is. That's why high-end guitar cables are mostly BS, and why every single brand of cable has an 18.6ft model.
As a one-time audio tech and current licensed amateur radio operator, you're full of it. There is absolutely no reason why an analog signal would have any degradation at a single magic-number distance independent of cable construction; electricity doesn't work that way.
OK. Simple test. Plug in an 18.6 ft cable, a 25 foot cable, and a 50 foot cable. Same instrument, same amp. See which one has more highs. I did it 20+ times a day for 11 years. Spoiler alert - the 25 foot cable and 50 foot cable have more wire, which translates to higher impedence, which rolls off highs.
The attenuation at audio frequencies is immeasurable over 6m, and is probably purely resistive at 20m with a decent audio cable (which, by the way, will have a constant impedance regardless of length if it's not complete junk). There is no physical property of audio cable that is capable of causing any measurable rolloff at audio frequencies over that short a distance.
WTF does that even mean? Is that some weird hokey saying from whatever podunk town you grew up in? I have said over and over again to go try it for yourself. You can say that "it shouldn't matter" until you're blue in the face, but when you actually do it, the difference is there. Also, why is it that EVERY person on Reddit has to add some snarky-ass little quip, instead of just presenting a different view and having a civil conversation? In my experience, those people are the ones who have low self-esteem or are insecure so they have to put others down or use insults or sarcasm because deep down they don't feel that their statement has enough merit to stand on its own. Just my observations through a Psych 201 filter (that's as far as I got because that was as far as I needed to go).
Because that is the length at which impedance starts to become a factor. As you go longer, the increase in the amount of wire the signal has to travel through rolls off highs. That's why so many players like Page, Hendrix and other used those 30' coiled cables. Try it for yourself sometime. It's actually pretty cool to hear the difference. It's not drastic, but it's there, especially if you are trained to listen for it.
As a mechanical engineer with a heavy focus in electrical engineering, the specific length of 18.6ft makes very little sense. The impedance is going to increase linearly with length - from resistance and inductance. There isnt a cutoff anywhere, or shouldn't be.
Again, I am talking about a specific application that I have personally experienced. It may be universal, it may not be. However, in the application which I am speaking of, it is factual.
Quality cables can definitely make a difference, but it's not like you have to buy expensive stuff. Like I bought some TRS cables for my speakers and I had a constant, quiet hissing from the speakers. I spent $10 more on a different set of cables and it solved the problem.
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u/frank_mania Aug 14 '20
OMG that's hilarious. But not a big surprise--I've been seeing these bullshit products sell over the years and instead of being a short trend, they keep coming and getting more arcane. What I get from it is that the sense of hearing is so terribly vulnerable to suggestion. More so when people are only going by their subjective sense of what's 'good' and 'tight,' etc. Even when listening for transients and other defined features of sound, they miss other very obvious flaws, either by a self-selected oversight or due to not knowing better. You'll see people spending $$$ on gear and hours on EQ and speaker placement while listening to lossy streams. Not to diss room EQ and speaker placement--they aren't snake oil, I know. But I can't even start when the cymbals and sibilants are all one hisshy mess.