Audio cable reveals distortion

[tongson]

Apologies if this is very basic knowledge. Noob here, first post too.

I recently acquired a higher quality 3.5mm audio cable for my headphone. Noticed that when listening to this mp3 file I hear very audible distortion starting around 00:21. Swapping back the cheap/stock cable I do not hear the distortion.

Can anybody confirm that they hear the distortion too? Is this because the higher quality cable lets you hear more detail and reveals the low quality encoding of the mp3? Thanks a lot.

[james.miller]

there's some quite heavy distortion throughout that track, its bad just after 8 seconds in. this is using an old JVC amp (past it, lots of background noise) and a pair of GenEXXA monitors(pro x7's, awesome little speakers), connected to the soundcard using a standard 10m 3.5mm > stereo rca lead (the pc is pretty far away from my desk). i cant believe a single headphone cable would be enough to veil that amount of distortion

[tongson]

Originally Posted by james.miller

there's some quite heavy distortion throughout that track, its bad just after 8 seconds in. this is using an old JVC amp (past it, lots of background noise) and a pair of GenEXXA monitors(pro x7's, awesome little speakers), connected to the soundcard using a standard 10m 3.5mm > stereo rca lead (the pc is pretty far away from my desk). i cant believe a single headphone cable would be enough to veil that amount of distortion

Thank you very much for trying it out James. Cheers.

[tongson]

Made a few more tests. The cable upgrade also reveals the very bad sound output of my Dell D620 (Intel HDA Sigmatel). Track 5 (Let Down) of Radiohead's OK Computer has distortion throughout.

Playing the track on my desktop PC with a Creative PCI128 CT4700 (an Ensoniq 1370 inside) produces no distortion although the card has a wavy hiss at ~0dB gain. Probably because of the power supply.

[infinitesymphony]

Creative SB PCI128? That's oldschool. 'bout time for a source upgrade.