That night and day thing the cable skeptics fear... - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

earwicker7 · 03-27-2008, 06:13 PM

I've found it... the holy grail of power cables, one that makes a difference so audible a semi-deaf person could hear it!

As many of you know, even the best digital circuits on CD Players are somewhat noisy. No matter how good your power supply, amps, headphones, interconnects, etc., there is usually going to be some digital interference noise if you run a CD player. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, do the following... make sure you have your CD player selected as the input. Power up the CD player, but don't play anything. Crank the volume up all the way. You're going to hear a hissing sound, and it's going to be fairly loud. "So what?" you're thinking... "I never crank my amp up all the way, I'd go deaf!" Well, dial it back to your normal listening level and, now that you know what you're listening for, you should still be able to hear it without straining too much.

I had come to the conclusion that this was just something I had to live with. I tried switching from the stock power cable to the cheapest Cardas cable; there may have been a difference, but I couldn't hear it. I knew that the very lowest of low level details was disappearing in this hiss, and I just had to let life go on. Then I saw something in the Music Direct catalog that peaked my interest. Shunyata makes a power cable with a patented (not the "proprietary" stuff the skeptics always make fun of) digital noise reduction compound added to the cable. It was really expensive, but Music Direct offers a 30 day "no questions asked" return policy, so I figured "What the hell?" I had returned a few things that I didn't like and they quickly gave me the money back.

Interested in playing around with the placebo effect, I decided to not test the hiss level right away, as this would be too easy. Instead, I listened to some music that I knew well to see if it sounded different. The main thing I noticed was that the decay of the notes on well recorded piano CDs was much more evident. Hmm, seems like the low level detail is indeed more apparent, which led me to believe that there was less of that digital noise involved. But again, at this point it could have certainly been placebo. So, I then did the hiss test. At the halfway point, where hiss was normally fairly apparent, there was dead silence. At the full point, where hiss was normally LOUD, there was a tiny bit, but it was literally a whisper, probably 5% of the original volume.

I think this is about as close to you can get to proof that the "Power cables can't possibly effect the sound" belief is wrong. This is the proverbial night and day proof skeptics have claimed they would never see. It's not (as they like to dismissively call it) "flowery language" like more weight, more air between instruments, etc. This is digital noise disappearing to the point that it is only BARELY audible if you crank your amp up all the way. Maybe some skeptics will be unable to give up the ghost and say that high levels of noise won't obscure low level details, but unless you believe this a**-backward nuttiness, I think the debate has just been settled.

Vul Kuolun · 03-27-2008, 06:52 PM

Would be interesting, if the noise you get from turning up the volume hadn't its origin most likely in the amp, not in the cdp.

While not playing anything, your CDP will in all likelyhood completely mute his outputs, so the noise you heard could probably have been from nearly everywhere, except the CDP.

Placebo can be realy amazing, don't you think?

bigshot · 03-27-2008, 06:54 PM

Edit: Sorry... I scanned the first time through. I went back and read that second paragraph more closely. Vul Kuolun is absolutely right. Any hiss when a CD player isn't playing anything is a result of the amp, not the CD player. Cabling would make absolutely no difference.

Original response: I don't think anyone claims that cables can't affect the sound. Sure, a cable could be designed that would hobble the high or low end. However, if a cable is designed to conduct properly and is reasonably well built, it will perform exactly the same as any other properly designed and well built cable.

The cable you've got there seems to be attenuating the high frequencies where the hiss lies. A tone control would do basically the same thing, with the added advantage of being adjustable.

See ya
Steve

Tarkovsky · 03-27-2008, 06:55 PM

Ouch.

soundfreq · 03-27-2008, 06:58 PM

as the other camp would say: that's not DBT! I want my DBT!

earwicker7 · 03-27-2008, 06:59 PM

Originally Posted by Vul Kuolun

Would be interesting, if the noise you get from turning up the volume hadn't its origin most likely in the amp, not in the cdp.

While not playing anything, your CDP will in all likelyhood completely mute his outputs, so the noise you heard could probably have been from nearly everywhere, except the CDP.

Placebo can be realy amazing, don't you think?

Nope, doesn't happen with any other inputs, only when the CD Player is running.

Denial can be realy amazing, don't you think?

UseName · 03-27-2008, 07:01 PM

Perhaps you have a ground loop...

earwicker7 · 03-27-2008, 07:12 PM

Originally Posted by bigshot

I don't think anyone claims that cables can't affect the sound. Sure, a cable could be designed that would hobble the high or low end. However, if a cable is designed to conduct properly and is reasonably well built, it will perform exactly the same as any other properly designed and well built cable.

The cable you've got there seems to be attenuating the high frequencies where the hiss lies. A tone control would do basically the same thing, with the added advantage of being adjustable.

See ya
Steve

Please, there are TONS of people that claim power cords can't affect sound

. They've heckled almost every post I've made about them.

The cable isn't doing anything negative to the high frequencies; I've heard that this can be a problem with power cords that use ferrite, but this isn't one of them. The high frequencies are still there, and in some cases where they are at a low level (dB wise) show up much more, as they aren't competing with the digital interference anymore.

Vul Kuolun · 03-27-2008, 07:14 PM

Originally Posted by earwicker7

Nope, doesn't happen with any other inputs, only when the CD Player is running.

Denial can be realy amazing, don't you think?

What do you mean with "running"? Connected? Switched on? CD playing a "digital zero"-signal?

And your amp does not give any hiss with any other input with a device connnected?

Did you check for ground loops?

earwicker7 · 03-27-2008, 07:17 PM

Originally Posted by UseName

Perhaps you have a ground loop...

I can't be the only person here who knows about the digital noise thing, am I?

There's nothing wrong with my system, it's a well known (well, it should be

) fact that digital circuits are highly succeptible to picking up interference and this noise shows up on a really resolving system. At least it did until I put the Shunyata on; now it's virtually gone.