That night and day thing the cable skeptics fear...

[Sovkiller]

I don't know what the source of noise is but my amp is dead quiet at any volume, my hepadhone amp is dead quiet as well using any DVD/CD player here, I have like three here (actually two, the third is a crappy Philips that I use to watch movies at bed and is horribly noisy)

[sejarzo]

Originally Posted by earwicker7

This is aimed at are the people who say "Power cords cannot possibly make any difference in sound." Due to this belief, they stop listening to reason.

Absolutely not. We do get tired listening to someone who has a perception or impression of a difference that goes on and on simply explaining that the perception exists, but stops there......and neither formulates a reasonable hypothesis as to why the difference exists, nor conducts an objective test to prove why the difference exists.

Truth be told, without such an approach used by scientists and engineers to weed out what really works and what only seems to work--and then understand why it works--you'd be lucky to be listening to music played from a wax cylinder with a steel pin.

But hey, at least then we'd not be having this debate.

Originally Posted by earwicker7

NIGHT--low levels of interference when turned up high enough
DAY--no levels of interference when turned up the same amount

Hardly night and day.

This is an honest question, no hidden agenda or anything......you have all that gear in your sig, but don't own a $7 DMM to do something as simple as check continuity (there is actually an unbelievably capable one on sale at Harbor Freight for $4 right now)....why not?

[dvw]

Originally Posted by yotacowboy

and for $hits and giggles, here's one of Shunyata's patents:

United States Patent: 6545213

How did you find this patent? That's very good work on finding it. Because the assignee is not Shunyata, I tried searching Shunyata in the assignee field and couldn't get any result.

Do they have any other patents of interest?

[Michael415]

Originally Posted by dvw

How did you find this patent? That's very good work on finding it. Because the assignee is not Shunyata, I tried searching Shunyata in the assignee field and couldn't get any result.

Do they have any other patents of interest?

Their website lists all their patents by number.

[Sovkiller]

Originally Posted by dvw

How did you find this patent? That's very good work on finding it. Because the assignee is not Shunyata, I tried searching Shunyata in the assignee field and couldn't get any result.

Do they have any other patents of interest?

Was this patent ever granted, to file for a patent is one thing, and to get it is another, all I see there is that they filed an application for the patent, but I could not find any place where is says it was granted...It is a little confusing though...

[sejarzo]

That is indeed a granted patent that three subsequent patents reference.

[Sovkiller]

Originally Posted by sejarzo

That is indeed a granted patent that three subsequent patents reference.

OK...

[Uncle Erik]

Originally Posted by earwicker7

Wow, people are really insistent about this being a ground issue

Again, I'm going to default to what a guy who makes amps for a living told me. He could have easily said "You have a ground issue" or whatever. Instead, the first thing he said when I described it to him was that he knew the sound I was speaking of, and it's noisy digital op-amps. He took me through all the steps you suggested and I determined he was right. I do think he thought I was anal, but he seemed to think it was a genuine issue.

This was never an issue of something like a ground loop, which is, IMO, something bad enough to ruin the experience of listening to music. It was something that I just accepted (like I accept a bit of hiss on vinyl) as a fault of CD players until I saw an ad for the Shunyata cord. Turns out I can try it for 30 days and return it if I don't like it. I've dealt with Music Direct and I know their "no questions asked" policy is rock solid; they've never complained about me returning stuff and don't try to talk me into just switching to another product.

I tried the product, and it did exactly what it said... reduce noise on digital equipment.

Wow.

Are you familiar with the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy? It's what lets you argue that water causes cancer because everyone who has cancer has had water at some time. Just because a ground loop was eliminated after changing a cable does not necessarily mean that the cable solved it. There are other factors involved.

You're probably dealing with a grounding issue of some type. Why not try dealing with it directly, as opposed to spending $1,800?

Patents don't necessarily mean that something works. Take a look at all the ones for quack medicine and other pseudoscience. The examiners mostly judge on whether the application violates prior art; not so much that the device does what is claimed.

[Pars]

Originally Posted by yotacowboy

and for $hits and giggles, here's one of Shunyata's patents:

United States Patent: 6545213

That patent, if valid, would seem to indicate that another company with PCs being ripped apart by kitties, seems to be in violation of said patent... unless of course they licensed it

To the OP's problem and solution: it is my belief that if a PC makes a difference, I would suspect there are issues with the PSU of the piece of equipment in question. The "noisy digital opamps" is a cop out. Proper application of bypassing and ground plane design, paying attention to loop lengths on the PCB and ground current return paths can remove this as an issue. Reference http://www.tentlabs.com/Components/X...decoupling.pdf for one example of an excellent article on the subject.

[earwicker7]

Originally Posted by sejarzo

This is an honest question, no hidden agenda or anything......you have all that gear in your sig, but don't own a $7 DMM to do something as simple as check continuity (there is actually an unbelievably capable one on sale at Harbor Freight for $4 right now)....why not?

Because I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about

What is this thing, why do I need one, and why is this the first time anyone has mentioned it in the 20 years I've been buying high-end equipment?

Honest question, no agenda