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My cable test enterprise - Page 12

post #166 of 437
2/16/09 at 12:19am
I wonder if a 50/500hz square wave would reveal greater evidence of signal modulation between cables? Whatever differences people claim to perceive between cables has to be hiding somewhere in there...
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post #167 of 437
2/16/09 at 1:40am
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by CompressionalFlagellation View Post
I wonder if a 50/500hz square wave would reveal greater evidence of signal modulation between cables? Whatever differences people claim to perceive between cables has to be hiding somewhere in there...
Square waves are part of my test CD I have a set from 10hz to 10khz. They are more of a test for CD player and ADC than they are for the cables. The upside is that they are far easier to align...
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post #168 of 437
2/16/09 at 1:49am
Quote:
Originally Posted by nick_charles View Post
Square waves are part of my test CD I have a set from 10hz to 10khz. They are more of a test for CD player and ADC than they are for the cables. The upside is that they are far easier to align...
Ah, thanks for clarifying that.

What a curious phenomenon this cable business has spawned.
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post #169 of 437
2/16/09 at 5:43am
Guys, I will soon finish to translate the article (maybe during this week or next week, because i have things to do, and to study) I recommend you give me a bit of time to finish doing the translation, and then you can read the whole article.

I think in the first 2 pages, for compresionall and nick will be enough to make things clear, however there will be another 18 (or so) to get to all aspects.
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post #170 of 437
2/16/09 at 11:24pm
Thread Starter 

Zu Oxyfuel Cymbals vs Stock cable

With many thanks to Maxvla I have a 0.5m Zu Oxyfuel on loan for testing. I ran the cymbals test and compared the results against the stock cable.

The max variation was 0.08db at 129hz and -54db, the average difference is 0.001408db.

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post #171 of 437
2/17/09 at 12:50am
Thread Starter 

Noise tests

These were done using a five second sample of digital silence and recorded back via the ADC. I ran the tests ( 10 trials) for both stocky and the Zu Oxyfuel.

Average Noise levels Stock -95.7975db.........Zu Oxyfuel -95.8598db

This is quite close to the theoretical noise levels for 16 bit systems



Low frequency noise pattern
---------------------------



I also did a few tests on my $2.11 Monoprice and the $60 Sidewinder. Interestingly each cable has a distinct noise pattern with specific low level spikes at different frequencies.

To place these noise figures in context, here is the noise juxtaposed against the cymbals crash.




In absolute terms the stock cable is the worst for noise with three low frequency spikes between -78 and -76db , how relevant this would be for normal music listening is arguable. Early tests suggest that the Monoprice is as good as the most expensive cables for noise, but I will need to run 10 trials.
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post #172 of 437
2/17/09 at 5:23am
Looks like the Zu was consistently lower than the stock in the 3 above pics, although I don't know if that is audible at all.
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post #173 of 437
2/17/09 at 1:06pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Maxvla View Post
Looks like the Zu was consistently lower than the stock in the 3 above pics, although I don't know if that is audible at all.
Averaged over the whole audio spectrum the stock cable was worse for noise by 0.0623 db. Since the average noise level was - 95db the overall difference may be functionally irrelevant. Though eventually I will do some ABX tests on the noise.

Average Noise levels Stock -95.7975db.........Zu Oxyfuel -95.8598db

This is a DA and AD loop using 16 bit technology so to average noise at close to -96db is pretty good, the Monoprice and Sidewinder did manage -96db.

But it is the difference that is interesting not the absolute values.

The real concern is the few noise spikes on the stock cable where the noise rises above -80db, this under really critical conditions may be audible.

However even the better cables (all of them) did the same thing with low frequency noise peaks at above -85db , from the spectra I think some of this is mains related , and also spikes in the 17K and 18K region - consistent across all cables.

I know I will hate myself for doing this but I am inclined to go for a better ADC (The Behringer is a truly impressive beastie for a $30 ADC but it is far from state of the art, though it does perform much better than its specs) to get the absolute values as low as possible.

I any case if noise is an issue the Monoprice matches the better cables for
$1.34 more
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post #174 of 437
2/22/09 at 1:27am
Thread Starter 

Listening tests

First I did listening tests on the noise samples for the Zu and the Stock cable. At normal listening levels the noise was inaudible. When I cranked the amp up to max on high gain I could hear noise in both samples.

A FooBar ABX revealed however that I could not tell the difference between them.

The Cymbals test (Stocky vs Sidewinder) ABX in FooBar, also negative, no better than chance.

10k Square wave test, a complete wash. Nothing even remotely apprpoaching a square wave was achieved by any cable. All were totally different as well with distinct eye patterns in the wave forms.Also the eye patterns were in a different place for each cable. They were so bad that there was no sensible way of comparing them.


500Hz square wave Tartan vs Sidewinder , max difference 0.04db average difference 0.002db. Blind test in Foobar null.
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post #175 of 437
2/22/09 at 7:05pm
Thanks for doing all this. I'm still keeping track of the thread even If I'm not posting. I'm not a cable believer so I suppose I'll only post if you find something to indicate cables do make a difference.
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post #176 of 437
2/22/09 at 8:15pm
Thread Starter 
Will silver coated copper behave the same way as solid silver ?

Silver coated is somewhat cheaper to try
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post #177 of 437
2/22/09 at 8:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nick_charles View Post
Will silver coated copper behave the same way as solid silver ?

Silver coated is somewhat cheaper to try
Had silver coated IC and HP cables. God they sucked. Made everything sound like dropping silverwear.
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post #178 of 437
2/22/09 at 10:00pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by olblueyez View Post
Had silver coated IC and HP cables. God they sucked. Made everything sound like dropping silverwear.
What about solid silver ?
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post #179 of 437
2/22/09 at 10:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by nick_charles View Post
What about solid silver ?
No experience there, I would imagine they would sound worse but what the hell do I know.
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post #180 of 437
2/23/09 at 5:39am
Well guys, sorry for the delay of the article, but the webmaster from the page seems to be occupied and has not uploaded the article yet.

Stay tuned because as soon as they release it I will start a thread at sound science for it.

BTW nick, with the cables you are testing we are dealing with noise frequencies around 80.000 Hz, you have to be some kind of super man to hear that stuff...
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