My cable test enterprise - Page 28

I'm getting the impression that much of the issues that people are putting down to jitter are really other electrical problems instead.  I think jitter has become a catch-all word for these things.

Indeed, a <50ps jitter means that the signal path is as short and clean as can be...I don't recall where I read it exactly, but a noisy ground/interferences are said to increase jitter drastically. I think I also read that there's an audiophile company licensing TC's "jetPLL" audio band jitter attenuation technology in their DAC.

You can find zillions raving reviews about TC's BMC-2/Konnekt 6 and they're using a pretty good DAC from AKM, the only problem is the cheapo opamps...NJM2068 isn't what I would call audiophile grade by any stretch of the imagination(try OPA827/OPA1641). Pro-audio gear does more than audiophile equipment for less, but they use nasty sounding SMPS PSU's and cheapo dual opamps...can't get it all I guess.

The audiophile market is too much of a niche for TC to bother, plus swappable opamps/PSU's mean more RMA in the end because of careless ppl plugging them the wrong way. And stubborn design engineers refuse to believe that every opamp adds its own coloration to the sound...a 2134/5532(and at best 4562) is all that's required in their opinion(look at the Benchmark DAC-1).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Currawong 

I'm getting the impression that much of the issues that people are putting down to jitter are really other electrical problems instead.  I think jitter has become a catch-all word for these things.

It is one suggestion after another for supposed causes of audible differences, which few want to actually test using their ears alone, yet find the space to accuse others of being somehow deaf and unable to enjoy music.

Indeed, it is worth pointing out that this thread was about frequency testing of analogue cables, jitter has been trolled (which Currawong is something I know you do not like happening) into the thread to introduce another distraction to get away from having to answer the really difficult question

- is any of this actually audible?

- can we tell the differences with our ears alone?

The answer so far is unlikely and no.

Originally Posted by Prog Rock Man 

 

this thread was about frequency testing of analogue cables

The very basic FR measurements that have been posted in this thread so far wouldn't allow to differentiate a rusty coat hanger from a solid UPOCC silver wire....and saying that both would sound the same is ludicrous, to say the least.

Yeah, this was a bait to the legendary "coat hanger Vs Monster cable" shootout, thank you for pointing it out. Most likely run in a non-acoustically corrected room, so the inoccent victims of this test were listening to the room more than to the cables. Also, it's rather clear that analytical headphones will always provide a much clearer and less distorted sound than the aforementioned test conditions.

So what we've learned is that anything that conducts electricity will always sound identical, oh my...what a breakthrough

skin effect = snake oil

intra-pair skew = snake oil
inter-pair skew = snake oil
Far End Crosstalk(FEXT) = snake oil

Shielding from EMI/RFI = who needs it?

Basically, it's been thorougly and empirically shown(and also double proofed, w/ hands tied in the back) that we could use the most impure iron alloy to transport audio...it doesn't matter *whatsoever*. I see a great business scheme here, someone shall start selling HDMI 1.4 cables made out of rusty recycled coat hangers...much like the ppl who turn antique phones into cell phone hands-free kits. The anti-technology approach has its charms, I'll give you that.

Seriously, we could make millions

Originally Posted by nick_charles 

 

earlier in this thread I sent one of the members a copy of a test file and a copy of the same file that had gone through a D---A----D process where I recorded the anlog output of a CD player playing the file. The recipient was unable to detect the extra A/D stage, just as Uncle Ivor back in the 80s..

OK, shoot! Just so you know, I passed this test successfully: http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/502889/so-who-can-abx-this-recording-from-the-source#post_6790330

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry 

The audiophile market is too much of a niche for TC to bother, plus swappable opamps/PSU's mean more RMA in the end because of careless ppl plugging them the wrong way. And stubborn design engineers refuse to believe that every opamp adds its own coloration to the sound...a 2134/5532(and at best 4562) is all that's required in their opinion(look at the Benchmark DAC-1).

There isn't sufficient evidence to claim all opamps sound different.  For the DAC-1 design the 5532 actually provided the best results based on the circuit implementation.

Quote:

Originally Posted by leeperry 

Yeah, this was a bait to the legendary "coat hanger Vs Monster cable" shootout, thank you for pointing it out. Most likely run in a non-acoustically corrected room, so the inoccent victims of this test were listening to the room more than to the cables. Also, it's rather clear that analytical headphones will always provide a much clearer and less distorted sound than the aforementioned test conditions.

 

.......

Whether the room was acoustically treated or not is another of your distraction arguments. So long as the room was the same for all, there is no issue.

Your comment about only analytical headphones leans towards the 'buy high end kit and you will hear the difference' argument of buyer justification. However that fails because forget Monster vs Coat Hanger and consider Monster vs Opus MM ($33,000 worth of cable) which also was indistinguishable.

How about a coathanger-based interconnect vs. something else?

What a colossal waste of bandwidth and space, not to mention time.  IMHO  

Quote:

Originally Posted by nick_charles 

You are of course entitled to your opinion. Others might consider 303 posts dedicated to the "sound" of capacitors unverified by any real listening test to be a similar waste or the hundreds of posts elsewhere dedicated to the unverified sound of different RCA, digital and even USB cables a similar waste, you pays yer money and yer takes yer choice.

Yes, black holes disturb the space-time continuum.  
 

Thanks Nick, that's excellent.  Now just type it up in LaTeX and publish it! 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kwkarth 

What a colossal waste of bandwidth and space, not to mention time.  IMHO  

That's a pretty inappropriate thing for an admin to say about the dedication and careful effort displayed in this thread from one of Head-Fi's better contributors. Not to mention the other members who provided feedback and volunteered their own cables for this. IMHO too, of course. I for one value the research that's been done here.