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wait...shouldnt we be able to just test the sound of cables????

post #1 of 20
8/13/11 at 7:42am
Thread Starter 

first of all this is a real question- it seems so silly though that i almost dont want to ask it.

 

its about wires, and whether they change sound... its pretty simple really - some people believe it, some dont.. so .. cant we just test this very easily with a computer??

heck we dont even need headphones, heck we dont even need to hear...

shouldnt it be as easy as, procuring 2 wires that are identical in every way except one is silver and one is copper-

then plugging one end into a audio source, and the other into a computer with software that reads extremely accurately frequency response, and other information relevant, and then comparing the date on the two?

 

even if there are some aspects that are not measurable, certainly there are enough that ARE VERY measurable that we should have at least SOME conclusive evidence? certainly enough to say yeh or nay?

am I way off base? what am I missing here?

I'm truly not here to start a flame war or be sarcastic..

 

thanks

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post #2 of 20
8/13/11 at 8:06am
Quote:

Originally Posted by Br777 View Post

 

I'm truly not here to start a flame war or be sarcastic..

 

 


Oh. Well then get lost! biggrin.gif

 

Actually what you propose has pretty much been done before.

 

No one's really been able to show that there's anything going on other than the rather mundane resistance, inductance and capacitance of the cable.

 

se

 

 

 

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post #3 of 20
8/13/11 at 8:07am
It should be, in fact Nick Charles on head-fi has been measuring many cables and all of them are flat within 0,01 dB.
A guy on a French forum also measured interconnects and absolutely no difference shows up before 1 Mhz.
As for THD+N, I seem to remember that nothing shows up above -130 dB below the signal (or possibly more).
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post #4 of 20
8/13/11 at 8:31am

Isnt there a thread about cables being measured? I started to read it once but it was full of ranting believers... I plan to run a test by myself in a future, by pure ear. but first I'd need to find cheap silver wires

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post #5 of 20
8/13/11 at 9:35am
Thread Starter 

so .. to put it simply (doges incoming flames)  as far as tests go.. as in computer tests, not by ear tests, nothing has been proven about differences in cables?

dont people claim to hear very clear changes in frequencies with cable changes?

I'm really just  trying to understand the basics here.  Are there other areas that arent being computer tested (that we are aware exist that is) that could account for the perceived differences?

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post #6 of 20
8/13/11 at 9:55am

Even if you do show there are measurable differences with cables, you then have to prove the link between that difference and audible sound quality differences.

 

No one has yet proved even the common claim that silver sounds brighter than copper is down to cable construction.

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post #7 of 20
8/13/11 at 10:12am


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Br777 View Post

so .. to put it simply (doges incoming flames)  as far as tests go.. as in computer tests, not by ear tests, nothing has been proven about differences in cables?

 



Nothing has been proven via ear tests either. :)

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post #8 of 20
8/13/11 at 11:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by n3rdling View Post


 



Nothing has been proven via ear tests either. :)


Though the consistent differences between sighted, blind comparison and ABX tests stringly suggests that sight and knowledge play a big part in perceived sound quality differences.

 

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post #9 of 20
8/13/11 at 12:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by JamesMcProgger View Post

Isnt there a thread about cables being measured? I started to read it once but it was full of ranting believers... I plan to run a test by myself in a future, by pure ear. but first I'd need to find cheap silver wires



yep, that was me,

 

http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/405217/my-cable-test-enterprise

 

apparently being able to measure cables to +/- 0.0034581% (0.003db)  is just not accurate enough - apparently a 0.00118% (0.0015db) difference anywhere between 20Hz and 20Khz is night and day  wink.gif

and such differences can be lost in quantization error

 

I trust you will be doing DBT ?

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post #10 of 20
8/13/11 at 2:14pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Br777 View Post

first of all this is a real question- it seems so silly though that i almost dont want to ask it.

 

<snip>

 

I'm truly not here to start a flame war or be sarcastic..

 

thanks

Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Eddy View Post

Oh. Well then get lost! biggrin.gif

 

<snip>

 


 

 

 kool_aid_oh_yeah.jpgShut-up-and-take-my-money.jpg

 



 

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post #11 of 20
8/13/11 at 2:21pm
Thread Starter 

all right, well as far as I'm concerned I pretty much got my answer.. whatever unravels from here i take no responsibility.

 

thanks all.

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post #12 of 20
8/13/11 at 9:43pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Br777 View Post

all right, well as far as I'm concerned I pretty much got my answer.. whatever unravels from here i take no responsibility.

 

thanks all.



Wait a minute... someone mark the date and time.  The shortest cable debate in history!  beerchug.gif

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post #13 of 20
8/13/11 at 9:56pm

not-again-cat.jpg Again?

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post #14 of 20
8/13/11 at 10:45pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Redcarmoose View Post


LOL.  You win this thread, ser.

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post #15 of 20
8/14/11 at 1:13am
I cannot think of the name of the software, but there is a program that is designed to compare audio gear. Hook in a cable or other item and it'll measure it against something else.

It's been out for a few years, yet no one has demonstrated a difference with a cable using it.

Probably because computers hate cables, are jealous of humans who can "hear" a difference and the fact that computers don't have the money to buy expensive cabling for their innards. Also, computers have cheap internal speakers that aren't good enough for the computer to hear a difference.
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