halcyon
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 21, 2002
- Posts
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Is the W2002 the only Audio Technica cable that has a separate wire going to each headphone cup?
It looks like all the other current models have a wire only going to the one side. Am I right?
In most cases this means a three cable construction with a shared ground. This can result (esp. with low impedance headphones) the signal from one channel coming back the wire of the other channel at inverted phase and reduced level.
Shared ground means that the channel crosstalk in the cable is going to be higher. In some cable geometries the crosstalk products could be only -30 dB below the signal level.
This can adversely affect sound quality, so I'm really interested in this.
I previously asked the same about Sony MDR CD3000. I found out (with the gracious help from bakhtiar) that it has a signal cable going to one cup only and the ground connection is shared between the channels.
I don't have crosstalk measurements for this headphone, but for Sony MDR V6 the crosstalk noise is quite bad (from audiophile / testing perspective). MDR-V6 has a measured impedance of roughly 63 Ohm. The upcoming W1000 has even lower impedance at 40 Ohms, so it might be even more susceptible to shared ground induced crosstalk.
I don't want to put down W1000 (I'm considering it myself), but this fact is slightly discomforting me. Of course, the final proof is in the pudding and not in theoretical speculation
I also found out that even most basic level sound cards offer crosstalk immunity of at least -80 dB throughout the whole audio band. This can be considred sufficient for most basic audio playback purposes, but perhaps not for recording/testing/archiving.
However, if the headphone cord and ground connections bring the crosstalk immunity to only -30 dB, it can be clearly audible even on very basic audio gear. That is, you don't need to be a 'golden ear' or to have high end equipment to hear this effect.
Please note also that this crosstalk is NOT similar and in some cases desirable like the crossfeed type crosstalk built into some headamps. Cable crosstalk is always detrimental to sound quality.
Best regards,
Halcyon
Refs:
1) Auditory mailing list measurement data for Sony MDR V6 headphone cable induced crosstalk
2) Crosstalk measurements for common sound cards at Digit-Life
3) Images of MDR CD3000 internal wire connections
It looks like all the other current models have a wire only going to the one side. Am I right?
In most cases this means a three cable construction with a shared ground. This can result (esp. with low impedance headphones) the signal from one channel coming back the wire of the other channel at inverted phase and reduced level.
Shared ground means that the channel crosstalk in the cable is going to be higher. In some cable geometries the crosstalk products could be only -30 dB below the signal level.
This can adversely affect sound quality, so I'm really interested in this.
I previously asked the same about Sony MDR CD3000. I found out (with the gracious help from bakhtiar) that it has a signal cable going to one cup only and the ground connection is shared between the channels.
I don't have crosstalk measurements for this headphone, but for Sony MDR V6 the crosstalk noise is quite bad (from audiophile / testing perspective). MDR-V6 has a measured impedance of roughly 63 Ohm. The upcoming W1000 has even lower impedance at 40 Ohms, so it might be even more susceptible to shared ground induced crosstalk.
I don't want to put down W1000 (I'm considering it myself), but this fact is slightly discomforting me. Of course, the final proof is in the pudding and not in theoretical speculation
I also found out that even most basic level sound cards offer crosstalk immunity of at least -80 dB throughout the whole audio band. This can be considred sufficient for most basic audio playback purposes, but perhaps not for recording/testing/archiving.
However, if the headphone cord and ground connections bring the crosstalk immunity to only -30 dB, it can be clearly audible even on very basic audio gear. That is, you don't need to be a 'golden ear' or to have high end equipment to hear this effect.
Please note also that this crosstalk is NOT similar and in some cases desirable like the crossfeed type crosstalk built into some headamps. Cable crosstalk is always detrimental to sound quality.
Best regards,
Halcyon
Refs:
1) Auditory mailing list measurement data for Sony MDR V6 headphone cable induced crosstalk
2) Crosstalk measurements for common sound cards at Digit-Life
3) Images of MDR CD3000 internal wire connections