[Ctn]

Has any tried these cables?

I took a 0.5m pair home to try out.
It sounds similar to the cheap Concord interconnects but treble is cleaner and more "there".

Does anyone else listened to these?

I would like to hear what you thinkg

CT out

 

[KrunchyK]

Hi CTN,

I know that you are chasing short interconnects ... have you considered Tara Labs?? I know that they come in 0.6, 1 and 2m lenghts. They might prove to be the step up from the Jaycar stuff.

Cya,
Krunchy.

 

[Ctn]

Hi KrunchyK,

Yeah hehe Im looking for short interconnects. 0.5m is still abit too long. The shorter it is, the less latency there is and less signal degration in theory anyway. I think 0.4m is the best length.

How do the Tara Labs cable compare to the Apature Accusound Silver BL-4 interconnects ?

I havent heard much "high grade" interconnects before. I have heard Monster and Apature so far.

http://www.apature.com/accusound2.htm

I know Tara Labs interconnects cost alot of $$$

I choked when I heard how much their RSC speaker cable cost here in Oz.

Btw the Jaycar stuff totally floors the RS stuff by a large margin.

 

[KrunchyK]

Hi,

Quote:

The shorter it is, the less latency there is and less signal degration in theory anyway. I think 0.4m is the best length.

In theory since the signal travels at the speed of light (or however fast electrons travel

), latency shouldn't be an issue (and I sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong

) things like inductance, capacitance and resistance will be what affects the sound.

Quote:

How do the Tara Labs cable compare to the Apature Accusound Silver BL-4 interconnects ? I havent heard much "high grade" interconnects before. I have heard Monster and Apature so far.

To be honest I haven't had the opportunity to listen to the Apature stuff

... what sort of damage you looking at for the Apature cables??

Tara Labs tend to be a fairly good buy in Aus since they import a fair bit and because of the quantity can keep the price lower. As always too, don't forget to shop around - I've seen $30 difference per meter in some of the high end TL speaker cables

Krunchy

 

[aos]

Signal does not travel at the speed of light through a cable. And while capacitance and inductance do affect the sound, it is not in the way you'd think; it's quite indirect. Latest Stereophile has a good technical article on this subject (and scientifically correct as far as I paid attention).

 

[KrunchyK]

Hi Aos,

Kewl ... I haven't seen that article yet (Stereophile costs an arm and leg in Aus

). But your right though, there are many variables that will affect the sound, I just have never heard people discuss latency in the context of audio cables.

I usually subscribe to the "use my ears" principle anywayz

Krunchy

 

[Ctn]

Hi KrunchyK,

Ive been quoted 220 Oz for the Apature cables.

The Apature stuff is actually quite good. I might have made it look soso since the Jaycar stuff is pretty good as it is

It might even beat the Tara labs stuff.

How much are the Tara Labs stuff you are refering to?
Ive been quoted like 200 bux a meter of the RSC 500 !! Im thinking nooooooooo

Actually Im comming from a computer point of view

Latency plays a big part, as you might know from ide cables...exceeding 30cm and you risk loosing information where bits arrive not at the right time. Some of this must carry over to interconnects ?? which Im guessing will affect the sound ?? Sound in my opnion would be more sensitive than bits of information in a biased audio way

Keeping cable lengths short is a cheap way of reducing the affects of inductance, capacitance and resistance but I think the major bit that affects sound is the shielding.

Hi aos,

Signal would travel close to the speed of light trough a cable??
Maybe 80%+ the speed of light? Im guessing around the 90% ball park.

 

[jim]

Actually, I don't think it matters at all for audio. In a computer, there are timing issues with clock synchronization between devices. For example, your cpu could do some operation and store it in RAM, and try to read that memory on the next clock cycle. If the latency time is longer than the period of the clock cycle, your cpu would have read the wrong data. However with analog audio it doesn't matter if the signal gets delayed, because the signal is still correct relative to itself; there is nothing that needs to be synchronized. I don't doubt there are other benefits to keeping cables short (no mess is another

), but I don't really think latency is one of them.

 

[Ctn]

Hi Jim,

The longer the signal has to travel, the more it will degrade, hence latency. Given that a signal travels at different speeds in different mediums, latency I think is a better unit of measurement to use rather than length. In audio, some cables have different strands of different mediums.

Timing is crucial in computers but if thats under control, the next big problem is signal "degration", well I guess due to ****ty shielding in most cases. Say if a bit here and there were to be flipped. Speaking of this, my friend recently ran some cat5 cable to his granny flat in his back yard from his house but couldnt get it to work. He got his network going with a repeater.

Btw im not sure but does high frequency signals travel faster than low frequencies? I heard that somewhere before.

I think the bottom line of all this is...shorter is better

 

[aos]

From Stereophile (paraphrased):

propagation speed is given by formula v = sqrt( 1 / (Li * Ci) ),
where Li is linear inductance (H/m) and Ci is linear capacitance (F/m). For most cables, the propagation time is around 5ns/m, or 2x10^8m/s, which is two-thirds the speed of light.
(end quote)

Different frequencies do arrive at destination at different times because they use different paths through the cable. I don't remember that stuff very well from my school days, but in any case the math would be quite complex.

 

[Ctn]

Hi Aos,

Great thanks !! I didnt know that.

In General would the higher or lower frequencies arrive first?
Im guessing the delay would be minute even if cable length is pretty long.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

At the speeds and times that you are talking about, it's not so much "delay" as phase problems. (Just mentioning terminology here, not really arguing.)

The reason shorter is better is because it gives less of a chance for RF to affect the signal. (Less surface area.)

You really should read the Stereophile article. It's answering a lot of your questions, even ones you haven't asked...yet...or directly...

 

[Ctn]

Hi DustyChalk,

Ahh yes phase, that's it !!

Is there a link to that article?
I would really like to learn more about this stuff.

 

[jim]

Hey Ctn, what does 220 Oz come out to in us dollars? If you decide to get'em tell us how they sound!

 

[Ross]

Quote:

Ive been quoted like 200 bux a meter of the RSC 500 !! Im thinking nooooooooo

ctn, that is way overpriced. You should be paying about A$60 a metre. I have sent you an email on this subject.

Ross