[luvdunhill]

Do you have plans for a cable that can handle >96kHz? My amp can reproduce frequencies in the 1-2 Mhz range no problems and I want to make sure the cable isn't the bottleneck.

 

[MASantos]

Yes, but in this case the driver itself cannot handle more than 55Khz, so what benefit does a cable that can handle 96Khz bring?

Please not I'm not trying to bash your products or company, just trying to understand the theory behind it.

Cheers!

Manuel

 

[Rick]

Luvdunhill: I don't see how your comment is productive at all.

MASantos: Thats the point I was getting at. It doesnt matter if your headphones can handle frequencies higher than 55Khz, if the SIGNAL being sent to them has frequencies higher than that in it, and they are altered by skin effect prior to reaching your headphones, the higher frequencies that are altered, effectively alter the frequencies that your headphones DO handle, and that you CAN hear. That is the point I was trying to make. A waveform is a whole entity, alter any part of it, and the parts of it that you want are going to be altered as well.

 

[anetode]

Skin effect is neither here nor there since you're dealing with relatively low frequencies at which the increase in resistance has no appreciable impact on the signal. We're talking fractions of a decibel. Suffice to say that these cables are well overspec'd for headphone audio transmission.

Personally I consider build quality/durability and competitive pricing to be the deciding factors. Build quality appears to be uniformly excellent across all custom brands I've seen on head-fi, but Rick's got 'em beat on the pricing. I'm glad the market's becoming more competitive

edit: for more info, read http://engineering.dartmouth.edu/ind...s/complitz.pdf or visit your local library ;P

 

[Rick]

Actually, since skin effect does not effect lower frequencies, it creates a timing delay between frequencies. Which effectively destroys the shape of the electromagnetic wave that I was referring to in previous posts.

 

[anetode]

True, nonetheless it should be noted that any resulting errors would be imperceptible at audio wavelengths. This delay only becomes an impediment if you're dealing with critical data transmitted in mhz & above. The skin effect does ultimately alter the waveform, but I respectfully disagree with its exaggeration in marketing.

 

[Rick]

I wasnt using it any means of marketing, I was simply answering why I use 26awg conductors....

 

[Rick]

An update, the HD800 connectors have arrived. I am currently speaking with the sales rep for the manufacturer, as it looks like they messed up and ordered me the all chrome connectors vs the black chrome and are not able/willing to exchange them. I will post photos of a finished cable later tonight, and update again with what I managed to get out of the sales rep. All pre-ordered cables will ship tomorrow morning.

 

[scootermafia]

Seems that the default color shade of the HD800 connectors is sort of a darkish chrome, it's not like Harley-Davidson shiny chrome (chromium) or anything. It isn't black chrome, but it's the right idea...sort of a shiny gunmetal. I like them pretty well, they match the silver trim on the HD800 fine, although an unusual jet-black chrome would have been interesting. I'd really lose respect for the HD800 manufacturer if they couldn't swap the bodies out for the right color if you had it in writing on your order invoice that they were to be black chrome.

 

[Rick]

They refuse to, because they stamped on the invoice "NO RETURNS OR EXCHANGES ON CUSTOM ORDERS"

I've already argued them into "possibly" selling me another shipment of the black chrome ones without having to order 1000 of them, so we'll see. but for now, its identical to the stock connectors basically.

 

[tako_tsubo]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick /img/forum/go_quote.gif They refuse to, because they stamped on the invoice "NO RETURNS OR EXCHANGES ON CUSTOM ORDERS" I've already argued them into "possibly" selling me another shipment of the black chrome ones without having to order 1000 of them, so we'll see. but for now, its identical to the stock connectors basically.

Seems to me that since you recieved stock connectors....you did not get your custom order.

Anyway...still look forward to my FA HD800 cables.

 

[Rick]

The stock connectors are still a custom part #, not in the manufacturers catalogue

 

[Rick]

I would like to state for the record, that I was mixing up sampling rate, with analog bandwidth. I was merely stating that according to the American Wire Gauge standards, 100% skin depth is achievable with 26 gauge wire up to 107Khz.

My apologies for the confusion.

 

[nick_charles]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rick /img/forum/go_quote.gif Actually, since skin effect does not effect lower frequencies, it creates a timing delay between frequencies. Which effectively destroys the shape of the electromagnetic wave that I was referring to in previous posts.

Skin effect is really only an issue for 100Khz to mhz signals certainly not audio frequencies, as for destroying the waveform can you provide some references for this, preferably with measurements and graphs, I am somewhat skeptical about this claim.

As for timing delays, do you mean group delay, if so , group delays of under a ms are just not humanly detectable (Blauert, J. and Laws, 1978) , so the point is rather moot. This level of delay would be utterly pathological in any unbroken interconnect cable and would show up blatantly in the simplest of FR measurements.

Even a 10ft length of speaker cable would be unlikely to show more than 75ns of group delay between 100hz and 20KHz a good order of magnitude below audibility, but a more typical figure would be 2ns.

I assume you have measured the group delay for your cables and for some of your competitors ?

 

[Rick]

None of my claims are in regards to skin effect, or anything about my cables, other than stating that 26 gauge wire is used and quoting characteristics listed on the american wire gauge standard table. I have not stated anything about my cables having improvements due to causes of skin effect.