[atothex]

Was just wondering how cable specs interact with their intended application. Behind all the mumbo jumbo, all cables have ratings for resistance, capacitance, and inductance.

As I understand it, interconnect performance is most closely tied to capacitance, and the lowest capacitance cable is a good starting point. Alternatively, speaker cables are best when resistance is lowest. Can I assume headphone cables to be similar to speaker cables with regards to resistance? Also, what about digital cables? Other than having a standard resistance, do other measurements matter? I assume no, but maybe I'm just ignorant.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Depends.

While typically loudspeakers are intended to be driven from a source with zero resistance, some folks seem to be finding improvement by driving their headphones from sources with higher resistance.

It's not any sort of universal rule and like most things results can vary depending on the model headphone and the person doing the listening.

As for digital cables, it's most critical that their characteristic impedance matches the output and input impedances of the interface, which will usually be either 50 or 75 ohms. If the cable's impedance doesn't match, it can cause reflections and standing waves within the cable that can result in data errors.

k

 

[IPodPJ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koyaan I. Sqatsi /img/forum/go_quote.gif some folks seem to be finding improvement by driving their headphones from sources with higher resistance.

Maybe not so much improvement as different flavor.

Let's see what the next ones do.

 

[Steve Eddy]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPodPJ /img/forum/go_quote.gif Maybe not so much improvement as different flavor. Let's see what the next ones do.

Well, yes.

Point being, you didn't run screaming from the room with blood running out of your ears.

k

 

[DeusEx]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Koyaan I. Sqatsi /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, yes. Point being, you didn't run screaming from the room with blood running out of your ears. k

 

[atothex]

OK so the headphone cable could just be another thing to adjust damping then? Well, I'm all low impedance so the choice is easy for me.