The *NOT BORING!* Hi-Fi faff chat and sales

[apache]

Is someone going to explain why skin effect matters at audio frequencies? We don't really 'worry' about it til we reach GHz in my line of work. Bet that cable's got pretty high capacitance - does it sound 'smoother' by any chance?

And how does cryogenic freezing help?

I'd prefer real answers rather than that typical of hifi dealers "I don't know why it works but my ears tell me it does" nonesense.

For the record (no pun) for my interconnects, I use RF cable. I use a generic low loss (ie low capacitance) variety with basic soldered plated RCAs on the ends. Knowing that I haven't introduced any significant capacitance gives me a 'clean sheet' if you will, so I can control drive loading and input impedance on the boards and ignore cable factors completely.

For my speaker cables, I use a heavy gauge copper. Heavy enough that, once again, damping, current delivery etc are controlled by my amplifier rather than the cable having any influence.

For my mains cables, I use... err... mains cable. I am happy that my power supplies are fine. Regarding power, if you are running modern-ish kit which contains op-amps, look up PSRR and tell me if you *still* think a screened power cable matters

 

[hamster]

Is someone going to explain why skin effect matters at audio frequencies?

It doesn't much - it's about 0.5mm at 20kHz, 8mm-ish at 50Hz. So it matters on fat AC conductors for big electrical traction setups or power distribution. But most of those uber-fat speaker cables' copper is doing nothing at frequencies above 10kHz.

For interconnects then it's a complete waste of time - so I don't quite understand why anyone is specifying Litz.
All I was trying to do was explain why Litz doesn't appear to have a visible insulator.

But as far as HiFi goes I am handicapped by an Electrical Engineering degree. Glad to see someone else using RF cable for interconnects too!

 

[apache]

I am handicapped by an Electrical Engineering degree.

Poor you - doomed to never be able to fall for snake oil

Did you get the schematics OK?

 

[hamster]

Thanks, yes, had a wee peep!

 

[greenstiles]

A lot of hi fi interconnects are coax in structure.......( like RF) nva, Black Rhodium used in some of there's....etc, lot do as is my ' little manderin' cable apart from it is silver plated . I like coax for audio.

I use NVA LS1 silver plated 7 strand solid core speaker cable......very nice.

I'm happy with any power cord just as long as all plugs and contacts inc speaker are clean........

 

[apache]

A lot of hi fi interconnects are coax in structure.......

Most of them are probably RF cable in a fancy outer sleeve with something trendy sounding written on it. Underneath probably lurks RG59 or something similar. I have almost 100m of some fancy silver high spec RF cable in my garage - rescued from a skip at work. Small diameter too, so current vogue for thin cables!

I wonder if it's the name that makes it sound better? I wonder (seriously) if I was to make up two identical sets of cable using RG xx and then re-sleeve one set in bright blue, and stamp 'Nirvana Ultra (military grade)' or suchlike on it, whether in a non-blind listening test, that one would sound better?

 

[tintin40]

Small diameter too, so current vogue for thin cables!

I'd noticed that. BITD every body had thick cables. So when i went buying this time round all i found was thin. So disappointed

 

[greenstiles]

apache..........to my suprise, my orange cable has more metal in it than a lot of thick cables out there.......i got a metre of fancy cable recently and it was all jacket ! you needed dolls hands to solder it !

Reminds me of my 1st cable dissapointment in about 92 when i bought a What Hi Fi award winning cable, it seemed to sound worse than the free ones in the box....definatly not a case of placebo there, quite the reverse. I did havefun making a turn table sound better by changing it's cable though. I see it as, free cables in the box stage 1. stuff like mine ie coax/silver stage 2. and then anything fancy should not cost you any more than £100 max.....cable doesn't cost that much to make to justify such a price.

It's just for those poor souls who already have the money for a multi thousand pound set up to have more cash taken off them, lets face it if you can affort a £5,000 amp £400 on a cable will seem acceptable. Certain cable and cable construction 'can' alter sound in my opinion, but shouldn't cost the earth.

There are people who justify expensive upgrades for poor returns in sound, i think they are guilty of pretending ' how much better' their new amp sounds compared to the last one, so it's not just cables, status snobbery etc etc.

End of the day it's all about enjoying the music, which ever way you do it

Like bikes, you don't need the latest most expensive to enjoy the ride

 

[greenstiles]

How about a set of these check out their original price
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MIT-ORACLE-V1 ... 20cb44d1d7 :shock: :shock: :shock:

 

[apache]

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MIT-ORACLE-V1 ... 20cb44d1d7 :shock: :shock: :shock:

That's fecking hilarious. What the hell are articulation poles? A cable is there to add or subtract NOTHING from what leaves the source, so how can adding pseudoscience guff improve things? Bullshit, plain and simple