First there was analogue and all of the voodoo that went with it. Now there’s digital - first there was jitter, and with streaming over TCP, jitter is irrelevant, so “noise” is the new boogeyman.
Yet measurements show it’s irrelevant in a competently designed DAC, but still people spend thousands on audiophile switches, ethernet cables etc. all the while pronating themselves to audible “improvements” brought about by reductions in “noise” or reductions of “perturbations” or “modulations of the ground plane” due to noise. None of which has any solid basis in science or engineering…
I will have something {significant} to add and contribute to this topic but not until a certain manufacturer has launched his new website. His cable technology is in another league and has utterly transformed my system in a way I’d have thought impossible.
He has asked me to hold off until the website is revamped which won’t be long.
Seriously, If I had £10 for every “cachu tarw” (as my old North Walian boss used to say) claim I’ve read about digital noise, I’d be retired on my own private island.
Slightly of topic, but how is sound measured? Not level(dB), pitch, etc. but how something actually sounds. I can hear the difference between a Fender Stratocaster and a Fender Telecaster playing the same note at the same intensity. How is that difference measured?
I have always believed throughout my years immersed in this audiophile hobby, After having spent concentrated time with a professor go physics I understand now more Ethan ever before how and why cables matter. I started with this manufacturer’s XLR interconnects. I then installed his speaker cables, and just a few days ago installed his power cords for my two most critical components (after my Niagara 5000 units’s power cords). Those two components are my Sonore Signature Rendu and my Mola Mola Tambaqui DAC. As great as the interconnects and speaker cables were, as much as they fundamentally altered my listening experience, the power cords proved to be the glue that brought everything together in a magical convergence. I HAD very good Nordost cables and what I now have are easily 25% better. By that I mean my system now sounds 25% better with the implementation of these new cables . Hope that answers your question
Naturally no one can measure what one hears “subjectively.” There are no such instruments yet invented that enable quantification of this experience. And that is PRECISELY the problem with instruments. They serve a purpose but only to a degree. But everyone processes sound subjectively based on inherent biases. I could have used a number like 22.5% or 27.3% but to what purpose? It’s an approximate improvement that I defined to simply make a point.
I thought so. Any improvements in quality should show in some objective measurements. If they don’t, you can make up anything you want and any number you want, so I won’t believe you. I have a BSc degree in physics BTW, so if you can explain how a power cable makes a difference in an audio system, please, don’t spare me the details.
Although I doubt a power cable can improve the sound by 25%, their electrical characteristics should be considered as part of the power supply circuit. This could alter the power supply’s effect on the sound.
That presumes a power supply so terribly bad that it probably would burst in flames when exposed to any real world AC. And of course it ignores miles (kilometers, if you prefer) of crappy aluminum wire on the other side of the wall socket.
One could always imagine some theoretical edge case of a device shipping with 128 gauge power cord that melts when you plug it into the wall, but in real world this does not seem to happen with AliExpress knockoff of knockoffs.
In the end, either one remembers enough of even high school physics (at least where I am from… might be college level in the US…) and does not believe in Nordost (corporate motto: “we make AudioQuest look honest”), or one does not.
Yes, he certainly knows how to sell snake oil with really, really good profit margin. Anyone pretending that there is such a thing as cable burn ion, especially for digital cables, is an outright crook.
Or rather bad “upgrade cords”. I have tried the well respected Shunyata? power cords and have one on my Antipodes server with no improvement except for looks.
Well, there can be graphene, carbon fire, different levels/qualities of silver and copper. There is this science called metallurgy and a phenomenon known as electron migration which occurs between components. My USB cable as but one example sounded horrible when it first arrived from London. Contacted Sablon Audio and Mark, the owner explained how the cable had just been flown at 40,000 feet in sun zero temps and needed considerable time to warm up and break in, which occurs when enough current and electrons flow through the cable.
There is actual science in cable land, though many choose to insist “wire is wire.” It’s just not true. I just installed Teo power cords - one for my DAC and one for my streamer and the improvement was significant.
This is not science, this is charlatanism taken to the extreme. A cable’s resistance goes down when temperature goes down. I’ve never heard of a cable that performs better when warmer. If you choose to believe this stuff, I’ll leave you to it. Happy USB cable break-in. (I still hope it was a joke.)
