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A useful cable article

SIY

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This just dropped into my mailbox from a company I put in the same basket as Audio Precision (i.e., serious, reliable, totally professional). It shows the real issues around cables approached from a practical scientific perspective. And the charts actually have axis labels so you can see what frequency ranges are applicable!
 

restorer-john

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It shows the real issues around cables approached from a practical scientific perspective.

I think I've been having problems with tribolites in my cables. Time to flush out the little critters and pack some graphite in there.

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jsrtheta

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I think I've been having problems with tribolites in my cables. Time to flush out the little critters and pack some graphite in there.

View attachment 28614
Then you need our new, trilobite-cancelling, liquid conductor, mysto-engineered cables! As Synergistic Research has authoritatively demonstrated, electrical signals follow paths in cable like lost Boy Scouts, constantly searching for the correct route out of a forest. Now, thanks to Quantum Empathy our cables can predict the correct way out of the audio maze through the technology of The Secret, via the sacred secretions of Dr. Oz and Oprah!

$59,000, void where prohibited. Which should be everywhere.
 

solderdude

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When reading a good engineering paper such as this, it's important to not take bits and pieces out of context (a common trick of marketing departments). Each individual parameter has to be examined in the application circuit.

Indeed there is quite a difference between using very high impedance sources connected to high impedance inputs with very small signal values (In some cases there is even phantom supply present as wel.) and low output resistance sources with higher voltage levels.

Also the length matters a lot. 1meter is not the same as 10m or even 100m. Certainly not when the source impedance is high (as it often is with sensors)

For microphones the source impedances are higher, voltages smaller and screening is essential. Lengths matter here as well as microphony. They should not induce sounds which can easily happen with phantom powered mics when accidentally stepping on a cable for instance.

I 'home audio' at line levels some can even get away with non or poorly screened cables, microphony is not in issue either, source impedances are low, load impedances are relatively very high and lengths are short.
There isn't much to worry about here. Certainly the effects that matter for instrumentation or microphone usage on stage or studio are not of any importance for short interlinks.

People read stuff like this on internet and their lack of understanding immediatly couples this to home/portable audio and their own subjective experiences.

Such is life and it keeps 'measurement guys' busy on many fora explaining this shit and getting to understand some people how to test properly (removing the knowing part and know about levels)

One also has to know what is marketting talk and what is reality. These things are impossible to discern by people with lack of understanding.
 
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