Can this be true?

[Standing in the rain]

 

[Frank Dernie]

Of course not. Scammers and the gullible

 

[PierreV]

So we have a non-professional recording, uploaded to youtube, where cable induced differences on a decent system are audible on... my monitor's built-in speakers...

A few things can be deduced from the fact that it seems the more expensive set-up delivers better sound.

- the recording is not the limiting factor as far as differentiation is concerned.
- youtube encoding/transcoding/delivery/whatever is not the limiting factor as far as differentiation is concerned.
- the cabling going out from my PC is not the limiting factor as far as differentiation is concerned.
- my monitor speakers are not the limiting factor as far as differentiation is concerned.

The only logical conclusion here is that all the above crap performs better than the less expensive cable ($500) since I hear benefits with the more expensive setup.

Now, I have to concede that, maybe my monitor's speakers limit the performance of the expensive setup and that maybe, just maybe, it would be better if I used audiophile grade stuff to connect the monitor to my PC

 

[GGroch]

I coached retail audio selling for years, and this is about as perfect an example of a sales demo (tell them what they will hear, let them hear it, tell them what they heard) as I have seen. Of course, the sales demo usually ends with "Will that be cash, check, or charge?"

 

[RayDunzl]

I coached retail audio selling for years, and this is about as perfect an example of a sales demo (tell them what they will hear, let them hear it, tell them what they heard) as I have seen.

I can't say I heard any difference on the PC speakers. But I skipped the sales talk.


So:

Played (part) of the video, recorded the first "compare" in PC and ran those into DeltaWave.

DeltaWave v1.0.26, 2019-04-25T10:28:54.6500618-04:00
Reference: jcat.wav[R] 280999 samples 44100Hz 16bits, stereo, MD5=00
Comparison: jcat-femto.wav[R] 280999 samples 44100Hz 16bits, stereo, MD5=00
Settings:
Gain:True, Remove DC:True
Non-linear Gain:False EQ FFT Size:65536, EQ Frequency Cut: 0Hz - 0Hz, EQ Threshold: -160dB
Correct Drift:True, Precision:30
Upsample:True, Window:Hann
Spectrum Window:Hann, Spectrum Size:524288
Spectrogram Window:Hann, Spectrogram Size:1024, Spectrogram Steps:256
Dither:False
Trim Silence:True

Discarding Reference: Start=0s, End=0s
Discarding Comparison: Start=0s, End=0s

Initial peak values Reference: -0.882dB Comparison: -0.782dB
Initial RMS values Reference: -17.43dB Comparison: -17.386dB

Null Depth=33.572dB
X-Correlation offset: -1 samples
Trimming 0 samples at start and 1 samples at the end that are below -90.31dB level

Drift computation quality, #1: Excellent (0.21μs)

Trimmed 25883 samples ( 586.9161ms) front, 0 samples ( 0.00ms end)

Final peak values Reference: -2.032dB Comparison: -2.368dB
Final RMS values Reference: -17.564dB Comparison: -17.515dB

Gain= 0.007dB (1.0008x) DC=0 Phase offset=-0.017858ms (-0.788 samples)
Difference (rms) = -39.95dB [-43.44dBA]

Correlated Null Depth=53.08dB [37.25dBA]
Clock drift: -0.22 ppm

Files are NOT a bit-perfect match (match=0.11%) at 16 bits
Files match @ 49.9965% when reduced to 6.6 bits


Phase difference (full bandwidth): 56.0339390853834°
0-10,000Hz: 37.3944318723206°
0-20,000Hz: 58.1178962794231°
0-24,000Hz: 56.0339390853834°
0-44,100Hz: 56.0339390853834°
0-48,000Hz: 56.0339390853834°

RMS of the difference of spectra: -127.443943197253dB
gn=0.999195979564436, dc=0, dr=-2.23337E-07, of=-0.7875223317

 

[Ron Texas]

I prefer wires made from silver as they are effective for strangling werewolves and other unsavory characters.

 

[Xulonn]

I chose my avatar based on having been occasionally exposed to this kind of blatant b.s. over 60 years of playing with audio as a hobby.

I still remember the antics of the owner of a high-end audio store in Sausalito, California back in the 1990's. He was a dealer for Avantgarde horn speakers, Audio Research amplifiers and Gordon Rankin's Wavelength custom SET amps. I was considering one of Gordon's cheapest EL84 single-ended products (but obviously not a triode) called the "Junior" - a 38 pound Industrial design flea-power amp that sold for $2,000 ($3,200 in today's dollars). Art Dudly reviewed and praised the Junior in a 1997 review.

While the owner/salesman - a classic high-end salesman - was giving me an "up-sell" sales pitch, he held an EL84 tube in one hand and a 300B in the other. First, he thrust the EL84 directly in front of my face and said something like "high do you expect a little tube like this," then switched to holding the 300B in my face, and said "to perform like a classic triode like this 300B." I supressed my laughter until after I left his store, then went home and happily listened to my Bryston B60 integrated amp driving a pair of Apogee Centaurus ribbon monitors.

And the common habit of "demonstrating" audio quality via YouTube videos considering the chain of electronics likely being used - is one of the stupidest things I have ever seen in audio. Even with a high-quality external DAC, amp and speakers, true high fidelity is not possible when watching YouTube videos.

The audio you hear during a YouTube video will usually be 126 kbps AAC in an MP4 container or anywhere from 50-165 kbps Opus in a WebM container. Changing video resolution (360p, 720p, etc) in the video settings will probably not impact the audio stream, but it is likely that your connection performance will.

 

[GGroch]

There is another active thread concerning "Audio Grade USB 2.0 Ports"

Correct me if I am mistaken, but isn't digital audio an extremely simple and low bit rate signal for USB 2 to transmit. USB 2 handles HD Video just fine, which I understand has orders of magnitude more information right?

Its interesting that no mention at all was made of the DAC being used. It must be really poorly designed or be extremely old, since Amir's tests show the majority of $99 USB DACs have really excellent jitter & noise rejection.

 

[amirm]

Its interesting that no mention at all was made of the DAC being used. It must be really poorly designed or be extremely old, since Amir's tests show the majority of $99 USB DACs have really excellent jitter & noise rejection.

On that note, I use Amazon branded USB cable for most of my measurements. Superlative measured performance can be achieved with this ultra cheap cable. If there are emissions, power line pollution from data lines, etc. they are not showing up in any measurements.

The key takeaway from the video should be his selection of music which is excellently recorded and are classic demo tracks. They will help sell anything.

And second, someone with a European accent seems to be a more effective sales tool for us Americans.

 

[Standing in the rain]

The Dac i think was the chord qutest. So it should be very good.

 

[amirm]

The Dac i think was the chord qutest. So it should be very good.

I have tested better DACs using that cheap Amazon cable.

 

[RayDunzl]

I use Amazon branded USB cable for most of my measurements. Superlative measured performance can be achieved with this ultra cheap cable. If there are emissions, power line pollution from data lines, etc. they are not showing up in any measurements.

You may have a future in writing testimonials.

Maybe spice it up a little.

Be sure to sign "Amirm - King of Audio".

They like that.

I have tested better DACs using that cheap Amazon cable

No, no., no...

That's no good at all.

Try again.

 

[invaderzim]

I coached retail audio selling for years, and this is about as perfect an example of a sales demo (tell them what they will hear, let them hear it, tell them what they heard) as I have seen. Of course, the sales demo usually ends with "Will that be cash, check, or charge?"

Which is why it shocked me to no end in this video when the apposing counsel didn't object to the same steps:

 

[Hypnotoad]

One good thing about that test is that I liked the Chris Jones sample, so much so I'm going to get that Album.

 

[amirm]

One good thing about that test is that I liked the Chris Jones sample, so much so I'm going to get that Album.

It is a long time reference record. The track No Sanctuary used to be standard play at shows years ago.

 

[Hypnotoad]

It is a long time reference record. The track No Sanctuary used to be standard play at shows years ago.

Never heard it before, but then again possibly I have but never knew what it was.