Scientific reasons why cables matter for audio

[fpitas]

The scary thing is that I have seen conversations related to audio-grade outlet boxes; most typically with an emphasis on purchasing hospital-grade outlet boxes.

Even more scary, I almost fell for it when we did a major remodel to our house that added a home office & media room about a decade ago.

Oh yes, there are super-audiophile outlets that "sound even better". But the cost is of course, astronomical. I'm sure glad my ears could never appreciate anything so refined.

 

[Eric Larson]

Ild bet theres a lot more copper data (CAT) cables worldwide.

Maybe, but it is clear that the vast majority of data traffic is carried on fiber.

• More than 95% of long haul traffic travels through a massive network of undersea cables, all of which are constructed entirely of fiber optics.
• The core infrastructure of cloud providers (like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft) relies almost exclusively on fiber optics to link data centers worldwide.
• A single strand of fiber optic cable can transmit terabits per second which is thousands of times more capacity than a traditional copper wire.

 

[pablolie]

Yes for power. Not so much for information.

I once had a experience with glass fiber.

Back when I was just out of college looking for a real job I had an interview at Corning. They had a pilot machine about the size of a large desk. The machine was really complicated looking, very highly instrumented, and had a reel on one side that was winding up a fine glass fiber.

They started describing the mechanics of what they were doing with the fiber and asking me questions about the process to check my ability to understand the technology.

Eventually I went home, and later got a rejection letter. No big deal at the time, I found a good job elsewhere.

A few years later when I started hearing about glass fiber and lasers for high speed data transmission I realized what I had seen was the first commercial process for production of fiber optic data cable.

Now there are more than 3 billion miles of this stuff winding around the planet. And I had missed out on getting in on the ground floor of one of the most important inventions of the 20th century.

Shucks.

Copper or fiber... other than data rates over certain distances, absolutely zero difference for data integrity. Zero.
OSI model stuff.

 

[mhardy6647]

Depends on whether woo is a power, or a voltage/current. Someone should sell a woo-factor meter to nail this down!

This is an area clearly ripe for further study.

 

[fpitas]

This is an area clearly ripe for further study.

Such a meter would clearly run on snake oil.

 

[Cbdb2]

Maybe, but it is clear that the vast majority of data traffic is carried on fiber.

Sure but almost all of it ends up on copper.

 

[Audiofire]

 

[Ruediger]

You need a wider input selection. I recommend a very large wheel.

 

[Audiofire]

Upgraded product after heavy R&D (pretending to work with AI doing the hard work)

 

[Eric Larson]

Sure but almost all of it ends up on copper.

The heavy demands on AI systems make end to end optical inevitable.

Akhetonics

The World’s First 
All-Optical 
General-Purpose Processor

www.akhetonics.com

 

[Ruediger]

For datacenters, backbones etc. that's logic.

For us at home and also at work there won't be much change to the fiber/copper mix already there.

Fiber to the curb will replace all the old lines over time. Hopefully in all countries. Many gigabits bandwidth can't be delivered on phone cable.

 

[Mnyb]

View attachment 558423

Upgraded product after heavy R&D (pretending to work with AI doing the hard work)
View attachment 558427

Keep it up audiophile “logic” demands that’s an upgrade is always possible nothing is ever perfect or good enough , perpetual upgrades is bliss .

 

[arqwfxdv]

Good morning.

So, yesterday I asked there:

Dear Galen Gareis: If you could just ... please, please and please with a cherry on top ... provide a set of measurements, an APx Dashboard would make me the happiest person on the planet, I will be your slave forever.
This will be the only post I make in this video.

Until now I got:

ChrisMag100:
There's a fair amount of measurement data in the white papers on their site.

Passion for Sound:
Yes, lots and lots and lots of data available I cluding measurements, design principles, equations explaining why certain decisions are made, etc.

I'm no expert. But I thought that "Dear Galen Gareis" and "APx Dashboard" wouldn't be too hard to understand.

 

[maxmax]

FYI:

And I asked there:

Complete disappointment. First thought: over an hour video about cables so I had hopes that at least some of their measurements would be explained in detail and put in context to explain the sonic impact.

 

[Mnyb]

Complete disappointment. First thought: over an hour video about cables so I had hopes that at least some of their measurements would be explained in detail and put in context to explain the sonic impact.

I’ve had in the past recommend blue Jean cables , but with this they jumped the shark , to much money , anyone is corruptible

 

[Audiofire]

Excellent attention to pace, rhythm and timing, using harmonic reality deviation. Each sine wave period at 20 kHz lasts 50,000 ns (50 µs), so the difference (including skin effect) does not matter for audio frequencies at real-world cable length. 20 kHz audio has a wavelength in copper of more than 10 kilometers (6 miles).

 

[fpitas]

pace, rhythm and timing

PRaT. I've always wondered if that whole thing started as mocking audiophiles, but got out of hand.

 

[101geo]

PRaT. I've always wondered if that whole thing started as mocking audiophiles, but got out of hand.

I used to know a Linn/Naim dealer quite well in the 80's who later went into hifi journalism and you are closer to the truth than you know.

 

[Audiofire]

I'm no expert.

Statistician George Box explained "All models are wrong, but some are useful." The skilled snake oil salesman balances this very delicately. The Iconoclast models are not useful for real-world cables, where LCR specifications are sufficent.

 

[Ruediger]

"I heard an increase in harmonic flavor and density along with a very true-to-source dynamic envelope. The Gen 2 TPC had the most of this flavor, with OFC and OCC being more refined and closer to the source. I can only describe the OCC variation as sounding expensive. Nothing out of place—accompanied by an elegant, silky-sounding top end."

It must be hard to come up with new slob over and over while making the vendor happy.