What equipment is necessary for Resistance and Conductivity measuring of IEM Cables?

[MaxwellsEq]

The most basic thing to learn is Ohm's Law, which allows you to understand the relationships between voltage, current and resistance.

Ohm's law - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Practical electronic engineers apply Ohm's Law without even thinking about it, because it's such a fundamental basis for electronics.

 

[Lambda]

Four-terminal sensing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

you only need a current source a current meter and voltage meter.

 

[kongwee]

Silver and copper you can hear the difference. Especially you are driving more full range and low impedance speaker. Silver cable is very clean and fast. Leave very little decay tail. You will feel more "faster". Audiophile normally don't like silver cable. Copper, thick insulation, multi core, braided. Leave a bit of decay tail. That sell very well. Never tried with headphone wires.

 

[majingotan]

Silver and copper you can hear the difference. Especially you are driving more full range and low impedance speaker. Silver cable is very clean and fast. Leave very little decay tail. You will feel more "faster". Audiophile normally don't like silver cable. Copper, thick insulation, multi core, braided. Leave a bit of decay tail. That sell very well. Never tried with headphone wires.

Love to smoke your good stuff. That’s all smoke and mirrors unless proven by DBT test. On a serious note, I didn’t ever perceive a sonic difference with my stock ofc copper cable and OCC pure silver cable with my IEM

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Silver and copper you can hear the difference. Especially you are driving more full range and low impedance speaker. Silver cable is very clean and fast. Leave very little decay tail. You will feel more "faster". Audiophile normally don't like silver cable. Copper, thick insulation, multi core, braided. Leave a bit of decay tail. That sell very well. Never tried with headphone wires.

Did you ever bother to read the reviews by Amir on cables? Or the thread on cables in the Audio Reference Library?

Or would you care to provide some facts for these strange claims of yours?

Or is it a joke I don’t get?

 

[kongwee]

Did you ever bother to read the reviews by Amir on cables? Or the thread on cables in the Audio Reference Library?

Or would you care to provide some facts for these strange claims of yours?

Or is it a joke I don’t get?

I never bother about Amir on cable, because lots of people can hear the difference. Beside I tried lots of cable before. Also I went to listen people trying different cable, shoot out etc. Not just read on internet.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

I never bother about Amir on cable, because lots of people can hear the difference. Beside I tried lots of cable before. Also I went to listen people trying different cable, shoot out etc. Not just read on internet.

Ah sure. People on the internet. Last time I checked I also found people claiming flat earth.

You didn’t bother with this either? Didn’t you. Might be enlightening.

Audio Blind Testing - You Are Doing It Wrong! (Video)

Just uploaded a video on the basics of performing controlled tests in audio. It was motivated by saving myself text in having to write all of this down when telling someone who to do these tests right. And as a counter to a few online personalities to keep saying they do "blind" tests yet when...

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[kadoke]

My brother owns lots of professional electronics related equipment so I was wondering if there's a way to measure my IEM cables' Resistance and Conductivity. I won't take the cables apart, so I'm interested to know if I could somehow still measure it with certain electronics devices some of you might know about.
I'm not experienced in this but pick up such things things rather fast so I'd appreciate your responses.

Thanks!

A meter of AWG24 thick copper wire is 0.084 Ω.
The resistance of a short cable is less than that which can be measured with a multimeter.
This would be the field of RESISTANCE METER. Kelvin measurement, of course.
For example, HIOKI RM3545.
Or an LCR meter.
For example, Keysight E4980A.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I never bother about Amir on cable, because lots of people can hear the difference. Beside I tried lots of cable before. Also I went to listen people trying different cable, shoot out etc. Not just read on internet.

uh-huh

 

[Blumlein 88]

The James Webb space telescope uses some silver plated copper or silver coated, copper plated steel wiring and woven shields. Of course this has to do with its use in cryogenic elements and 110 ghz frequencies.

 

[majingotan]

The James Webb space telescope uses some silver plated copper or silver coated, copper plated steel wiring and woven shields. Of course this has to do with its use in cryogenic elements and 110 ghz frequencies.

At least it’s a functional design implementation that’s clearly beyond any audio reproduction capabilities

Those audiophiles must’ve had radio antennas implanted in their ears to hear unicorn things at those frequencies

 

[HarmonicTHD]

The James Webb space telescope uses some silver plated copper or silver coated, copper plated steel wiring and woven shields. Of course this has to do with its use in cryogenic elements and 110 ghz frequencies.

Oh don’t give them any ideas. Next thing you know they come back claiming 110ghz matters or is even “perceived “ by the platinum eared.

 

[Doodski]

I never bother about Amir on cable, because lots of people can hear the difference. Beside I tried lots of cable before. Also I went to listen people trying different cable, shoot out etc. Not just read on internet.

How did you test cables? Blind testing?

 

[Fraxo]

Seems like I'll dive into reading more about it rather then conducting any electrical measurements.
Thanks everyone, lets' keep it civil haha...
I did hear a significant difference using a palladium cable with Dunu Zen Pro vs Stock Cable, I was at a major audiophile's place in a controlled room with plenty of time, I'm very sensitive to tonality being a pro mixing and mastering engineer, A-B, blind testing, the whole thing, and I won't even credit my trained ears as the difference wasn't a subtle one or placebo, THERE WAS a sound difference.

Which leads me to wondering what may have caused it... I'm a practical guy, it seems like there's plenty of evidence that the material itself wasn't the cause and I will not refute any of that as it's probably more scientifically substantiated, BUT - perhaps you could rack your brains speculating what factor in the chain may have caused it. Put yourself in my shoes, ik what I heard and how rigorously I test my hearing, that cable was worth over 1000$ (which I only knew after testing) and I'm sure not too many people got to test something like that and I can guarantee you that there was a distinct difference.

SO: @Doodski @HarmonicTHD @majingotan @Blumlein 88
If not the material itself - please speculate what factors in the playing chain could potentially cause a sound difference by replacing cables. Output impedance? weird wiring to mess with phase? Connectors? His specific fancy Dac\Amp, Etc....
I literally have no idea and clearly just BSing so your speculations might be better.

Once again, I'm not claiming anything different than the science you've presented me as it makes the most sense and I always choose science. But I'm looking for some explanations to what I definitely heard so I could potentially avoid it next time in the audio playing chain.

 

[HarmonicTHD]

Seems like I'll dive into reading more about it rather then conducting any electrical measurements.
Thanks everyone, lets' keep it civil haha...
I did hear a significant difference using a palladium cable with Dunu Zen Pro vs Stock Cable, I was at a major audiophile's place in a controlled room with plenty of time, I'm very sensitive to tonality being a pro mixing and mastering engineer, A-B, blind testing, the whole thing, and I won't even credit my trained ears as the difference wasn't a subtle one or placebo, THERE WAS a sound difference.

Which leads me to wondering what may have caused it... I'm a practical guy, it seems like there's plenty of evidence that the material itself wasn't the cause and I will not refute any of that as it's probably more scientifically substantiated, BUT - perhaps you could rack your brains speculating what factor in the chain may have caused it. Put yourself in my shoes, ik what I heard and how rigorously I test my hearing, that cable was worth over 1000$ (which I only knew after testing) and I'm sure not too many people got to test something like that and I can guarantee you that there was a distinct difference.

SO: @Doodski @HarmonicTHD @majingotan @Blumlein 88
If not the material itself - please speculate what factors in the playing chain could potentially cause a sound difference by replacing cables. Output impedance? weird wiring to mess with phase? Connectors? His specific fancy Dac\Amp, Etc....
I literally have no idea and clearly just BSing so your speculations might be better.

Once again, I'm not claiming anything different than the science you've presented me as it makes the most sense and I always choose science. But I'm looking for some explanations to what I definitely heard so I could potentially avoid it next time in the audio playing chain.

Please watch this. It explains the differences you perceived.

Audio Blind Testing - You Are Doing It Wrong! (Video)

Just uploaded a video on the basics of performing controlled tests in audio. It was motivated by saving myself text in having to write all of this down when telling someone who to do these tests right. And as a counter to a few online personalities to keep saying they do "blind" tests yet when...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Sorry, but I won’t be speculating on influence of cable material on sound as it is an utter waste of my time for reasons explained in the many posts above by fellow posters and me.

Good luck, but I am out.

 

[charleski]

I did hear a significant difference using a palladium cable

Palladium has over 6 times more resistance than copper (105.4 nohm.meters vs 16.78). Iem cables are thin. Net result: the impedance of the cable becomes significant enough to interact with the driver impedance and you’re using a cable as a tone control and attenuator.

But more importantly, sighted tests are worthless because you can hear ‘significant’ changes in your system without changing anything.

This Magic Moment

www.stereophile.com

 

[MaxwellsEq]

perhaps you could rack your brains speculating what factor in the chain may have caused it.

No engineer can speculate on what you experienced without a while set of base measurements. It is possible for cables to have an impact if they are very resistive, capacitive or inductive. But that depends on interactions with output impedance and device characteristics.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Seems like I'll dive into reading more about it rather then conducting any electrical measurements.
Thanks everyone, lets' keep it civil haha...
I did hear a significant difference using a palladium cable with Dunu Zen Pro vs Stock Cable, I was at a major audiophile's place in a controlled room with plenty of time, I'm very sensitive to tonality being a pro mixing and mastering engineer, A-B, blind testing, the whole thing, and I won't even credit my trained ears as the difference wasn't a subtle one or placebo, THERE WAS a sound difference.

Which leads me to wondering what may have caused it... I'm a practical guy, it seems like there's plenty of evidence that the material itself wasn't the cause and I will not refute any of that as it's probably more scientifically substantiated, BUT - perhaps you could rack your brains speculating what factor in the chain may have caused it. Put yourself in my shoes, ik what I heard and how rigorously I test my hearing, that cable was worth over 1000$ (which I only knew after testing) and I'm sure not too many people got to test something like that and I can guarantee you that there was a distinct difference.

SO: @Doodski @HarmonicTHD @majingotan @Blumlein 88
If not the material itself - please speculate what factors in the playing chain could potentially cause a sound difference by replacing cables. Output impedance? weird wiring to mess with phase? Connectors? His specific fancy Dac\Amp, Etc....
I literally have no idea and clearly just BSing so your speculations might be better.

Once again, I'm not claiming anything different than the science you've presented me as it makes the most sense and I always choose science. But I'm looking for some explanations to what I definitely heard so I could potentially avoid it next time in the audio playing chain.

So to be clear, did you compare these cables blind? Pro mixer, mastering, opera singer whatever, no matter if you've tested ears blind before, none of that protects you from being influenced in a sighted test. So was this a sighted comparison? If so, you have by far your most likely answer. Humans are very prone to hearing differences if they know two items are not the same even if they don't know what they are or how much they cost.

If the difference is real, it most likely is from LCR effects that altered frequency response as other posters have suggested. There are other more esoteric possibilities I suppose if the whole chain of gear is known.

 

[Fraxo]

Idk why some of you assumed it wasn't a blind test. I A-B them in every way possible and also blind as I asked the guy to switch them without me knowing probably close to 10 times.
Eyes fully closed and it took me about 5 seconds each time. It wasn't subtle.

Sorry, but I won’t be speculating on influence of cable material on sound as it is an utter waste of my time for reasons explained in the many posts above by fellow posters and me.

Good luck, but I am out.

That's perfectly fine, but you could've just not responded haha, didn't have to try to reduce what I'm asking to a "waste of time" when staying quiet is a great option for you. What you linked isn't relevant because you assumed wrong, it was a blind test.

Also here - instead of trying to demean and wrongfully assume, here's an example of someone who dived deeper into the science I was searching for (hence Audio Science Reviews) and gave a very plausible speculation:

Palladium has over 6 times more resistance than copper (105.4 nohm.meters vs 16.78). Iem cables are thin. Net result: the impedance of the cable becomes significant enough to interact with the driver impedance and you’re using a cable as a tone control and attenuator.

Or this:

If the difference is real, it most likely is from LCR effects that altered frequency response as other posters have suggested. There are other more esoteric possibilities I suppose if the whole chain of gear is known.

So thanks to all group members who don't find this a waste of time and bothered asking before trying to belittle

 

[Fraxo]

So to follow up,
First of all thank you all for sharing the knowledge... Now:

Palladium has over 6 times more resistance than copper (105.4 nohm.meters vs 16.78). Iem cables are thin. Net result: the impedance of the cable becomes significant enough to interact with the driver impedance and you’re using a cable as a tone control and attenuator.

Going by this speculation, is there a predictable sound influence (frequency-wise) on that single DD (Dunu Zen Pro+Palladium cable) when dealing with very high resistance cables or is it random? Highs\lows reduced\emphasized, perhaps timing changes with phase, group delay etc?
I know that IEMs with BAs in them are highly susceptible to resistance changes but perhaps knowing it was a very high quality single DD would help speculating. Possibly not, thought it's worth asking.

If the difference is real, it most likely is from LCR effects that altered frequency response.

Could anyone kindly expand on this one?