Re: Cables again. For Arny, et al.

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 15:04:33 -0800, Peter Wieck wrote
(in article <fpl02101b1u@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):

> On Feb 20, 7:27 pm, "Arny Krueger" <ar...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>> "Peter Wieck" <p...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
>> 
>> news:fpg2r60221b@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>> f) I would posit that most hearing-individuals here could
>>> distinguish the difference between very badly made "patch
>>> cords" with construction and design flaws and the
>>> very-bestest-most-expensive-oxygen-free-
>>> silver-patch-cords-rolled-on-the-thighs-of-virgins-by-the-first-full-
>>> moon-after-Walpurgis-Night.
>> 
>> Then you've never actually tried the relevant experiment with enough
>> experimental controls to obtain a reliable result.
>> 
>> Patch cables are so non-critical in terms of their mission, that barbed
wire
>> slipped through wet noodles (for insulation) would perform identically
to
>> sliver/teflon ones. So would 3/8" rusty steel rebar separated with wet,
>> wooden clothespins.
>> 
>> Not only would there be no audible difference, but it would be
challenging
>> to find a measurable difference.
> 
> Mpffff.... Not quite. I have been in massively RF-rich environments
> that patch cords such as you describe would be rectifying all over the
> place. I spent three years as an on-site project architect at the UofP
> hospital back in the day - and trust me, crappy patch cords (and
> crappy components) picked up no end of garbage. Long hours and my own
> office accorded me the privilege of setting up a system on-site.
> 
> So, I state with direct experience that well-made "cables" do make a
> direct, discernable, measurable, observable, audible difference. After
> that, we are at the margins. And that - to me - remains unproven.
> 
> Peter Wieck
> Wyncote, PA

Well, that's different. Most cheap interconnects pick up garbage in 
electromagnetically noisy environments because they aren't fully ****elded,

not because of any inherent quality of the wire. In fact, I suspect, 
(although I do not know for sure) that using quasi-balanced and fully 
balanced interconnects (where the ****eld carries no signal) would
eliminate 
much if not all of that interference. 

-- 
Do you know the difference between students like you, amateurs and 
professional jazz musicians? Student bands and amateurs "almost" swing! 

Fred Berry
Professor of Music
Stanford University