A Cable Primer

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ggraff

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1. Do different cables sound different? If so, why?

Absolutely, different cables sound different. Some sound better and some sound worse depending on the system. Wires are extremely system dependent. No one wire will sound best in every system.

The why is a long explanation so I hope I don't get too boring. All wires filter the signal; it's how they filter the signal that determines how a wire will sound.

The following is a generalized discussion of wire design but may not be applicable to a particular manufacturer's design. Three major factors will determine in large part the overall sound of the wire- capacitance, inductance, and skin effect. There are many other factors as well, such as the type of termination, the conductor material, the mass of the terminators, how the wire is terminated, the dielectric used, shielding, etc. I won't get into those factors here.

The wire's geometry will dictate in no small part how much capacitance, inductance and skin effect the wire will have. Wire geometry includes the type of conductor used (round wire, litz, or foil), the gauge/thickness of the conductors, the relationship of the conductors to each other (woven, twisted, parallel, etc), and ability to keep that relationship constant i.e. not introduce micro phonics. The geometry of the cable will trade-off inductance, capacitance and skin effect. How these trade-offs are made will dictate to a great extent the amount of filtering that occurs.

2. Wire Break-In

Every wire I have heard required break-in. According to George Cardas, just moving wires will require another mini-break-in. My personal experience is consistent with this. Most wires take between 50-150 hours of break-in, depending on the dielectric materials in the wire and the amount of current passing through the wire. Our experience with cable cookers has had mixed results. They seem to work OK on interconnects, but lacked a lot on speaker wires. Our hypothesis is that the cookers we have had only had resistance with no reactance. We have found that even using a cooker, we need to finish the break-in on the speaker wires (and to a lessor extent the interconnects) the old fashioned way of playing them loud.

3. Wire Maintenance

All terminals should be cleaned on a periodic basis. Even non-reactive metals like gold or rhodium require cleaning once and a while because the base metal of the connector tends to leach through. Connectors made of copper or flashed with silver need monthly maintenance to ensure the best performance. I use a jeweler's cloth with Blitz in it to clean silver. I then wipe the connector with alcohol to clean off the Blitz. For very tarnished connectors, Nevr Dull works well. I have mixed feeling about using a contact enhancer like CAIG. It works very well initially, but requires more maintenance.

I am sure I have missed a number of other items in this general topic, but hope that some of you find this useful.

My parting thought is that wires should be considered a major component, just like a DAC or pre-amp. It doesn't do any good to have a great piece of equipment if you do not also have a way to carry the signal as unmolested as possible. The best wires do very little harm to the signal.

gjg
 
To your first question, I believe there are a number of wires on the market that have what I refer to as designer pricing- pricing that far exceeds the costs of developing, manufacturing, and distributing the product. There are other business costs as well and the need to have a profit to continue the business. But designer pricing occurs when a business decision is made to price a product so far outside the norm of the industry that it appears to the consumer that it must be the best if it costs so much. Who among us hasn't at least once thought that since product X is so much more expensive than product Y, product X must be better or even the best? Designer pricing is a marketing strategy which make you want the product since it is so expensive. It has a ring of exclusivity that makes us want it. BTW, some audio reviewers fall into that trap as well. Its like "well if this product costs so much more than the others, it must be the best."

As to your other point, there is a lot of snake oil in the high end industry- wires in particular. That does not mean that everyone in the high end industry is a snake oil salesman; there are a lot of very honest capable people in the industry making very good products. But I am always wary of people making claims that contradict basic physics. My favorite one lately is something about training electrons to flow on a wire. While one can alter current flow through a wire by artificially altering the electromagnetic fields in a wire, what does this really buy you other than further altering the signal. You end up "tuning" the wire for a particular sound, not allowing the signal to flow as unchanged as possible. I scratch my head over that one.

As far as naming names, I will not do that for several reasons. First, I am a part of the industry and anything I may say about a particular manufacturer may be seen as just a way to further my own product. Second, while I like to think my partner is a design genius, that does not mean that someone else out there hasn't come up with something truly ground breaking. But keep in mind that vast majority of scientific advances have not come from audio, but rather from space exploration, computers, and defense. We in audio have been able to take advantage of these break throughs.

I hope this answers your question(s).

gjg
 
NorthStar said:
Are some cables overpriced and 'overpuffed' (over emphasised on non-scientific advertising plus all that 'magic boxing' pizzaz)?

Name few too if you don't mind Greg.

* Good post by the way.
Click to expand...

Bob
Of course cables are overpriced . Everything is overpriced in this crazy hobby of ours.

As far as "magic boxes" are concerned why would I pay for something that doesn't do anything to the sound. That is why Transparent and MIT have been my cables of choice.
 
ggraff said:
To your first question, I believe there are a number of wires on the market that have what I refer to as designer pricing- pricing that far exceeds the costs of developing, manufacturing, and distributing the product. There are other business costs as well and the need to have a profit to continue the business. But designer pricing occurs when a business decision is made to price a product so far outside the norm of the industry that it appears to the consumer that it must be the best if it costs so much. Who among us hasn't at least once thought that since product X is so much more expensive than product Y, product X must be better or even the best? Designer pricing is a marketing strategy which make you want the product since it is so expensive. It has a ring of exclusivity that makes us want it. BTW, some audio reviewers fall into that trap as well. Its like "well if this product costs so much more than the others, it must be the best."

As to your other point, there is a lot of snake oil in the high end industry- wires in particular. That does not mean that everyone in the high end industry is a snake oil salesman; there are a lot of very honest capable people in the industry making very good products. But I am always wary of people making claims that contradict basic physics. My favorite one lately is something about training electrons to flow on a wire. While one can alter current flow through a wire by artificially altering the electromagnetic fields in a wire, what does this really buy you other than further altering the signal. You end up "tuning" the wire for a particular sound, not allowing the signal to flow as unchanged as possible. I scratch my head over that one.

As far as naming names, I will not do that for several reasons. First, I am a part of the industry and anything I may say about a particular manufacturer may be seen as just a way to further my own product. Second, while I like to think my partner is a design genius, that does not mean that someone else out there hasn't come up with something truly ground breaking. But keep in mind that vast majority of scientific advances have not come from audio, but rather from space exploration, computers, and defense. We in audio have been able to take advantage of these break throughs.

I hope this answers your question(s).

gjg
Click to expand...

Awesome Greg, tanx!

still-one said:
Bob
Of course cables are overpriced . Everything is overpriced in this crazy hobby of ours.

As far as "magic boxes" are concerned why would I pay for something that doesn't do anything to the sound. That is why Transparent and MIT have been my cables of choice.
Click to expand...

Yes I knew that Jim; just wanted to know Greg's own take.

* Transparent and MIT; why not Nordost and Shunyata? ...KimberKable and Crystal Cable? ...Acoustic Zen and Harmonic Technology? ...JPS Labs and AudioQuest? ...Van den Hull and Wireworld? ...Synergistic Research and TARA Labs? ...Analysis Plus and Alpha-Core? ...Audience and Kubala? ...Nirvana and Siltech?
 
One more thing that I can say in full honesty; I'm not a cable expert but I know a good cable from a lesser one.

And Greg gave us some great tips on maintenance; because a cable is also an audio component that requires maintenance and use and system matching (synergy) for top performance.

The geometry, the purity of the material used (copper Ns, silver, gold, titanium, plutonium ;), fiber optic), the clothing (quality dressing), connectors/terminators, the high fidelity of the sound's transfer.
 
Your mention of fidelity is key to this whole discussion. Fidelity comes from the latin word fidēlis which means faithful. While all components alter the original signal (as does the recording process), the attempt in high end should be to have that alteration be as minimal as possible. That is why I have a difficult time with manufacturers who try for a "house" soundly deliberately altering the signal rather than attempt to re-create the signal as unaltered as possible. While I know in the real world it is utterly impossible to re-create live music, it is still a goal that all in the industry, including users, should strive to achieve.

In the near future I plan to post a thought piece the validity of HP's standard of re-creating live music in your listening room vs what we all do- satisfy our listening biases.

gjg
 
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