The CD-RW.ORG had a look at some high quality cabling by BetterCables.com
It is more and more common that a computer acts as the media server instead of just being a workstation. Nowadays computers can be used as an audio and video source - possibly the only the source used in a household. Computers can carry huge amounts of compressed music or movies and they also serve well as DVD players. But the common problem is that computers aren't something we like to place to out living rooms, next to the audio system, TV or home theatre. This means extended cable length and low level video or audio signals need good carriers to deliver the signal without quality loss. A high quality cabling is needed.
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Written by: Lasse Penttinen @ 12 Apr 2003 13:35
New CD-RW.ORG article: Better cables from BetterCables
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Pio2001
Video cables might need to be of high quality, but CINCH audio cables don't.
Here's a blind test that you can download and try : http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/index.php?act=ST&f=21&t=6651&
I recorded the analog output of the Yamaha CDX860 CD player with a Sony DTC 55ES DAT deck, through RG179 coaxial cables, a high grade cable for electronics laboratories, and matched the level with a rip of the CD. It's the file number 5.
Few people could reliably distinguish the copy from the original.
I then added a 5 meters cheapest cable with plastic plugs. The kind of cable given away with all consumer hifi gear, improperly supposed to have "hardly any shielding". 8 euros for the 5 meters CINCH extension (male/female plugs). It's the file number 3.
Running statistics on all the recorded file, SoundForge found 0.00 db difference in level (before the leveling, of course) with the previous recording.
No one could make any audible difference with the previous recording. Cheap CINCH cables for line out, even over 5 meters, have no audible effect on the sound.
This was to be expected given the 470 ohm output and 47000 ohm input normalised impedance of line connections.
So why make special cables sold 170 $ for 5 meters ? It's more than 20 times the price of a cable proven to be perfect.
Since only 3 people tried so far, if we obviously count people that couldn't hear a difference with the original to begin with, anyone is invited to try the test.
The rules are : ABX blind testing ( http://www.pcabx.com/ ), with probability of guessing (given by the software) inferior to 5 %, with a number of tries specified before the test.
FLAC is needed to decode the files
http://flac.sourceforge.net/
No need to brag "I can hear the difference and I don't need to try the blind test to prove what I'm hearing, I'm a sound engineer, etc". If you can hear the difference looking at the cable, you can hear it when it's hidden.Pio200112.4.2003 16:43 #1
