audio myths answered /debunked ?

highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Because there is a market for it. If there was no market or he was losing money, he would not make or sell them. :D
But the point is, the companies that came along early have just perpetuated the myths, just for the money.
 
Speedskater

Speedskater

Audioholic General
and then there are audiophile semi-myths, that take real engineering knowledge and use it way out of context
like:
Gigahertz cable design and analog cable design are very different.
Silver wire in audio cables.
Phono pre-amp design and AC power circuits.
Planet Earth grounding.
and:
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
and then there are audiophile semi-myths, that take real engineering knowledge and use it way out of context
like:
Gigahertz cable design and analog cable design are very different.
Silver wire in audio cables.
Phono pre-amp design and AC power circuits.
Planet Earth grounding.
and:
RECAP EVERYTHING THAT'S MORE THAN TEN YEARS OLD!

People think 20 years old is 'vintage'.

This is 'vintage'- made in 1930. I saw one yesterday, if anyone is interested.

 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
None of the items on the list are myths. The items on the list all perform real tasks. The question is do they perform their tasks better or correctly.
Real audiophile myths are like:
CD's and green pens
Cable lifters
magic grounding boxes
and
Your mixing up snake oil with myths is probably my fault because I included bi amping (fair game since snake oil is same as Smurf(blue Jean cables) ? I mean myth ??? :cool:

What the heck is this thing great myths you’ve found and your list was unfinished, and.. ?? :D Oh your periodically adding them my bad go on .
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Your mixing up snake oil with myths is probably my fault because I included bi amping (fair game since snake oil is same as Smurf(blue Jean cables) ? I mean myth ??? :cool:

What the heck is this thing great myths you’ve found and your list was unfinished, and.. ?? :D Oh your periodically adding them my bad go on .
The jack at the end looks more like a binding post than an RCA jack. Also, it's in wood, which isn't conductive enough to do any good.

The fact that he waited 30 minutes says he's full of crap if he thinks he heard a difference and clearly doesn't understand how listening tests are to be conducted.

Also says he's a musician- likely stood in front of the main speakers and stuffed his head in, "so he could really hear it".

What a pinhead.
 
F

fmw

Audioholic Ninja
Not so fast, a lot depends on how you define 'influenced'. For if you live next door to an amateur radio operator and your IC from your TT to phono-pre is not well shielded that 'influence' will be heard and amplified !
If you were to tally up all the complaints you have heard about RFI in an audio system, how many would you count? I would not get past zero personally. RFI just isn't much of an issue with audio systems.
*
 
Last edited:
Mikado463

Mikado463

Audioholic Spartan
If you were to tally up all the complaints you have heard about RFI in an audio system, how many would you count? I would not get past zero personally. RFI just isn't much of an issue with audio systems.
*
I never said it was a major issue, merely debunking your 'never an issue' statement. So you've never had an RFI issue, good, I did years ago, thus my response.
 
William Lemmerhirt

William Lemmerhirt

Audioholic Overlord
I never said it was a major issue, merely debunking your 'never an issue' statement. So you've never had an RFI issue, good, I did years ago, thus my response.
My dear ol neighbor was a hamm operator. Had antennas all over in his trees, had a crazy setup. Used to start talking at 6am. Every time he’d key his mic it would come through my subwoofers. Talk about a PITA. He’s was super helpful and we tried all kinds of stuff. Finally installed Rome shielded RG-6 and bam. He was out of my system for good.
So yeah, those that have never had such a problem are lucky for sure.
 
Speedskater

Speedskater

Audioholic General
If you were to tally up all the complaints you have heard about RFI in an audio system, how many would you count? I would not get past zero personally. RFI just isn't much of an issue with audio systems. *
Well RFI can be and sometimes is a problem! Every new electrical item that you bring into your home has the potential to be an RFI source. Items like high-tech appliances or lighting systems, solar panels or car chargers, even wall-worts.
Retired Audio Engineering Society interference expert and Ham radio operator, has about 50 papers & Power Points on his web-site, most are about interference and noise.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
If you were to tally up all the complaints you have heard about RFI in an audio system, how many would you count? I would not get past zero personally. RFI just isn't much of an issue with audio systems.
*
I look at it more as look at all the "audiophile" products that are marketed to solve this almost non-existent problem. It can happen, but it's pretty rare (or even possibly misreported due to misunderstanding of what a problem actually is).
 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
I look at it more as look at all the "audiophile" products that are marketed to solve this almost non-existent problem. It can happen, but it's pretty rare (or even possibly misreported due to misunderstanding of what a problem actually is).
What makes thicke speaker cable and expensive brands better than the thinner or lower end brands?
Example thin vs 14awg
And Amazon has dirt cheap cables too is this better then my thinner Dayton brand 16-18awg ?
InstallGear 14 Gauge AWG 100ft Speaker https://a.co/d/dE19R0w
19B242D6-E206-4AB1-A927-BF290B3F9CCE.jpeg
 
Kingnoob

Kingnoob

Audioholic Samurai
hmm interesting so regular hdmi high speed are fine for everything even 4k ?
Oh yeah I used regular hdmi cables for everything even 4k Blu-ray’s, only have 2 4k cables and not even using them right now .

We can beat the bi amplify topic into oblivion while at it . I had someone on another’s site begging me to try it saying it doubles your max wattage lol :D
 
rsharp

rsharp

Audioholic
HDMI gets complicated since there's also the source and destination equipment and how they will deal with the signals.

e.g. HDMI 2.1 spec added higher bandwidth capability. But what that means is that instead of just sending video down three channels (TMDS channels 0, 1 and 2), video data can also be sent over the TMDS clock channel (i.e. a total of four channels). The physical cable will be the same (so far, all HDMI cables have the same exact wiring). However, if the source equipment splits the video over those four channels and the destination equipment only knows how to deal with three, then you'll have issues.

Also, gauge of the individual wires in the cable will determine maximum bandwidth for a given distance (length). If you purchase those copper-based HDMI cables that are super thin, they will most likely fail for longer lengths if you need to push lots of data. Since the individual wires will be very very thin.

For my setup, I'm using passive HDMI cables (wanted to keep things simple and avoid any issues with active cables). And, ensured they were full 48 Gbps compliant. This leads to them being physically thicker. and, while not all my source components would output such high bandwidth, I sometimes will shuffle components around when getting new components. So I don't have the case where say the only 3-foot cable I have is an 18 Gbps rated one. All the different lengths I have are all rated the same (48 Gbps), so can mix-and-match.

The amount of data can sometimes be adjusted at your source component. e.g. on my 4K bluray player, I can either have it output 8-bit 4:2:0 or 12-bit 4:4:4. I choose the latter since the blu-ray player does a better job at chroma processing than my TV.

Finally, even some newer receivers are shipping with HDMI inputs that are not all equal. Some are even labeling all inputs as being HDMI 2.1 compliant (which one would then assume could handle 48 Gbps). But, some of the inputs max out at 24 Gbps and if you read the fine print, 4K 120 would require compression. So you're back to the case where would the equipment being connected to that receiver know how to deal with said compression.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Just picked up this, didn't know there were more recordings from the session (Friday Night in San Francisco being the main release). So far so good, on track 5....

satnight.jpg
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
What makes thicke speaker cable and expensive brands better than the thinner or lower end brands?
Example thin vs 14awg
And Amazon has dirt cheap cables too is this better then my thinner Dayton brand 16-18awg ?
InstallGear 14 Gauge AWG 100ft Speaker https://a.co/d/dE19R0w
View attachment 59790
Wire needs to conduct current and the cross-sectional area makes a huge difference in this. Look at voltage as water pressure and current as what it is WRT water- flow. Larger hose will allow much more water to flow, although high pressure in a skinny hose definitely will make the water squirt a long way from the end.

Voltage is Potential Energy, Current refers to a physical quantity, which is the number of electrons that can move through it in one second. Skinny wire can't allow high current without heat becoming a problem and that's from resistance. As resistance increases, voltage drops and this is the reason long speaker wires must be thicker.

BTW- the photo shows a bad practice when using banana plugs- if something pulls downward on the wire, it puts a lot of stress on the terminals and can even break the plastic. I would be a good idea to remove one of the screws, get a longer one and fasten the wire to the cabinet with a screw-down wire tie, to take the stress from the terminals and the wire strands. Leave a slight loop- it doesn't need to be large, but it helps relieve the stress.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Just picked up this, didn't know there were more recordings from the session (Friday Night in San Francisco being the main release). So far so good, on track 5....

View attachment 59951
Some friends went to see them on a later tour with Steve Morse (Dixie Dregs, Deep Purple, Kansas) as the opener- they said he was a real standout and was as good as any of the others. I wish I could have seen Paco- he's also on DiMeola's LP Elegant Gypsy, on the track titled 'Mediterranian Sundance'. I got into McLaughlin & DiMeola in the mid-'70s and Morse in '79, when I heard Dregs Of The Earth. Considering they're playing acoustic guitars, that's some amazing talent.

RIP Paco de Lucia
 
newsletter

  • RBHsound.com
  • BlueJeansCable.com
  • SVS Sound Subwoofers
  • Experience the Martin Logan Montis
Top