Seeing this article makes me realize I should never waste my time speaking with so called Journalists when they phone me asking for information/advice on audio related topics. I got burned by
USA Today on an article turned advetorial for Monster Cable. And, it seems my efforts to explain cable theory and the market with Sean Captain author of this article has gone unnoticed in his list of credits and some ill informed content he published in this article. It appears much of it was just spliced together with references to experts with no real understanding of the subject materials at hand.
Regarding the Analog Interconnect Stuff on Page 3
But the impedance mismatch between a cable's wires and its RCA connectors has far more impact on performance than any other attribute.
I disagree with this statement.
I am not sure where he is getting -14dB as being ideal for Return Loss.
Return loss is a ratio of Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) where ideally it would be 1 or nearly 1 for a perfect match and no loss of power and would in turn yield an infinite Return Loss or no reflected power, thus perfect transmission.
Return Loss = - 20*log [(1-VSWR)/(1+VSWR)] which equals about 14dB when VSWR approaches a value of 1.5. I can only assume they are referring to the impedance mismatch of 50 ohm RCA connector and 75 ohm characteristic impedance of the line which would yield a VSWR of 1.5.
That being said, in most cases this isn't even an issue since the wavelengths in question are too long to be affected by the short length of mismatch caused by the RCA connector. However for higher frequency applications it is not uncommon for manufacturers to buffer the input and output interfaces of connection devices with back match resistors to minimize impedance reflection issues.
In the end, I suppose the article does relay a good message about exotic cables not being as much a necessity as it is a commodity but he tends to downplay some of the important aspects of cables getting too caught up in annecdotal calculations and figures without looking at the big picture.
