5 Jan
2005
5 Jan
'05
6:30 p.m.
Guys, guys! Don't waste money on "oxygen-free" cables or other scams.
http://www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm
And: if you use balanced cables (most of the soundcards mentioned, e.g. RME and Delta 1010
have balanced "tip-ring-sleeve" connections) you can have very long runs with no
audible difference. I regularly use microphone cables in excess of 1000 meters, in my job
as an audio mixer for broadcast sports, and the sound is hum-free and good enough for
broadcast. Line-level audio signals will go even further- and if you can hear or measure
a difference you have golden Bat ears.
-Steiny
(510)907-0897
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andreas Kuckartz" <A.Kuckartz(a)ping.de>
To: linux-audio-user(a)music.columbia.edu
Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Feasibility of Crestron like Linux BasedWholeHouse Audio
System - Multisource / Multizone Capable????
Date: 5 Jan 2005 22:43:03 +0100
Florin Andrei wrote:
--
___________________________________________________________
Sign-up for Ads Free at Mail.com
http://promo.mail.com/adsfreejump.htm
But it might be ok, though, to run high-
amplitude analog signal over lengthy cables. I.e., speaker signal.
At those amplitudes and impedances, there's only a very low risk of
picking up noise.
You do not pick up noise but the longer the speaker cables the higher their
capacitance and their resistance. There also are other strange distortions
happening due to cables. All of this can influence the sound:
"Speaker cable needs to have a very low electrical resistance, so
it needs to be
fairly hefty and made from a pure material, such as oxygen-free copper (OFC).
Impure material can introduce nonlinearities (the oxidised copper actually
behaves as a semiconductor) that manifest themselves as increased
distortion at
low signal levels. There are many cables that qualify, including 30A 'cooker'
mains cable, but a sensibly priced, heavy-duty speaker cable is easier to use
and looks nicer. If the cable resistance is more than a tiny
fraction of an Ohm,
the amplifier's damping factor is compromised and also the loudspeaker's
frequency response can be affected. The reason for this is that a
loudspeaker's
impedance varies with frequency, but if this impedance is placed in
series with
a significant fixed cable resistance it acts as a potential divider, and the
power delivered to the loudspeaker at different frequencies will be altered
slightly."
(http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan02/articles/faq0102.asp#Anchor-32729)
(It might be difficult to convince people who intend to buy expensive golden
speaker cables to use Linux and a little bit of digital hardware
instead but one
could try :-)
Cheers,
Andreas