Very true, and *how *it degrades depends on whether it’s a digital or analog signal (as we both mentioned).
If it’s an analog signal, the SNR will decrease as cable length increases. The lower the SNR, the greater the percentage of noise in the overall signal. You can think of it as a continuous & somewhat linear relationship - the longer the cable, the worst the signal. Though in reality this isn’t quite true. For many modern analog systems, the signal quality might only decrease slightly up to a certain distance, and then decrease quickly above a certain distance. This is due to fancy filtering and modulation techniques that are commonly employed nowadays.
A digital signal is more back and white. If it’s a digital signal, it’s more of a matter of thresholds. Up to a certain length everything will work perfectly; there will be absolutely no difference between (for example) 1 meter and 10 meters. But past a certain threshold length, the system will be erratic and you’ll get intermittent missing bits. As mentioned by Q.E.D., an error correction scheme - assuming it’s employed - will take care of some incorrect or missing bits. But only up to a certain rate.
I assume the same line of reasoning is true for speaker cable and other analog audio cable, which is where Monster made their name.
Anecdote: I mistakenly bought an expensive HDMI cable when I bought my whole system, and now it does not make a positive connection at one end. It works great when I hold it into the plug with my hand :rolleyes: but is useless for practical intents and purposes. Still can’t figure out exactly what is failing.
What kind of electronics knowledge do you get when you hire for near minimum wage?
RS has told me ridiculous things like I needed “digital cable”, as if the wire actually cares about the format of the electrical impulses it’s carrying. I start to wonder if some of their employees are the kind of people who are impressed with headphones that have “Digital/MP3 Ready” on the packaging.
All of these ripoffs come about because they claim to make improvements that only true video/audiophile can discern. Like the Emperor’s new clothes, to admit you can’t tell see/hear it, makes you a lesser person.
Those headphones are a great deal! You have no idea how long I had to wait for my old headphones to come back from the shop when I sent them in for their digital audio upgrade.
I’ve ordered from these people and have gotten, so far, outstanding customer service.
I placed an order on New Year’s Day, then realized I needed to add a 3rd cable to my order (e-mailed them, they replied within an hour, but I didn’t know this- I figured they were all at home eating pork and sauerkraut), then realized I needed a different 3rd cable (they were so on top of it that they had already adjusted my order for my original request), and finally I figured I ought to just cancel the original order and place a new order (they had already jumped through hoops and still stayed on top of it, cancelled the original adjusted order and processed the new order, probably cursing me under their breath, but treating me like I was their #1 priority). It’s pains-in-the-ass like me that separate the real customer service professionals from the chaff!
That is a good contender but the examples given were for CHEAP cables. A true audiophile would want “The new no-holds-barred flagship from Transparent Cable represent the latest advancements in networked cable only for the elite loudspeakers in the world. At $23,500 for an 8’ pair”.
Looks like you pulled an old article, according to their 2007 price (warning pdf) the 8’ are now $33,000, put you can go up to 25’ for only an additional $10k!
Jonathan
For what it’s worth, I can think of two traits of more expensive cables that the bargain basement cables tend not to have: the first is good quality connectors that are solidly attached and won’t break or come loose. The second is nice flexible/rubbery cable sheathing that lays flat easily and doesn’t “remember” kinks. In my opinion, these are both worth paying a little more for even though neither one directly affects the basic function of the cable. But you don’t need to buy Monster Cable to get those features.
Well, I hope you didn’t infer from my post that all expensive cables are high quality, because that’s definitely not the case. And $80-$100 for an HDMI cable is in the “getting ripped off, even if it is high quality” range, unless it’s 50 feet long, custom-made, or extraordinary in some other way.
This reminds me of the professor who asked our class if real music snobs enjoyed music more or less because of their finer taste. He said a friend of his couldn’t listen to a whole classical CD, but only certain movements, because he had other CDs that had that movement performed better. What a pain. I’ve decided that for many things, including audio, I’m not going to get too educated, because I don’t want to be tempted to spend the money.
OTOH, in regard to the topic at hand, a roommate of mine years ago took an unacredited class for audio pros who just wanted to know more, but didn’t need college credit. The instructor was insistent that cables were immaterial, period. My buddy was pointedly upset that he couldn’t perform a blind test with cable swapping, because the teacher just couldn’t be bothered to take the time. He was convinced he would show that he could pick out the sound through the give-away cables that come with the components.
Since we’re talking digital signals, does that mean we’re not talking speaker wire? I don’t know much about the whole issue, but I do remember being surprised that even I could tell the difference between the D/A converter in the in the CD player and the dedicated unit. Then one day I came home and in about five seconds said, “What’s changed with the stereo?” “I bi-amped the speakers.” After hearing it the other way for months, it was immediately apparent and better.
My point being that obviously some things do matter, even to philistines such as I, and could the quality of the cable carrying the analog signal lead to markedly different sound?
