An ee told me once (and I’m not nearly an ee) that sound was primarily determined by power-vs-length-vs-geometry. Other things like noise cancellation or group delay caused by insulation thickness and material also enter into it. The actual calculations for that sort of thing are often proprietary and not given up easily by those in the know. But, this tends to mean that different components that have different power draws tend to require different power-vs-length-vs-geometry solutions But, the rest of us have to struggle along when it comes to DIY...or copy what we see that works for a given app, or whatever.
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I've built speaker cables and IC's, but have never attempted power cords.
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Welcome to audio! Where you generally first have to hear a given difference or effect for yourself...and then struggle to find the evidence or proof of its existence after the fact.
That’s because there is actually a lot about this hobby that technically seems to ’defy’ common sense. There’s at least one old hobby saying that seems to hold up that goes: "never judge an audio book by its cover"...which means just because an amp is ss, doesn’t mean it will always sound bad, or just because a pre-amp is passive, doesn’t mean it will always sound good, and so on.
People I think make the mistake of trying to grasp the hobby as a set of "rules" that must be learned. After a few decades at it, I no longer think that even applies. For most every rule someone comes up with, there may be anywhere from one to a dozen different exceptions to it...IME, they’re there, you may have to look for them a while to find them, but they’re there. I myself happen to think of this hobby as having far more exceptions than rules, no matter what others may say.
The only thing worse than hearing a difference and not being able to explain it is to insist that the difference cannot possibly exist because it just doesn’t make sense, without having heard it. |
Infinitely better than trying to cook them into compliance!
That is to say that, IME, most wires that have Very little or no insulation, do not seem to require any break in at all...with the possible exception of silver conductors, which I don't work with much anymore, since I've come to realize I generally prefer copper. |
One thing I believe I do know by now, is that the insulation known as PVC is just plain terrible...I mean it’s hot stinking garbage...just no good way to apply it for sound quality’s sake. It’s that smooth, usually black or dark grey, rubbery material that you often see on lower-priced IC’s, sometimes on speaker cables or even pc’s. Almost all the IC’s that come inside the box with new gear have it. It’s smooth in texture, has a matte finish, and gives a little bit to the touch like neoprene, except PVC has much finer air cells within it.
PVC destroys air, openness and the sense of atmospheric space, not just through the mids and highs, but down into the lower mids and can even obscure some bass detail. It has that characteristic "dead", "lifeless" or "rubbery" sound to it that you usually associate with cheaper wires. The good news is that whenever you simply strip off this material down to whatever material is underneath, you breathe massive amounts of life back into the sound and the music. With XLR cables the underlying material will likely braid shielding, in which case you need to cut carefully without nicking up the braid too much. But, it’s amazing how much even cheapie wires will benefit from this! Which makes it easy to try out if you have a pair. But, I’ve tried it enough times now to know that whenever I buy any wires with this jacketing on it, I know definitely that it’s coming off as soon as I buy them. |
...not that AQ had any kind of lock on compromised wire designs. |
@kumakahn,
It seems to me, a few decades back, AudioQuest wrote a "manifesto" about what they considered to be worthwhile goals in wire design. I read it, and for the most part, it is about as good a reference as any manufacturer ever produced in layman's terms. The only problem with it was that, while the principles appeared to be rather valid, AQ itself hardly ever followed its own advice altogether in any single cable design of theirs that I ever saw...they were usually compromised, by their own definition, one way or another. |
@kumakahn Exactly...unfortunately for us all, there Are no sources of sound, scientific information that relate to sound characteristics like the ones you mention. That sort of thing, AFAIK, is not to be found in science, per se, but only in marketing...hence we rank ametures are having to try to do it all ourselves, basically.
In the early 2000’s I got into it because of the raging debate at the time of which was better, stranded or solid core...I mean about half the manufacturers were saying that stranded was clearly the "greatest" and the other half said solid core - the only thing I knew for sure is that they couldn’t both be right. That’s when I started experimenting myself, however crudely, it didn’t matter to me, with some orphaned wires I had accumulated. The materials used have an impact. Online I looked at topics like dielectric absorption, which was helpful, but drew no correlation between that and sound quality, per se...only measurements, mostly. But, the experimenting taught me more about what relates to sound quality than anything else. It’s just that I had to carry out repeated experiments over time, a few years in fact for me, in order to be sure I was not inferring something that wasn’t there. Even so, I don’t have any scientific "proof" of what I hear, and yet it’s demonstrable all the same. |
@nonoise,
Maybe I didn't see that you were addressing the OP and not the thread?? |
Roger on all that. Thanks. |
@nonoise,
"Your hearing is completely different from someone else.
You’ll have some overlap but your hearing is unique.
Your amp won’t have the same output specs as others.
Your speaker won’t have the same input specs as others."
Not sure I get that part... That's what the skeptics say to us about fuses, wiring and everything else controversial...that we lack either the educated ear or the technical skill to interpret the results of our own observations, and that therefore we shouldn't even attempt to find out on our own what might be going on. But, for the life of me, I don't get why we wouldn't do so, if we have an opportunity in front of us. Why would audiophiles trust their ears with speakers, with amps and sources...but Not with wiring? Makes no sense to me... I for one am not looking solve the 'mystery of all wiring', just to see if I can unearth the kind of things the makers are not telling me. Your post above makes it look like all investigation on the topic should be banned or dropped. Oh sure, some folks might be in need of starting over from the beginning when it comes to dreaming up an experiment that is dirt simple enough to be factually useful, yeah, I'll grant you that might be a fair criticism, but I mean should we deny other peoples right to experiment...or just maybe be willing to call into question the results on occasion. Just sayin', is all.
Regards |
