Timeline for Do expensive, "premium" speaker cables make a difference?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
21 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Sep 6, 2013 at 4:54 | comment | added | Peter Wone | @PaŭloEbermann - HDMI signals are in the GHz range. Although a thick conductor has a low passive resistance, at high frequencies like this it has significant inductance. This is the point of stranded cores (apart from improved flexibility). Admittedly this inductance is completely irrelevant in the context of the original question, which is concerned with frequencies below 20kHz. | |
| Sep 4, 2013 at 18:44 | comment | added | Paŭlo Ebermann | A typical coat hanger wire is quite thick, thus having small resistance and not much losses on the way. | |
| Sep 4, 2013 at 9:12 | comment | added | Andrey | @PeterWone I agree that when we are speaking about long cables there are different things that matter. Still I am pretty sure that you can buy cheaper alternatives, since it is either works or doesn't. Basically you should pick cheapest cable that works for you. | |
| Sep 4, 2013 at 1:10 | comment | added | Peter Wone | @Andrey - I had problems with long runs of HDMI in-wall. It would not support 1080p until I used better quality cable. 480p worked find with all cables. As noted by the above answer, at 2m you won't notice, but when the run is 30m long it does make a difference. I cannot say whether the improvement came from better shielding or lower resistance. | |
| Jul 19, 2013 at 14:00 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Jul 19, 2013 at 15:11 | |||||
| S Jan 31, 2013 at 16:56 | history | edited | SIMEL | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
The source clearly states 1000KHz and not 1KHz
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| S Jan 31, 2013 at 16:56 | history | suggested | CommunityBot | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
1KHz at 75 Db
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| Jan 31, 2013 at 16:49 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| Jan 31, 2013 at 16:56 | |||||
| Aug 16, 2012 at 14:03 | comment | added | endolith | @Nick: Oh I was talking about things like HDMI cables. Yes, for speaker wires it's common to use bare copper wire, but I bet the spring contacts on the speaker are nickel plated at least. | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 21:53 | comment | added | Nick | @endolith I have some speakers where you have a clamp type socket you open, put the copper wire in and let go to close. Not sure how common those are nowadays. | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 21:27 | comment | added | endolith | @Nick: Someone is using bare copper for connector surfaces? o_O | |
| Aug 15, 2012 at 10:28 | comment | added | Nick | @endolith Unless the contacts of your tv/hifi are also goldplated, gold on copper is going to be worse for corrosion than copper on copper due to the electrochemical difference! | |
| May 11, 2012 at 20:05 | comment | added | endolith | @Andrey: Maybe they have corrosion-resistance gold-plated contacts or are built better so they can survive being stepped on. There are valid reasons to spend extra money on a cable. | |
| May 1, 2012 at 16:43 | comment | added | Wayne Werner | I forget where I read the article - some independent cable manufacturer's website - he hooked up an O-Scope to both Monster stereo cable and lamp cord, and couldn't find any difference in the signal quality of the Monster v. lamp cord. Guess what I used to run audio to my speakers ~50' away... | |
| Jan 10, 2012 at 22:00 | vote | accept | Nick T | ||
| May 5, 2011 at 22:49 | comment | added | Mark Ransom | @Andrey, there are at least 2 ways that a cable can affect a digital signal: it can affect the noise which couples into other parts of the circuit, and it can affect the timing. Most of the time these effects are undetectable, and I have no trouble using the cheapest HDMI cable I can find. | |
| May 5, 2011 at 20:05 | comment | added | Andrey | @Adam Robinson that's it! As far as analog is converted back to digital correctly (true for every normal cable) nothing in cable could matter. I read funny reviews for X000$ HDMIs like "colors are deeper" and other nonsense. People like to fool themselves, there is nothing that can change it. | |
| May 5, 2011 at 18:18 | comment | added | Adam Robinson | +1 to the question and +1 to @Andrey. The only thing that premium digital cables can do is possibly accommodate longer runs than their bargain counterparts, but it generally only means that they can accommodate runs that are longer than the specifications for that type of cable without losing signal. After all, the digital signal is just an abstraction on top of an analog signal. Everything, at some level, is analog. | |
| May 5, 2011 at 16:52 | comment | added | Andrey | I think the most funny part is premium digital cables, like HDMI. What the hell can be better with them? 1s and 0s are sharper? | |
| May 5, 2011 at 7:06 | comment | added | Thomas O | As a side note, I too have performed a similar test with identical results, although it was only a comparison between £0.44/meter speaker cable and some junk single insulated lamp cord I had. Both looked identical from a distance, so no one could tell which speaker in the 5.1 system was wired up to which, and both performed adequately. | |
| May 5, 2011 at 3:32 | history | answered | John Lyon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |