...other than to make you spend more money, of course. Do oxygen free (99.999% or sometimes even more) cables have any plausible effect on an audio system? What about video systems, and even digital systems (by some miracle?)
1 Answer
No
http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/03/audiophiles-cant-tell-the-difference-between-monster-cable-and/
Why would it matter? - the tracks on the circuit board aren't oxygen free. Digital doesn't bear thinking about, the signal is either there or it isn't.
At Video frequencies capacitance and inductance matter more than whether the cable contains oxygen - does a slight change in oxygen somehow alter the capacitance of the wire - no. Consider if minute changes in oxygen somehow varied capacitance or inductance then these would be used as capacitors and inductors - e.g. 20uF = 10% oxygen, 2uF = 1% Oxygen, and so on but this doesn't happen because there is no effect.
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1About "Digital doesn't bear thinking about, the signal is either there or it isn't.". The error rate and maximum transmission rate of a digital connection depend on the cable properties/quality. So in other words: you need a cable supporting the data rate with an acceptable transmission error rate. Everything beyond that might be not worth your money. Commented May 11, 2011 at 14:19