Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

I feel I should apologise.. I didn't mean to bring up the dredded cable conversations.

I read about a company in the US where you can send your cable to them and they will cryogenicly freeze it and send it back to you.

1 Attachment

No apologies required IMO.

I've heard lots. I'm an Electronics Tech by trade, in it for 33 years so far professionally. I'm also a Musician. I also love listening to music (shock horror). At hobby level I also like attempting to 'design', build and listening and buying equipment that facilitates that.

I still love a good 'wanky wire' debate though!

what about the uneven 50hz frequency our electricity suppliers throw down the line at us

shocking i tells ya

But are we all in agreement that it makes no difference whatsoever? Two blokes at my work who've both spent silly amounts on cables whilst I've got fiver for ten metres cable from ebay. They won't/can't allow themselves to believe that it makes no difference.

EDIT in response to Dicki

Wurd bro!

What is the world coming to when one has to regenerate ones own mains power just to listen to smart beatz? I ask you!

I didn't realise just how bad our mains power was until I was looking at a problem on a valve amp project. Various other folk involved in building kit have reported DC off set, distortion, noise and switching spikes. It also may explain why sometimes folk hear differences to their own replay systems when they're used at different times during the day as the loads and resultant crud chucked into the grid may peak and trough during the day and night.

I reckon its really interesting.

I dunno if I can answer that as I haven't heard their cables. I also might not hear what they (or maybe your chums 'want'?) to hear, thats part of the reason its such a trixy subject.

I'm an ex-cable-sceptic BTW. "I can see through all this crap, I'm a Tech".... I used to think to myself. Yup, I thought it was all BS until I heard differences for myself. Note use of the word 'differences', NOT better or worse than.

But are we all in agreement that it makes no difference whatsoever?

No, we are not!
Its not just electrons old chum; I'm afraid there are magnets involved.
And, as FMOAF points out, the human ear and brain.

Go to a live orchestra or, say, a pipe organ in a town hall. Have 10 people listen to a performance and ask them to describe the sound - there will still be differences.

Actually, a bit CSB but a family friend is one of the last Pipe Organ players at Sydney Town Hall. There's not a hi-fi or a speaker cable that can reproduce the sound of that thing at full blast.

This dude:
https://youtu.be/3daCEE8FlPU

Yups, so many variables. We hear with our brains not with our ears a retired audiologist chum always reminds me. Thats why we're not always good arbiters of sound quality. The ears are transducers, they're not calibrated and vary due to may other factors eg tiredness, temp, recent exposure to SPL etc. The ol' brain has to compute and process all that variable info, thats the really clever bit. Based on what our brains tell us we then need to communicate how we feel about what we're hearing and compare it to 'results' from the next persons test equipment ie- their own ears/brains/perceptions .

Variance? Un realiable 'organic' test equipment, you got it in humans by the shed loads. Add more than one 'test' human and it gets even more bonkers :)

Agree with all that Mr Tra.

I have to ask though what does CSB mean?

OK, having been unsuccessful getting rid of my old CD player and cassette deck at bargainous prices, I just want rid now, sooo... Free to a good home. Cambridge Audio CD4 cd player and(/or) an Aiwa tape deck. Collect Blackheath.

CSB = Cool Story Bro

or Olly398's more memetic response

blushes I feel so out of touch with modern-speake at times!

Ta for for enlightening me TRA and Olly, I feel younger already :)

dude - you may be able to help me.

my amp buzzes. almost inaudibly when using any input apart from the aux from the imac. BUT, it only gets loud(ish) when the mac goes to sleep.

earth issues?

Have you tried better cables?

Possibly, or power supply noise from the iMac being picked up and fed into the amp? It increases when the amp goes to sleep suggests when the demand is less on the iMac's internal PSU its being fed down the 3.5mm (I assume you're using that kinda connector out the headphone/line out socket?). Is the iMac definitely plugged into a grounded mains socket? I'm floundering/guessing as sometimes trying to diagnose Electronics faults via webbernet is like performing keyhole surgery with one hand over your eyes sometimes!

Does the amp work OK with other sources like a CD player or batt powered MP3 player? Noise/buzz free?

Ha! Bwillyunt answer, inflammatory, but still bwillyunt :)

I get the same from my amp plugged in to tv via 3.5mm headphone socket. While the tv is on, there's an almost inaudible buzz, but once the tv is off the buzz gets louder and started crackling randomly.

ah, cheers.

i will have a fnck around tonight to see if it is noisy on the phono. i don't think it is.

edit - using the 3.5mm out into the phono on the amp, until dac issues are sorted

would taking an optical out to a battery powered dac make a diff?

I wouldn't ! The phono input will have massive gain compared to the line level inputs like 'cd' 'aux' etc etc It'll also attempt to apply RIAA equalisation to the signal coming form the iMac. + 20dB boost at ~20Hz, kittens/newlyweds and parrots could be harmed!

Yes, thats a much better idea. Good thinking fella. Feed output of DAC into a line level i/p on the amp. You might need to tweak the audio output settings menu on the iMac to make it see the opt out, I'm not familiar enough with hipster pooters (ducks for cover!) to talk you through that one.

Maybe. Any opto isolation will help with groundloop/noise issues. Unless it is the lack of a ground somewhere causing them!