KVR Audio

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 10:53 pm

McLilith wrote:...and to think that I spent several years of my life, learning how to move the stars in the sky, using only the power of my mind -- all for nothing! :cry:

So YOU'RE the one who made me buy that fancy, super-smooth Byers drive for the SC8+! >:-S Bunky, you and me got some serious talking to do.

mandolarian · Post by **mandolarian** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 10:59 pm

McLilith wrote: I hate to break the news to you, but the speed of light is not an absolute constant. Read this: Speed of Light Definition

Yeah, but for an audio signal with a 20hz to 25khz bandwith running thru the same 3 feet of copper wire, it is a constant in my formulas. Not an absolute one, but close enough for folk music.

nuffink · Post by **nuffink** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:02 pm

For you lovers of the absurd I can recommend Peter Belt of PWB Electrionics.
This one sells 17cm by 2cm strips of foil for £100 a pop.
He does sell them too. I've met him. He's got a fan base that supports him in reasonable style.

Bunnyboy · Post by **Bunnyboy** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:10 pm

nuffink wrote:For you lovers of the absurd I can recommend Peter Belt of PWB Electrionics.
This one sells 17cm by 2cm strips of foil for £100 a pop.
He does sell them too. I've met him. He's got a fan base that supports him in reasonable style.

awww

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:11 pm

nuffink: Ghawds. Red pen, silver rainbow foil... what, no fairy dust? "Just place one of our special 'audio-dots' on your tongue and let the active ingredient dissolve... within minutes your stereo will emit eight-dimensional sound -- even if it's turned off! -- which pulsates throughout all known and unknown universes simultaneously, and as a limited-time bonus you will turn into an iridescent winged unicorn who breathes flames and drinks mercury. Double your money back if we're not satisfied after spending it!"

Barnum, I suppose you never said that line but if you did, you underestimated by several orders of magnitude.

McLilith · Post by **McLilith** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:14 pm

mandolarian wrote:
McLilith wrote: I hate to break the news to you, but the speed of light is not an absolute constant. Read this: Speed of Light Definition
Yeah, but for an audio signal with a 20hz to 25khz bandwith running thru the same 3 feet of copper wire, it is a constant in my formulas. Not an absolute one, but close enough for folk music.

Next think you know, I'll be selling Hink impulse responses that I've taken of "vintage tube-era wiring", like that which was used with the old classic studio gear. I mean, it's not enough just to emulate the that old valve-based optical compressor. We also have to emulate the interconnects from that time period as well if we want to preserve all the magic of that golden era.

I'll be the first on the market, with my WarmWires(tm) vintage interconnect emulations. Don't just settle for the rack gear from days gone by, emulate the whole studio! Think about it, those signals spent most of their time in the wiring, not in the darn tubes! People are missing out on the most important part of why the classic gear sounded better -- it was all that classic wiring the signal had to flow through.

WarmWires(tm)

"Ask for it by name, and accept no substitutes!"

McLilith

--
reality: The stuff which perception can only hope to imagine.

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:19 pm

Hey, any wire that doesn't have classic varnished fabric "push-back" insulation might as well be DIGITAL. And you know how bad that stuff is.

Whaddaya know, I just happen to have spools and spools of very old -- OOPS, I mean VINTAGE! -- hookup wire, some solid and some stranded, all with classic varnished fabric "push-back" insulation! My, my. =^_^=

McLilith · Post by **McLilith** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:24 pm

I have actually heard of people who claim the old cloth-covered wiring inside old vintage guitar amps sounds better than any of the new wiring. Some people won't let you work on their amp, if you don't use that kind of wire for any wiring you might have to replace.

McLilith

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:26 pm

===(@.@)===

(That's me with huge bulging eyes and whiskers sticking out about a foot on either side in astonishment.)

I give up, it's got impossible to play "stranger than truth." So-called real world keeps trumping my most absurd ideas. *SIGH*

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:33 pm

mandolarian wrote:
McLilith wrote: I hate to break the news to you, but the speed of light is not an absolute constant. Read this: Speed of Light Definition
Yeah, but for an audio signal with a 20hz to 25khz bandwith running thru the same 3 feet of copper wire, it is a constant in my formulas. Not an absolute one, but close enough for folk music.

well you're also talking 3 feet of cable and I was making my references to longer runs, not too mention the fact that most signals that are run through patch cords are from an active source and many guitars (not mine tbh) are passive and hi z.

I do know that Monster cable has been satisfying audiophiles since long before they ventured into musical instruments. Perhaps all those people are wrong, but of the ones I know I would think it very unlikely.

Either way you can't change what I witnessed...having been the one that did the test A/B with left and right being monster and different cables. We swapped them back and fourth, we tried two crap cables, we tried two monster cables and the results on the VU's were the same...monster cable was hotter. That and lifetime warranty makes me happy.

BTW Monster cable connect cables are one way (they'll work in both directions though)...is that all hype to fool the often highly educated audiophiles too? Or is it possible that they might actually of wanted to make a better cable and did?...I mean it's not like I'm the only one buying them

However I will admit I did not even consider them (except for the large gauge speaker cables) until I sold them in retail. I can't argue that the employee discount did have a lot to do with that.

Like I say when you get a hosa or store brand for one price and for less the ten dollars more get a cable that is better then stock cables ( I swear by switchcraft connectors, but monsters are very well constructed) with a lifetime warranty it's worth it.

Believe it or not a solder joint has a lot to do with sound as well. A "cold" solder joint can become micro-phonic and be more likely to pick up radio signals. This holds true in all audio equipment, I had an old practice amp that use to pick up everything (valvestate). My buddy had the same amp and it didn't pick up anything at my house. I lived on the top floor of a high rise, there were radio antennas for beepers on the roof (yeah that long ago) and I would get that noise all the time on my amp. I finally chucked the amp out the window (11th Floor, dont worry no one could walk below my window).

I do believe monster cable probably has better quality control and probably more pride in their product then some factory making cables slapping different brand names on them...

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:38 pm

Hink wrote:BTW Monster cable connect cables are one way (they'll work in both directions though)...is that all hype to fool the often highly educated audiophiles too?

Yes, it is. Utter and complete nonsense. Pure and simple. Sorry, but: yes, it is.

There is one purpose and one purpose only for the ad hype, unprovable claims, and pseudo-science: to convince people to pay ridiculous amounts of money for cables that are no better than other high-quality cables which cost far less.

As for cold solder joints... those are the province of very poorly skilled amateurs who load the iron tip with solder and "paint" it on. No competent electronic worker would ever do that. I learned to solder the right way (by heating wire and solder lug until THEY melt the solder, which then wets the materials to be soldered instead of "sitting on top") at age six, back in the age of vacuum tubes. The laws of physics haven't changed since. :-)

nuffink · Post by **nuffink** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:41 pm

Directional cable. Julian Vereker of Naim Audio came up with that one.

McLilith · Post by **McLilith** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:48 pm

Actually, the Monster site mentions that their unidirectional cables are classified that way, only because the shield isn't connected at each end of the cable. In this case, there truly would be a "directionality" in the effectiveness of noise and interence elimination made possible by the shield.

If you want a good explaination of why unidirectional shielding isn't such a good idea, just visit the Rane Technical library, and read the tutorials on grounding and shielding:

http://www.rane.com/library.html

So, once again Monster has mixed a small amount of actual science into a work of science fiction.

take care,
McLilith

McLilith · Post by **McLilith** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:53 pm

Hey, wasn't the X-Files TV show sponsored by Monster?

"The best place to conceal a lie is between two truths." -- Cigarette Smoking Man, The X-Files

...or if you make "audiophile" cables:

"The best place to conceal the truth is between two lies."

McLilith

--
"I want to believe..."

Meffy · Post by **Meffy** » Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:54 pm

Interesting stuff here.

http://www.roger-russell.com/wire.htm

Found the link in this JREF forum thread.

http://forums.randi.org/printthread.php ... adid=28663

BTW, I ought to have mentioned that you can also get a cold solder joint by failing to hold a wire still while the solder cools and solidifies. But that's another error of the rankest of amateurs. Any competent tech, pro or hobbyist, knows to hold the darned thing perfectly still. Toasty paws? Use pliers (or, better still, a Panavise and "third hand").

brand names I'll never buy