Question about audio

[johngorrow]

I understand that the best way to connect audio components is to use gold-plated connectors. What kind of wire is the best to use? I'd imagine that there is something better than copper wire.

 

[audioguru]

Copper wire is fine for connecting audio components together.
Some very poor quality Chinese shielded audio cables were sold by RadioShack and the shield was only 3 strands of thin wire instead of many strands that are braided.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I understand that the best way to connect audio components is to use gold-plated connectors. What kind of wire is the best to use? I'd imagine that there is something better than copper wire.

Gold plated connectors are just a con - copper wire is perfectly fine, but feel free to use silver or gold wire, if you can find it, and if you can afford it?. It won't sound any better, but it will have slightly lower resistance.

 

[johngorrow]

When you say that it will have slightly lower resistance, do you mean that the wire will lose less sound in terms of volume?

 

[audioguru]

The difference in volume between copper wire and silver wire is slight and you will not notice it. It will be difficult to measure with a sensitive meter and you will not hear it.

 

[Hero999]

When you say that it will have slightly lower resistance, do you mean that the wire will lose less sound in terms of volume?

That statement doesn't make any sense.

Wire doesn't loose sound it drops voltage when a given current flows through it - see Ohm's law.

Ohm's law - Google Search

The only grain of truth in what you've said is that the lower voltage will reduce the volume of sound made by the speakers which convert the electrical signal into sound.

A long cable with a high resistance will also ruin the damping factor and lower the sound quality. Extremely long cables (over about 2km) will also cause problems with reflections which will distort higher frequency sounds.

 

[Leftyretro]

I understand that the best way to connect audio components is to use gold-plated connectors. What kind of wire is the best to use? I'd imagine that there is something better than copper wire.

Good quality copper wire of the proper gauge works just fine. The whole audophile golden ears things is just a myth that feeds the eye candy needs of this well to do crowd. Many cottage companies are making a nice living feeding off these myths and egos.

Lefty

 

[Dean Huster]

Coppper and silver have nearly the same resistivity -- copper is maybe about 7 or 8% worse than silver, hardly worth the price difference of using silver for a conductor vs. copper. Gold isn't much better of a conductor than aluminum. Gold's only advantage, as plating, is that it doesn't corrode.

If you want plated connectors, silver is the way to go for plating. The oxide of silver is conductive, which is why the high-end connector used by the military are silver-plated.

Audiophools (the "golden-eared" crowd) will buy into anything they think will make their system sound better, regardless of the price. They even buy into the idea that the power cord for their amplifier, if made of specialized wire, will cause the amplifier to sound better. There's an audiophool born every minute.

Dean

 

[johngorrow]

What about Monster brand cables, wire, etc?

 

[PGrogan]

It is "********". The only thing that is important (for the ear) is the connector. Monster cable sold 100$ worth the same as chineese cable sold 10 bucks on ebay!

 

[johngorrow]

Is this also true for HDMI cables, Composite, Component, fiber optic, etc?

 

[Torben]

What about Monster brand cables, wire, etc?

Audiophiles will swear up and down that they can hear a difference. However, double-blind studies have been done which showed that car jumper cables (and, IIRC, coathanger wire) was audibly indistinguishable from cable costing many hundreds of dollars.

Not that truly bad cable won't sound bad--it can--but there is just no point in improving it past a certain point. If it's properly shielded, not corroded, doesn't have internal breaks, and is adequately sized for the task at hand, then it's as good as it's going to get. Another couple of thousand on speaker wire will not improve things.

It seems to me that most of the people who insist that it's worth the money either sell the stuff or else they have bought the silly things and need to defend their decision.


Torben

 

[johngorrow]

So for my circuits, 22 gauge copper wire is fine for audio?

 

[Torben]

So for my circuits, 22 gauge copper wire is fine for audio?

Hard to say, without knowing what your circuits are. Let's just say that the wire is very unlikely to be the weak point (as long as the connections are good and the wire isn't total crap).

That said, audiophile sound is a subjective area. If you tell an audiophile that there is only one tube in an amp and that the cables cost $2000, they will swear that it sounds better, regardless of what any amount of measuring or testing can actually show.


Torben

[Edit: on re-reading that, I thought it sounded like I was criticizing your circuits; I didn't mean to. I haven't seen your circuits and I'm sure they're lovely. It's just that regular copper wire of the right size is not likely to be the weak point of most audio circuits. Sorry if I came off rude.]

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

Is this also true for HDMI cables, Composite, Component, fiber optic, etc?

Yes - and NEVER buy anything labelled 'Monster', the are mediocre quality and massive prices - plus HUGE profits for the store.

To give you an example, is a shop sells you a lead for £5 they might make £1-£2 on it (20%-40% profit). If they sell you a 'Monster" lead for £100 they might make £70-£80 on it (70%-80% profit).

There's a certain minimum quality required, so often the really cheap leads are crap, but once you reach that basic minimum quality exceeding it makes little or no difference.

 

[audioguru]

I think my cheap clock radio uses 22 gauge wire connecting its 1W 3" speaker.
I use 16 gauge wire connecting my 60W speakers in the same room to my stereo.

 

[johngorrow]

I work in an electronics store, and we sell Monster cables. I've watched training videos where they explain why the Monster cables are superior to other cables, what the benefits are, etc. Hearing that there is little or no difference saddens me because I truely believed that the Monster cables were better.

So in terms of audio quality, etc., is there little or no difference between using Fiber Optic cable and a composite audio cable?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

I work in an electronics store, and we sell Monster cables. I've watched training videos where they explain why the Monster cables are superior to other cables, what the benefits are, etc. Hearing that there is little or no difference saddens me because I truely believed that the Monster cables were better.

Your company encourages you to sell Monster cables because they make monster profits on them - surely you've connected them up in store and heard the 'difference' yourself?.

So what explanations were you given that Monster cables are better?.

So in terms of audio quality, etc., is there little or no difference between using Fiber Optic cable and a composite audio cable?

No such thing as a composite audio cable, but if you mean digital coaxial audio compared to optical audio they are just the same thing - both are exactly the same signal, but for optical you have an LED to convert the signal from coaxial to optical, and at the other end a photo-transistor to convert it back. They both sound exactly the same (as they are the same), optical is really just a marketing gimmick.

 

[johngorrow]

RCA audio cable vs. Optical vs. 1/8" cable vs. everything else... there's little or no difference?

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

RCA audio cable vs. Optical vs. 1/8" cable vs. everything else... there's little or no difference?

Depends exactly what it is, how long it is, and what you expect.

RCA is analogue audio.
Digital coaxial is digital audio.
Optical is coaxial digital converted to a beam of light.