Cable myths, or truths?

[media at mail1.nai.net]

At 10:10 AM -0500 04/03/98, Larry Kirn wrote:

>I have seen bad cables limit bass in a big way, with two mechanisms at
>play.  >At the input of the speaker, damping factor (measure of how well
>the amplifier
>controls the speaker) comes into play at the low end first.  Larger cone
>excursions (bass) induce higher kickback from the speaker (back EMF).  If the
>impedance (practically resistance in this case) of the cable is sufficiently
>large, the amplifier will be incapable of quelling this, limiting the bass

I'm sorry, I'm no speaker expert, but I just can't buy that.  Unless these
cables are extremely thin (too thin to be called cables) or extremely long
(too long to be in a studio) the resistance of the cable is insignificant
to that of the load.

Besides, wouldn't increasing the series resistance of the cable, crossover
and voice coil, reduce damping and thereby increase the gain at resonance??


>Although I've yet to hear any benefit from any of the 'ultra-hype'
>cables, I'd be really surprised to see high resistance, considering the
>gauges involved.

I would be even more surprised if this happened in a showcase studio for
Solid State Logic as was originally described.  I'd assume anyone
demonstrating such an expensive console would invest in self-powered
nearfields -- no speaker cables.

So was this alleged attenuation in bass was caused by line level
connections??  With typically 30-150 ohm outputs and 10-100K inputs, even
if you were to consider a cable capacitance of a few hundred picofarads
your 3db point should still be up in the MHz, and even then, you would be
rolling off "treble" not bass.

Further, if this same treble-boosting cable was used to connect to connect
both the monitors and the recording machine, I don't understand how "all
the mixes that came out of the studio lacked high end."

>Maybe oxygen isn't such a bad thing ??

The primary justification for OFC is that impurities in the copper reduce
its mechanical durability.  Still, there is also no such thing as 100%
oxygen free copper, as the purest copper commercially available (over
99.997 %) still contains some oxygen.  Even if you were to consider the
microscopic crystalline structure of the copper, its resistivity changes
only by 1 part 2 Million as its crystal size changes from 4 mm to 10um.
Such differences in conductivity are irrelevant to the performance of audio
cables.

PEACE OUT :)
MARK