Went into Maplins last night...

[localzuk]

Why exactly?

 

Converting from analogue to digital is inherently lossy. Even if recording direct to digital - as microphones work in analogue. Whereas, if you record from microphone onto an analogue format then you can make it incredibly accurate - more so than digital.

 

The accuracy of such recordings might have improved recently but in the early days of CDs it was very noticeable.

[Andrew_C]

The accuracy of such recordings might have improved recently

The thing is, the wave is still "steppy" at 16 bits. OK, few (if any*) can actually hear this, but it IS there. 65,536 steps instead of a perfect curve.

 

So, technically better, but...

 

 

 

 

*So they claim.

[pcstru]

The question is not any analogue format but LP's. A disc spinning at a fixed rate with a needle physically traversing a groove in which the signal is encoded. In the outer grooves at 33rpm the grooves will need to be somewhat different than those toward the center. And if you don't compress different portions of the signal in specific ways, you will require bass notes to have a physical width that would mean getting about 20 seconds of music on a disc. Hence RIAA equalisation and a bunch of other trickery that is often glossed over by analogue 'purists'. Physically you also have issues with higher frequencies where the physical dimensions of the needle start to limit the fidelity of the reproduction because it can't physically track the groove (it's too big). Then there is the problem of the moving mass of the stylus assembly vs the arm - the need to track the groove vs the need of the stylus to be free to pick the signal up from the groove.

 

So what you actually have is one bunch of engineering trickery vs another. Neither are actually capable of a 'perfect reproduction' but all other considerations aside, digital is easily capable of more accuracy since you are necessarily decoupled from the physics of the transport and can deal with the pure information of the recording.

 

Of course, (some) people do like the warmth of vinyl and are enthusiastic when their valve amps add their warmth into that mix. What they are liking isn't the signal, it's distortion of the signal.

[Miscbrah]

Of course, (some) people do like the warmth of vinyl and are enthusiastic when their valve amps add their warmth into that mix. What they are liking isn't the signal, it's distortion of the signal.

 

In a nutshell.

 

TBH I don't think anyone could say 24bit/96kHz digital sound and the most hifi analogue setup have anything in quality difference. It's that 'pleasant' distortion that does it as above.

 

If you're really forking out for an audiophile setup you'd have a treated room, likely some £2k+ Mackie monitors and some FIERCELY hifi amplifier before you'd get into even vaguely daft cables. I've read several articles that suggest replacing plastic dials on pots with wooden ones, and colouring the surfaces of CDs green to make them sound better (not kidding on any of that btw. I'll try and dig out the articles...)

 

Green pen.

 

Knobs.

Edited July 5, 2013 by Miscbrah

[tech_guy]

£80? You're not trying hard enough. £2835.30

 

WTF does this mean, "On the face of it, our Silver SuperKords may look very expensive, but put the cost of them into context. Say you have a system with a £5,000 CD player in it, which you love the sound of. But what happens when the upgrade bug bites? You might find that to upgrade your sound, you might need to invest in a player costing upwards of £10,000. Now, in our opinion, upgrading your £5,000 CD player’s mains lead to a Silver SuperKord SD II will bring about an even bigger upgrade than upgrading your player to the next model… and it’s cheaper. In that context, surely the Silver SD II SuperKords offer extremely good value for money?"

[plexer]

£5k cd player wtf.

 

Ben

[localzuk]

I *think* they're trying to say that if you're gonna spend £10k on a CD player, you'd get a better sound improvement by buying their cable than doing so if you're going from a £5k player. Trying to say that the CD player would get interference from its power lead.

[X-13]

WTF does this mean

 

It means that, apparently, a ~£3k power cable will make your music sound better. Because science.

 

Just like a ~£200 SATA cable will improve your sound.

 

 

[censored] these people.

[pcstru]

How about £2500 for a record. But What does it sound like?

[Miscbrah]

I *think* they're trying to say that if you're gonna spend £10k on a CD player, you'd get a better sound improvement by buying their cable than doing so if you're going from a £5k player. Trying to say that the CD player would get interference from its power lead.

 

I read it as being slightly more slippery than that, with lots of 'in our opinion' and so forth. I though on the same basis I could sell a magical penny that in my opinion improved sound quality tenfold when placed in the adjacent room.*

 

*'bedding in' period of 1-1000 years required before improvement may be noticed.

[CHR1S]

I had a replacement cable shipped out to me for my Gemini which has a box of electrical gubbins attached... wonder what that does over one of these cables. It was to correct electrical interference from the mains and it worked.

[fiza]

Ignoring the obserdity of the cable for a second - I'm trying to picture a scenario where you need the toaster to be 5m away from the mains socket? I'm guessing on a table next to the Lazy boy in the middle of the living room. Terrible thought having to move out the chair to make some toast - might actualy have to pause CoD on the 4k projection (sound wired through The Registers "Bonkers Build Hi-Fi" - of course)

 

 

 

EDIT: and yes the £20,000 custom build gaming pc is connected to the hi-fi using a gold plated, plantinum shielded, ant hair optical cable

 

 

Guilty as charged :

[Andrew_C]

It was to correct electrical interference from the mains and it worked.

Sounds like an earth loop. Probably a couple of good transformers to isolate the signal.

[sidewinder]

Just as bad are the USB cables on there:

 

Kimber Select KS-2436Ag USB Cable : information Handcrafted in the USA Int...

 

Only £686? Better get one for the head's printer!

 

Thing is, when everything was analogue the quality of cable did matter somewhat so there was at least some basis for charging a *bit* more for quality cables. It is virtually fraud that they are continuing to do it with digital cables

[hit]

Again it's like the cables capture more music, more detail and with greater accuracy of the instruments or vocals you're listening to...

 

REALLY!!! As many have said before, just keep counting those 1's and 0's y'all and dont forget to error check!

 

I love the "it's like the cables...", "in our opinion", "we thought that" yada yada yada! Yep, you keep talking that carp!