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In Reply to: RE: some observations ( and a request for Elizabeth) posted by May Belt on May 31, 2011 at 06:47:22
That is a very interesting view. Maybe thats why geoffkait likes white cables ;)
Anyway really interesting, I'm gonna ponder a bit on how to try improving my listening experience from this point of view and see if I can make some progress out of it.
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has more to do with the dye lots. The color of natural plastics is a milky translucent color. Every other color including clear involves chemical additives. It is these additives which affect the electrical properties of the insulation. In general the lighter colors are more benign, Black very often involves the addition of carbon, which is slightly conductive, and thus transforms the insulator into a terrible conductor.
This was pointed out to me by designer Stan warren in the very early 90s.
Stu
All of PS Audio's (Stan Warren's company) cables seem to have black jackets. Oh, well, must be one of those "do as I say, not as I do" things. LOL
Let me guess, you have black cables too, am I right? LOL
Stan Warren left PS Audio in the mid or late 80's. The current PS Audio has really nothing to do with Stan Warren, although that may not be obvious to a "theoretical P\physicist".
And nope, All my components utilize non black insulation, although I do have many black generic power cords lying around. My last major sound room even had the in wall romex utilizing non black insulation.
But as a "theoretical physicist", I really admire your great scientific acumen in attributing the white of the teflon tape wrap you used in treating a sound improvement and in ignoring any other possible factors, particularly those factors electromagnetic.
That was some schooling you must have gotten to become a theoretical physicist of that caliber.
Stu
I did not offer an explanation why white cables sound best, but nice of you to offer something as "obvious" as electromagnetism. Just like a good little wannbe scientist.
I had recognized, from the experience you have had with the bunch of crystals, that you might be able to consider another way of looking at people’s experiences.
You see, it was one similar experience which confirmed to us that we should look ‘out of the box’ to try to find an explanation for a particular experience we had 30 years ago and this approach has been extremely helpful in finding explanations for many other listening experiences
We had spoiled our sound by applying a chemical to a stain on a coffee table in the centre of the listening room. We had no explanation as to why that had changed the sound but Peter realized that he could not carry on with his serious listening experiments with that table still in the room, so the table was banished to the garage. But, it had been such an unusual and unexpected experience that we could not forget it or dismiss it. It was a few months later that I just happened to be reading an article – an article on plants - and in this article it mentioned that when a certain plant was under stress, it produced the chemical ABC – and chemical ABC was one of the ingredients in the chemical we had used on the table !!!!! Here was a chemical we had used now being referred to as one of Nature’s “Stress chemicals”. When I read this article out to Peter, he suddenly said “I wonder if it had been us (human beings) who had ‘sensed’ this ‘stress chemical’ in our environment and had gone under tension ourselves – so making the sound worse.
He decided to investigate further and did what all good experimenters do, he searched every drawer, every cupboard, every shelf and tried every chemical he could get his hands on on the very same spot on the coffee table. Some chemicals were not as bad as chemical ABC but none of them brought the sound back to being good UNTIL he found chemical XYZ. After applying that chemical XYZ, the sound was now much better and Peter judged that the sound was now better than he had ever had it before.
A lot of this background story was told by Greg Weaver in his April 1999 article “Itty-Bitty UK Foil” in the internet magazine SoundStage.
From our original experiences with chemicals (and their effect of changing the sound) Peter began to look far more seriously at just what is involved and used in audio and the listening environment.
JUST looking at the list of chemical mixtures used in the various insulation materials of cables (interconnects and AC power), one can seriously consider “Are these a serious contender as an explanation as to why various cables CAN ‘sound’ different ?”
Chemicals such as Bextrene., P.V.C., polythene, polyethylene, polystyrene, polyurethane, polypropylene, polyalkene, P.T.F.E, Teflon. To then add other chemical mixtures found in both audio equipment and the listening environment :- acrylic, nylon, polyester, vinyl, polycarbonate, Perspex, BAF, glues (adhesives), paints, lacquers and so on !!
A few other investigators have ‘found’ good sounding chemicals and lacquers but the effect of these chemicals (on the sound) is always attributed as “ having a dielectric effect”, as “an aid to dealing with static” or as “an aid to dealing with resonances”. !! Even when applied to things metres and metres away from anything remotely associated with audio equipment or with the audio signal !!
You mention the colour white for a cable insulation as a good sounding colour. Colours are extremely important regarding sound but colours are more than what one can see visually !! If the scientists are correct, then each colour is of a different frequency. If the scientists are correct, then when you can see a specific colour, then that means that all the frequencies except one have been absorbed by the object, leaving the one frequency not absorbed !! I ask seriously.
Are we (human beings) far more sensitive to such frequencies associated with colours than has previously been realized ?
Over the past 30 years we have become more and more aware of just how sensitive human beings, are to all that is going on in our environment than many people are fully appreciative of.
Regards,
May Belt,
Manufacturer.
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