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I'd bet on Charley Hanson's being right!!!!

Seriously.

I was speaking with a major big-shot household name digital guy, and I--honestly, not being provocative or setting a trap--I asked, does anyone know offhand, converting time to distance, how LONG a SINGLE positive PCM pulse would be, if it were frozen in time?

In other words, given the interchangeability of frequency and time, and time and distance, if one froze a single positive PCM pulse in time, how long would a S/PDIF cable have to be, in order to hold a single frozen positive PCM pulse?

He laughed genially and said that he had never ever heard anyone even think about that, it could not possibly matter.

I replied, I am hearing differences at 44.1 kHz with a 3.5 inch difference in cable length...

So I sat down and did the math, and did the math, and did the math, and called him again and said I must be having a stroke, this can't be right.

That was almost 24 hours.

I walked him through my calculations, and he laughed and said, well, you have to be right!

ANYONE, please re-do it!

BTW, at that transfer function speed, the difference between 44.1 and 48 is no big deal.

OK, I calculate a singe positive PCM pulse (Zero to .25V and back to Zero), frozen in time, measured in length, as: THREE MILES.

So, what I heard in prototypes that were 3.5 inches different, can't possibly make a difference. But... people hear it.

I was trained as a translator of French poetry and I got a law degree and was co-author of peer-reviewed papers read at Harvard Law School, and, honestly:

I can't say whether the cables I sell sound good because of my work or DESPITE my work.

They are what they are. If they make people happy, I am happy.

John


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