Propeller Head Plaza Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

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RE: "Have you tried to sort it out at all?"

Posted by jea48 (A) on March 1, 2014 at 19:38:28

In Reply to: RE: "Have you tried to sort it out at all?" posted by rick_m on March 1, 2014 at 17:44:48:

Roughly a couple of years ago I played around with a 75 ohm RG6 copper solid core quad shield coax cable to see if it was directional. I did not have any true 75 ohm RCA plugs. I just used a pair of Vampire RCA plugs I had. For the length of the cable I used the accepted 1.5 meter length. I think I made it just a tad longer.

I used the digital out on my ARCAM Alpha 9 CDP connected to a Cambridge DAC Magic.

I first powered up my system and let it warm up for about 30 minutes. I picked CDs I was familiar with. For critical listening I like to use CDs with female vocals and parts with piano solos.
Just going from memory I played Diana Krall, "The Girl in the Other Room" and "Love Scenes". I also like to use Jenifer Warnes, "The Hunter" and "Famous Blue Raincoat".

I did not pre burn in the cable. I did not want any settle in time on the cable.

The test.
I sat down for a listen.
I picked a track and listened only to a particular part over and over 2 or 3 times to train my ears to what I was listening to.
I then flipped the cable end to end and listened to the same part of the same track again.
Long story short the differences were not subtle.

It was quite easy to pick the direction that sounded best to me on my system.

Once I found the direction that sounded best to my ears I then took a fine point sharpie pen and put a small dot on the cable end that connected to the DAC. I wanted it to be hard to see.

Next listening test was to listen to an entire track of a CD. Time after time I could pick/identify the direction that sounded best to my ears.

Next test, I took the cable down to an audio dealer I know quite well.
I talked to a salesmen I have known for many, many, years and asked him to listen to the cable. I did not say anything to him that might influence his listening experience. I just told him I had made the cable from a piece of RG 6 coax cable I had.
Long story short he picked out the direction that sounded best to his ears 100% of the time. The direction he liked best was the same as I had picked.
I should note this guy is not really into cables. He couldn't believe the coax cable could be directional.

Before I left the Store I looked at a 2 meter Tributary digital cable hanging on a wall display. That’s right I said Tributary. Supposedly tributary’s best digital cable. I asked the salesman is the cable directional. He replied no. I asked him are your sure? He looked it up in a Tributary book and replied nope the cable is not directional. I said let me take it home for a week or two for an audition.

Well guess what? The digital coax cable is directional. And the center conductor is solid core copper. Again I marked the end of the cable that sounded best to my ears that connected to the DAC for a reference. I kept the cable for at least 2 weeks.

Back to the Dealer's store I went.
Long story short the salesman picked the correct direction 100% every time.

Scientific test? No....

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The revelation that digital interconnects and their direction can introduce large differences in measured jitter was quite a shock. The differences heard between digital interconnects—and in their directionality—have now been substantiated by measurement.

http://www.stereophile.com/content/transport-delight-cd-transport-jitter-page-9

• http://www.stereophile.com/content/transport-delight-cd-tran   (Open in New Window)

Edits: 03/01/14 03/01/14 03/01/14 03/01/14

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