Julf wrote: > Because even scientists admit they don't know everything!
Absolutely true. However one should keep in mind that within the scientific and engineering there are ways to indicate just how sure they are of what they know. So there are theories, theorems, axioms, laws, etc. Theories can be either proven or unproven but laws are not debatable. During my days in engineering school I had a very good professor who quite clearly stated that all claims of perpetual motion (or energy from nothing) can easily be shown to be false by using the laws of thermodynamics. darrenyeats wrote: > A USB cable cannot affect the digital processing of course, and I didn't > write that it would. However any physical process (digital or analogue) > in the vicinity is capable of interfering with an analogue component. > Hence to state a priori that it's "impossible" for the USB cable to have > an effect is actually unscientific. > > Place your mobile phone on an amp and you might hear chirps. That is a > digital signal interfering with the analogue circuits in the amp. The > analogue circuits neither know nor care that the source of the physical > interference is a digital signal from a digital device ... this is > physics. > > However, I repeat I think it's very unlikely a $500 USB cable will make > a difference, and so I think Ralph is right. What you are saying makes perfect sense and any well designed piece of audio equipment should have good insulation from random electrical inference. Of course the red herring that is often used as justification for high priced cables is comparing the high priced cable to some really cheap and poorly made cable. So a $500 USB cable is compared to a 10 year old freebie USB cable but never to a well made $20 USB since doing so would either lead to outright lying or the admission that there is absolutely no difference between the two cables. And that would lead to all the cable manufacturers pulling their advertising. While I am mechanical engineer I do have a little knowledge of electronics (as in just enough knowledge to get me trouble :)). So perhaps someone with a greater knowledge can correct me if I'm mistaken. Most audio equipment does not run directly on 120 volt or 220 volt AC power but rather on something like 24 volt DC power and therefore each piece of equipment is provided with a power supply which converts the incoming AC power to the proper DC voltage. Now the various power conditioners praised by all high end audio reviewers would seem to be pointless since a well designed and very robust power supply should be more than capable of filtering out and dealing with even the nastiest and dirtiest AC power. Again this is akin to the cable nonsense I outlined above, namely instead of simply measuring the DC power that comes out of the power supply both with and without the power conditioner in the circuit, they instead spill lots of ink on listening impressions. Writing all of the above only serves to remind me why I call the high end audio press CLOWNS. Living Rm: Transporter-SimAudio pre/power amps-Vandersteen 3A Sign. & sub Home Theater: Touch-Marantz HTR-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Linn sub Computer Rm: Touch-Headroom Desktop w/DAC-Aragon amp-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Energy sub Bedroom: Touch-HR Desktop w/DAC-Audio Refinement amp-Energy Veritas 2.0 Guest Rm: Duet-Sony soundbar Garage: SB3-JVC compact system Controls: iPeng; SB Controller; Moose & Muso Server: SBS on dedicated windows 7 computer w/2 Drobos 'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ralphpnj's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10827 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=102632 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
