Re: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
My god, do you guys listen to your stereo equipment, or the music coming out of the speakers? :) Geert Decorte wrote: I think a few people need to get into high fidelity audio. To be clear : cable is cable, it's just a piece of metal.( Some people claims they can hear the difference between a gold and a copper cable, come on, let's be serious) Seriousely, ALL cables have a sonic signature. Silver is, in general, a harsher sounding material. Copper is, again, in general, a warmer sounding material. Stranded cables can have a sort of grainy sound, while solid cables sound different depending on the guage. You will find the differences into the higher tones. Not all people are having the same "audio bandwidth". Most people are limited into the higher tones. Making high quality setups useless for this people. The level of treatment you are talking about, goes beyond the costs of a cable or a connector. Boxes, the environment and background noise (FAN) comes to my mind as potential disturbing factors, which should be treated as well. So, if you've got a freevo system wich produces some background noise (fans, hd), it isn't worth the pain to spend a lot of money into cabling. Avoiding oxidation however is a must for a professional aproach and has nothing to do with the initial quality, but everything with long term quality. BTW: anyone have build a noiseless Freevo? http://gedeco.no-ip.org -- Jacob Briggs Systems Engineer Core Technology Ph: +64 (04) 499 1102 -- Named after its country of origin 'England', English is a little known dialect used by up to 1.5 billion non-Americans worldwide. Some interesting but obviously incorrect features of the language include: - queues of people - wonderful coloUrs - the useful metal aluminIum - the exotic herbs (h-urbs), basil (ba-zil) and oregano (o-re-gaa-no) - specialiSed books called 'dictionaries' that tell you how to spell words correctly Many people using this bizarre gutter speak also subscribe to the pagan belief that water freezes at 0 degrees and that distances should be measured in the forbidden mathematical system of base-10... --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
RE: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
> I think a few people need to get into high fidelity audio. > >> To be clear : cable is cable, it's just a piece of metal.( Some people >> claims they can hear the difference between a gold and a copper cable, >> come on, let's be serious) > > Seriousely, ALL cables have a sonic signature. Silver is, in general, a > harsher sounding material. Copper is, again, in general, a warmer > sounding > material. Stranded cables can have a sort of grainy sound, while solid > cables sound different depending on the guage. You will find the differences into the higher tones. Not all people are having the same "audio bandwidth". Most people are limited into the higher tones. Making high quality setups useless for this people. The level of treatment you are talking about, goes beyond the costs of a cable or a connector. Boxes, the environment and background noise (FAN) comes to my mind as potential disturbing factors, which should be treated as well. So, if you've got a freevo system wich produces some background noise (fans, hd), it isn't worth the pain to spend a lot of money into cabling. Avoiding oxidation however is a must for a professional aproach and has nothing to do with the initial quality, but everything with long term quality. BTW: anyone have build a noiseless Freevo? http://gedeco.no-ip.org -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by OpenProtect(http://www.openprotect.com), and is believed to be clean. --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
RE: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
> I personally will rarely spend more than 10% of > what I paye dfor the equipment on the cables. Means cheap equpment > gets cheap cables expensive equipment gets good quality cables. 10% is a good rule of thumb. Good cables (especially loudspeaker cables) can easily give 10% better sound. Most audio shops use 10% for customer's cable budget. Andrew Jergens --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
Re: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
I tend to agree with Andrew, I used to setup concert rigs a lot. Cabling can make alot of difference but not for the "market hype" reasons. If I have gold connectors on my equipmen tI like to have gold on the cables, Why? Cleaner connection, not fancy magic, cleaner connctions mean cleaner signal. Now as to the home rigs, most home rigs really can't tell the difference between a $5 dollar cable and $100 dollar cable. Why, becuase the impedance and not always super quality of the connections and internal wiring. I personally will rarely spend more than 10% of what I paye dfor the equipment on the cables. Means cheap equpment gets cheap cables expensive equipment gets good quality cables. Evan On 6/19/05, Oscilated <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I think a few people need to get into high fidelity audio. > > > To be clear : cable is cable, it's just a piece of metal.( Some people > > claims they can hear the difference between a gold and a copper cable, > > come on, let's be serious) > > Seriousely, ALL cables have a sonic signature. Silver is, in general, a > harsher sounding material. Copper is, again, in general, a warmer sounding > material. Stranded cables can have a sort of grainy sound, while solid > cables sound different depending on the guage. > > > Messing with cable impedance will result in signal loss. > > Very true. Look at Media Interconnect Technology (MIT). They have for > years manufactured RCA interconnects with different impedance so you can > more closely match the output impedance of, say, your CD player with the > input impedance of your processor. > > > Conclusion is to use the correct cable type and impedance, use quality > > cables, but don't go buying gold when it works as good with normal ones. > > No one (under the $10,000 per 10 feet) makes pure gold cables. Only the > actual terminator is gold (or more commonly gold plated). The reason for > this is gold resists corrosion when an electrical signal is passed through. > Have you ever used typical stranded copper speaker cable without terminating > it first? After about a year of usage, the exposed copper at both the > amplifier end and the speaker end has started to oxidize (rust) and has a > dull appearance. But, cut the wire further toward the center, and the > copper is still as bright as new. That is why Monster Cable and others sell > gold plated terminators for your speaker cable. > > Before anyone makes an opinion regarding the quality (or lack thereof) of > cables, they really need to go listen to a set of $100 speaker cables > compared to $1000 speaker cables. The difference will be amazing. Even > similar cables, priced the same, from different manufacturers sound > different. Just take the time and actually set up a good test. Then let a > friend switch the cables while you take the "Pepsi challenge". > > -Andrew Jergens > > > --- > SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies > from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, > informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to > speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click > ___ > Freevo-users mailing list > Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users > --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_idt77&alloc_id492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
RE: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
I think a few people need to get into high fidelity audio. > To be clear : cable is cable, it's just a piece of metal.( Some people > claims they can hear the difference between a gold and a copper cable, > come on, let's be serious) Seriousely, ALL cables have a sonic signature. Silver is, in general, a harsher sounding material. Copper is, again, in general, a warmer sounding material. Stranded cables can have a sort of grainy sound, while solid cables sound different depending on the guage. > Messing with cable impedance will result in signal loss. Very true. Look at Media Interconnect Technology (MIT). They have for years manufactured RCA interconnects with different impedance so you can more closely match the output impedance of, say, your CD player with the input impedance of your processor. > Conclusion is to use the correct cable type and impedance, use quality > cables, but don't go buying gold when it works as good with normal ones. No one (under the $10,000 per 10 feet) makes pure gold cables. Only the actual terminator is gold (or more commonly gold plated). The reason for this is gold resists corrosion when an electrical signal is passed through. Have you ever used typical stranded copper speaker cable without terminating it first? After about a year of usage, the exposed copper at both the amplifier end and the speaker end has started to oxidize (rust) and has a dull appearance. But, cut the wire further toward the center, and the copper is still as bright as new. That is why Monster Cable and others sell gold plated terminators for your speaker cable. Before anyone makes an opinion regarding the quality (or lack thereof) of cables, they really need to go listen to a set of $100 speaker cables compared to $1000 speaker cables. The difference will be amazing. Even similar cables, priced the same, from different manufacturers sound different. Just take the time and actually set up a good test. Then let a friend switch the cables while you take the "Pepsi challenge". -Andrew Jergens --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
Re: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
I do agree using gold cables is a joke. But gold doesn't oxidate as well, thats one of the benefits. Most contact problems of cabling are real mechanical problems combined with oxidation. Oxidation would make the resistance higher and therefore the quality of a signal lower. In coax, higher resistance would result in more signal reflections in the cable, so lower quality. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold The best way I know but, not always possible: create a good contact and seal it of from the air, keep it away from heat sources. So it can't oxidate. Heating and cooling of contacts makes the connectors move. For lower power electronics I used a hot glue pistol to seal contacts. Never had any problems any more for contacts treaded this way. Never used gold, but I suspect this would be the main reason. You would only be able to hear the difference between gold an other connectors, if there is already some bad contact. gislain wautriche wrote: I don't believe in ultra-quality cables, and seeing some made with gold, men ! that's a real joke ! To be clear : cable is cable, it's just a piece of metal.( Some people claims they can hear the difference between a gold and a copper cable, come on, let's be serious) BUT cables are build in a certain way, it looks like people are messing a lot, here around. there are different cable types : - coaxial cables are shielded which makes them noise protected - twisted pairs are used when the signal is balanced (balancing signal is a way to protect from noise) when not balanced, this cable type is highly noise sensitive. Cables also have impedance which is extremely important in high frequency range. - video cables are 75 ohms (coaxial type) - phones (and network) cables are 100 ohms (mostly twisted pair types) - audio cables have no impedance ( theorie : 0 ohms) because they carry low frequencies signals (coaxial type) Messing with cable impedance will result in signal loss. Messing with cable type will result in noise gain. When in audio range, the less impedance, the better. So theoretically gold is better than any other metals. But, actually the audio input impedance of every apparels is so high that : - there's no real relevant signal loss. - it must be well shielded (coaxial) because there's an "antenna effect" when connected to a high impedance input. Conclusion is to use the correct cable type and impedance, use quality cables, but don't go buying gold when it works as good with normal ones. Gis. On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 23:29 +0100, Karl Lattimer wrote: however regardless of your rant, UTP carries a better signal. Thats why we use it in networking instead of coax, in networks we grew out of coax in the eighties apart from the odd ring of posterity. I wouldn't dream of disputing that. I also think it's entirely irrelevant for the kind of signal that's sent over a typical home theater cable. Cheers, Jason. --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.323 / Virus Database: 267.7.8/22 - Release Date: 17/06/2005 -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by OpenProtect(http://www.openprotect.com), and is believed to be clean. --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
Re: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
I don't believe in ultra-quality cables, and seeing some made with gold, men ! that's a real joke ! To be clear : cable is cable, it's just a piece of metal.( Some people claims they can hear the difference between a gold and a copper cable, come on, let's be serious) BUT cables are build in a certain way, it looks like people are messing a lot, here around. there are different cable types : - coaxial cables are shielded which makes them noise protected - twisted pairs are used when the signal is balanced (balancing signal is a way to protect from noise) when not balanced, this cable type is highly noise sensitive. Cables also have impedance which is extremely important in high frequency range. - video cables are 75 ohms (coaxial type) - phones (and network) cables are 100 ohms (mostly twisted pair types) - audio cables have no impedance ( theorie : 0 ohms) because they carry low frequencies signals (coaxial type) Messing with cable impedance will result in signal loss. Messing with cable type will result in noise gain. When in audio range, the less impedance, the better. So theoretically gold is better than any other metals. But, actually the audio input impedance of every apparels is so high that : - there's no real relevant signal loss. - it must be well shielded (coaxial) because there's an "antenna effect" when connected to a high impedance input. Conclusion is to use the correct cable type and impedance, use quality cables, but don't go buying gold when it works as good with normal ones. Gis. On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 23:29 +0100, Karl Lattimer wrote: however regardless of your rant, UTP carries a better signal. Thats why we use it in networking instead of coax, in networks we grew out of coax in the eighties apart from the odd ring of posterity. I wouldn't dream of disputing that. I also think it's entirely irrelevant for the kind of signal that's sent over a typical home theater cable. Cheers, Jason. --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
Re: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 23:29 +0100, Karl Lattimer wrote: > however regardless of your rant, UTP carries a better signal. Thats why > we use it in networking instead of coax, in networks we grew out of coax > in the eighties apart from the odd ring of posterity. I wouldn't dream of disputing that. I also think it's entirely irrelevant for the kind of signal that's sent over a typical home theater cable. Cheers, Jason. --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
Re: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
Jason Tackaberry wrote: On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 18:36 +0100, Karl Lattimer wrote: Just for the information of the group, I once read a report on different cabling methodologies and the results of the report were. My own experience with A/V cables is a bit different. I personally think people who swear by expensive, "quality" cables are just kidding themselves because they can't admit to themselves that they just wasted a bundle of money on expensive cables. Unless your room happens to house a high voltage generator that powers your block, I'll buy you a bottle of your favorite single malt if you can tell the difference between Walmart brand or your super crazy expensive "audiophile-approved" cables when used on even a higher end consumer home theater system. I'll accept there might be a small dB difference, but if you can hear the difference then either the "cheap" cable is from the 70's, or you're an alien. Not too long ago, I was at a local electronics/audio store (I needed a longer S-video cable) and some guy beside me was about to pay $40 for a "gold plated, high quality, digital coaxial audio cable." $40!! I didn't even try to stop him, because as much as I'm socially liberal, I'm also also capitalist, and I'm all for raping ignorant consumers. But the truth is that the $5 RCA cable about 2 feet to his left would have done exactly the same job, particularly because it's digital. Jason. --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users however regardless of your rant, UTP carries a better signal. Thats why we use it in networking instead of coax, in networks we grew out of coax in the eighties apart from the odd ring of posterity. --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
Re: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 18:36 +0100, Karl Lattimer wrote: > Just for the information of the group, I once read a report on > different cabling methodologies and the results of the report were. My own experience with A/V cables is a bit different. I personally think people who swear by expensive, "quality" cables are just kidding themselves because they can't admit to themselves that they just wasted a bundle of money on expensive cables. Unless your room happens to house a high voltage generator that powers your block, I'll buy you a bottle of your favorite single malt if you can tell the difference between Walmart brand or your super crazy expensive "audiophile-approved" cables when used on even a higher end consumer home theater system. I'll accept there might be a small dB difference, but if you can hear the difference then either the "cheap" cable is from the 70's, or you're an alien. Not too long ago, I was at a local electronics/audio store (I needed a longer S-video cable) and some guy beside me was about to pay $40 for a "gold plated, high quality, digital coaxial audio cable." $40!! I didn't even try to stop him, because as much as I'm socially liberal, I'm also also capitalist, and I'm all for raping ignorant consumers. But the truth is that the $5 RCA cable about 2 feet to his left would have done exactly the same job, particularly because it's digital. Jason. --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users
Re: [Freevo-users] VCRVO project, a note on cables
A note on cables... Just for the information of the group, I once read a report on different cabling methodologies and the results of the report were. The bandwidth of audio interconnect/rca type cables is poor at best no matter what the length, metal or other marketing bull. The test compared most major brand cables against... wait for it... twisted pair! UTP or STP is more efficient than any coax cables, and with gold connectors you get slightly better signal quality. HOWEVER! the cables to your speakers should be as high gauge as possible to prevent the cable overheating. So basically for any passive transmission you should use cheap UTP for best quality signal and least interference. Remember Cat5e can carry a 1Gb signal with less than 0.2% attenuation. Hope this helps. Karl, On 14 Jun 2005, at 18:26, ts North wrote: --- Jason Tackaberry <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 08:37 -0700, ts North wrote: Here is a fun project I just completed that involves Freevo, a VCR and an old computer: http://www.northsecure.com/vcrvo/ Cool! The jog shuttle knob looks like it got a little beat up. :) Not too bad. The best thing about it is it is a big target and I can boot the computer with my foot (no pun intended) But this is a really nice mod. You say cable quality made a difference for your audio connection. Can you elaborate on that a bit? I think original RCA cables I tried were extreemely thin gauge, a compgeeks.com $.05 special, zero signal. The digital coax cable that came with the home theater system worked fine. Standard RCAs would probably have worked, I'll try next time I open it up. What kind of quality problems did you have before? I have never had any audio problems when using even the cheapest, crappiest RCA cables I had available, because it's all digital. :) The only thing I can think of that would cause an audio problem with coaxial digital is a ground loop, but you'd have problems even with a high quality cable. Cheers, Jason. __ Discover Yahoo! Find restaurants, movies, travel and more fun for the weekend. Check it out! http://discover.yahoo.com/weekend.html --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users --- SF.Net email is sponsored by: Discover Easy Linux Migration Strategies from IBM. Find simple to follow Roadmaps, straightforward articles, informative Webcasts and more! Get everything you need to get up to speed, fast. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=7477&alloc_id=16492&op=click ___ Freevo-users mailing list Freevo-users@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freevo-users