On Mon, 24 May 2010 19:46:30 -0400, wrote:

On Sat, 22 May 2010 15:04:44 -0500, "
wrote:

On Sat, 22 May 2010 13:19:34 -0600, Tony Hwang wrote:

wrote:
On Sat, 22 May 2010 06:48:41 -0400, wrote:

Ed Pawlowski wrote:

wrote

Yes, but Monster uses oxygen free copper. That was their claim
to fame
with speaker wire in the past.

At least in the case of speaker wire there was some remote basis to
argue that the characteristics of the cable could affect the sound

Bull. Google coat hangers vs monster cables.

Some years back, Stereo Review magazine blind tested expensive speaker
wires versus lamp cord. No difference.

Did their study note that the quality of the connections can make a
difference? I use a thick gauge of lamp cord instead of fancy speaker
wire, because I am a cheap SOB, but all my vintage sound equipment uses
push-in or binding post connections. For sound and video applications
where the cable needs ends put on it, the connectors on the cheaper
pre-mades are usually crap. The gold-plated connectors are probably
meaningless unless you live on a beach, but a quality connector and a
decent gauge of wire probably helps. Of course, I am not talking about
modern miniature stereos, DVD players, and tiny speakers. The cables
that come with those look like fishing line to me.

Ends matter in that they make reliable connection. The performance of
difference between connectors, at least up into the very high RF frequencies,
isn't meaningful. Even TVs use crappy 'F' connectors without signal
degradation.


For speakers, zip (lamp) cord works extremely well. AWG16 or better should be
used for more than a couple of feet, but as you note, it's cheap. Termination
is a matter of convenience, not signal integrity.

"Oxygen-free" is a scam. "Monster" anything is a scam. Buying cables from
BustBuy is a scam. The only thing they make more money on than extended
warranties is cables. $75 for a $3 cable isn't bad work, if you can get it.

Hi,
In this world there are full of scammers and scammed.
They support each other.

Certainly. A small amount of education would put them out of business.

On RF at extreme low level signal like -100db
or below range cable quality and connections matter and skin effect
comes into play but on audio range?

-100db what? Decibels is a relative scale. Connectors don't matter until the
frequency gets very high indeed. Skin effect of cables (not connectors) can
matter, but not at audio frequencies in speaker cables.

Cable TV signal is way TOO strong in most cases.

Irrelevant and not true at all, by my experience.

Cable techs install more attenuators to solve picture quality issues
than amps. Overdriving the tuner IS a real issue

Well, duh! That's the way the system is designed (pads are a *lot* cheaper
than amplifiers and once the signal is in the mud no amplifier can help it).

Once the system is installed the signal continually degrades as components
age.