Fancy Mains Cables

I've told it before - but I'll tell it again.


There was an item in Hi-Fi News - the proper mag - back in the
mid 70's where a Frenchman stated that wiring up his door bell
with Litz wire improved the 'tintinabular sonority' of the bell.

Maybe that's where all this crap started?



--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

Paul Ratcliffe wrote:
On Mon, 11 May 2009 10:41:42 +0100, R. Mark Clayton
wrote:

Gold connectors Irrelevant for fixed used, where the connection
is made once and left connected. Some utility for professional use
where equipment is plugged and unplugged all the time - e.g. my Sony
microphone has a gold plated jack or a guitar lead.

Gold is quite soft and wears away reasonably easily at the thicknesses
they put on, so it is not suitable for repeated plugging and
unplugging. Frankly, for most things it is a complete and utter waste
of the world's gold reserves and should be banned.

Unlike jewellery then?

In article ,
Woody wrote:

There was an item in Hi-Fi News - the proper mag - back in the
mid 70's where a Frenchman stated that wiring up his door bell
with Litz wire improved the 'tintinabular sonority' of the bell.

Maybe that's where all this crap started?

Surely that was already a parody of it?

I suspect if you go back to the 1920s you will find people selling
special gold-plated springs to make your wind-up gramaphone run more
smoothly, and others claiming that red felt pads are better speed
regulators than green ones.

-- Richard
--
Please remember to mention me / in tapes you leave behind.

In article ,
Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

Some are, happily for Russ Andrews and other crooked ******s of his
type.

Despite the bogosity of their claims, I have always found Russ Andrews
shops to be very helpful, even advising against expensive products in
favour of cheaper ones. Maybe the shop staff have more integrity than
their employer.

-- Richard
--
Please remember to mention me / in tapes you leave behind.

In article ,
Paul Ratcliffe wrote:

Frankly, for most things it is a complete and utter waste of the world's
gold reserves and should be banned.

There's no shortage of gold. Most of it is buried away in vaults not
long after it's dug up: if it's in short supply, we should take it
from the Bank of England.

-- Richard
--
Please remember to mention me / in tapes you leave behind.

In message , Richard Tobin
writes
In article ,
Grimly Curmudgeon wrote:

Some are, happily for Russ Andrews and other crooked ******s of his
type.

Despite the bogosity of their claims, I have always found Russ Andrews
shops to be very helpful, even advising against expensive products in
favour of cheaper ones. Maybe the shop staff have more integrity than
their employer.

In any high-class establishment selling top-of-the-range products to
discerning clientele, I would expect the staff to be more attentive than
(say) a Pound Shop. [In earlier times, I would have said Woolworths.]
--
Ian

In message , Andy Champ
writes
Ian wrote:
She insisted that no way could I distinguish mono from stereo from
another room, and she got up to go and check.
Guess who was right.

Since you said "Girlfriend" not "Ex-girlfriend" you obviously gave in...

Andy

Well, it was 35 yrs ago, now an ex, and she saw that it was set to mono.
--
Ian

charles wrote:
In article ,
R. Mark Clayton wrote:
I was thinking of getting some new gear, as the current cycle of TV
improvements has just about stabilised, so in April I bought a copy of What
Hi-Fi Sound & Vision magazine.

It might have been April the first as it contained an article about mains
leads costing scores if not hundreds of pounds: -

http://www.whathifi.com/Reviews/Acce...Reviews/Price/

for example "Levels of detail, dynamics and clarity of sound are improved
upon tenfold." [by one particular lead at £232].

On three of them you could actually identify the MK plugtop (OK they cost a
few pence more), but some Hi_fi buffs must be extremely gullible* to fall
for this kind of guff!

I've just cancelled my subscription to BBC Music Magazine (after 17 yeas)
when it ssid you should spend at least 25% of your hi-fi budget on leads.

Oh Yes!
There is more twaddle uttered about cables than ANY other hi-fi item.
If you think this is bad get the so called reviewers or experts going on
speaker cables.
Many years ago I did some crude tests on cable and ended up using orange
mains cable, the 10A 2-core type used for garden equipment.
I could not tell the difference between fancy cables and the orange
mains cable.
What I could tell was that if I used thin, low current bell wire (rated
at about 1A or so) the speakers sounded "odd". With the 10A rated orange
cable they sounded OK.
I had a big row with an ex-colleague over speaker cable, he was
convinced that the silver ptfe insulated stuff at some horrendous price
was better than orange mains cable. Wouldn't agree to a blind test though.
Dave
--
Blow my nose to email me

tony sayer wrote:

snip

Skinflint!..

What you need is a balanced mains tranny, around 2 and a half grand to
you guv;!..


Might have to copy 'n paste these..


http://www.russandrews.com/product.a...currency=GBP&p
f_id=1190&customer_id=PAA0959052309572THFCSOVZTKUS COFZ


Then a couple of power leads the two meter long ones a snip at £6000 yes
over Six grand each;!!!!


http://www.russandrews.com/product.a...currency=GBP&p
f_id=1549&customer_id=PAA0959052309572THFCSOVZTKUS COFZ

What the fffffffffffffffffffffu!
Who the hell is he trying to kid! Lower noise floor my ar**!
The only way that unit would lower any floor is by being so heavy it
bends the whole floor down.
Has anyone had a little chat with Trading Standards over these claims?
To be valid they would need to be properly peer reviewed, published in a
reputable magazine and be able to stand up to proper scientific,
repeatable experiments.
Dave
--
Blow my nose to email me

In message ,
Kellerman "kellerman writes
charles wrote:
In article ,
R. Mark Clayton wrote:
I was thinking of getting some new gear, as the current cycle of TV
improvements has just about stabilised, so in April I bought a copy
of What Hi-Fi Sound & Vision magazine.

It might have been April the first as it contained an article about
mains leads costing scores if not hundreds of pounds: -


http://www.whathifi.com/Reviews/Acce...s-products-Rev
iews/Price/

for example "Levels of detail, dynamics and clarity of sound are
improved upon tenfold." [by one particular lead at £232].

On three of them you could actually identify the MK plugtop (OK they
cost a few pence more), but some Hi_fi buffs must be extremely
gullible* to fall for this kind of guff!
I've just cancelled my subscription to BBC Music Magazine (after 17
yeas)
when it ssid you should spend at least 25% of your hi-fi budget on leads.

Oh Yes!
There is more twaddle uttered about cables than ANY other hi-fi item.
If you think this is bad get the so called reviewers or experts going
on speaker cables.
Many years ago I did some crude tests on cable and ended up using
orange mains cable, the 10A 2-core type used for garden equipment.
I could not tell the difference between fancy cables and the orange
mains cable.
What I could tell was that if I used thin, low current bell wire (rated
at about 1A or so) the speakers sounded "odd". With the 10A rated
orange cable they sounded OK.
I had a big row with an ex-colleague over speaker cable, he was
convinced that the silver ptfe insulated stuff at some horrendous price
was better than orange mains cable. Wouldn't agree to a blind test
though.
Dave

Was this just because the higher resistance of the wire meant that the
speakers weren't as well-damped by the low output impedance of the
amplifiers?
--
Ian