Gold-plated Optical Cables?????!!!!!

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 12:33:11 -0000, "Woody"
wrote:

wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 09:28:08 +0000, Roderick Stewart
wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 06:37:37 -0000, "Woody"

wrote:

When you look at this
http://www.russandrews.com/product.a...XBEIFNEWTGWPKD
just ask yourself the question how a short cable carrying
serial data can affect the sound? Russ thinks it does!

More to the point, his ignorant rich customers think it
does. It's
difficult to say if the deficiency is in their ears or
between them.


You must be wrong about that...

"There are those who will try to tell you that a USB cable
can't
possibly make any different to sound quality; bits are
bits, etc, etc,
I wonder how many they have actually listened to because
Paul Rigby
notes a number of clear improvements in his review."


But there again if a reviewer works for a magazine that
needs advertising it is surely in their interest to find
some improvement however small? Then the thickies with loads
of spare cash and who always must have the best will beat a
path to Russ' door. QED.

I used to get annoyed at the stuff he pushes, but then I realised that
if people are so stupid, and have so much spare cash, why should I be
concerned?

In article ,
wrote:


I used to get annoyed at the stuff he pushes, but then I realised that
if people are so stupid, and have so much spare cash, why should I be
concerned?

It bothers me because it clouds people's ability to think rationally or
make evidence-based decisions. Also can make them misunderstand how things
work. Alas, many people have no idea how the consumer kit around them
works. And some technobabble can be very impressive. Can sometimes be hard
to fault in detail once you move beyond smelling a rodent.

Jim

--
Please use the address on the audiomisc page if you wish to email me.
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html

"Jim Lesurf" wrote in message
...
In article ,
wrote:


I used to get annoyed at the stuff he pushes, but then I
realised that
if people are so stupid, and have so much spare cash, why
should I be
concerned?

It bothers me because it clouds people's ability to think
rationally or
make evidence-based decisions. Also can make them
misunderstand how things
work. Alas, many people have no idea how the consumer kit
around them
works. And some technobabble can be very impressive. Can
sometimes be hard
to fault in detail once you move beyond smelling a rodent.

Jim



As was reported the other day in one of the telecom NGs, a
salesperson told a customer that if they were going to
Scotland they would need a new phone as our phones won't
work there.

They ain't all locked up yet.....................


--
Woody

harrogate three at ntlworld dot com

On 20/01/2014 23:12, Steve Thackery wrote:
Colin Stamp wrote:

It's no good. I'll have to bite. I always thought gold plated contacts
seemed like pretty sound logic. It seems to be borne out by experience
too on things like PCB edge connectors or charging cradles. Does that
make me uninitiated?

I think there's a risk of context-shifting here. We all agree that
gold-plated contacts are a waste of time on an optical cable, yes?

It's comical, yes. It was the comment about electrical contacts that I
found puzzling though.


As for electrical contacts, I'm tempted to disagree with JJ's
implication. True, the contact resistance of a gold-plated contact
versus normal ones (tinned? nickel-plated?) is only slightly better.

BUT - the big difference is long-term stability. Gold won't oxidise,
so the contact resistance won't change significantly. For all* other
(non-noble) contact metals, oxidisation *does* occur and the contact
resistance increases.

Yep. That's my experience too. It often increases to infinity, just when
you'd rather it didn't. Of course, it occasionally does with gold
contacts too, but not nearly so much.


*The exception is where the contact pressure is so high as to achieve a
gas-tight connection. Going back a few decades, I learned that these
offered such a connection: turned-pin IC sockets;
insulation-displacement crimps; and those connections that were made by
a machine twisting a copper wire about a dozen times around a square
post. The common factor being a very small contact area, thus a very
high contact pressure - enough to exclude air molecules.

In other words, most connectors have non-airtight connection surfaces,
so will suffer increasing contact resistance over time unless they are
gold plated. Having been an electronics tech for a while, I can
confirm this problem. Nine times out of ten you can clear the fault
just by unplugging and replugging (thus scraping the oxide off). On a
couple of occasions I've rescued non-functional electronics kit by the
simple expedient of unplugging every socketed IC, rubbing the IC legs
with a glass fibre brush, and replugging.

I've *never* had to do with with turned pin IC sockets, though, which
confirms what I was taught - they are airtight enough not to suffer the
oxidation problem.

Indeed. There are ways of making contacts from cheaper materials and
making them work reliably, but sometimes it's difficult to apply any of
those solutions. Gold plating can make an enormous difference where the
situation isn't ideal - low contact pressures or no wiping action for
example.

Cheers,

Colin.

Woody wrote:

But there again if a reviewer works for a magazine that
needs advertising it is surely in their interest to find
some improvement however small?

No matter how imaginary.

Bill

On 20/01/2014 23:12, Steve Thackery wrote:
As for electrical contacts, I'm tempted to disagree with JJ's
implication. True, the contact resistance of a gold-plated contact
versus normal ones (tinned? nickel-plated?) is only slightly better.

BUT - the big difference is long-term stability. Gold won't oxidise,
so the contact resistance won't change significantly. For all* other
(non-noble) contact metals, oxidisation*does* occur and the contact
resistance increases.

My experience - don't put gold-plated dimms in tin sockets, or vice
versa. They don't like being mixed. Don't know why.

Andy

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 17:09:21 -0000, Woody
wrote:

As was reported the other day in one of the telecom NGs, a
salesperson told a customer that if they were going to
Scotland they would need a new phone as our phones won't
work there.

I'm sure that's on barking mad Salmond's list of things to
achieve.

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 20:26:20 +0000, Bill Wright
wrote:

Woody wrote:

But there again if a reviewer works for a magazine that
needs advertising it is surely in their interest to find
some improvement however small?

No matter how imaginary.

Bill


I'd be more inclined to believe that the reviewer was being objective
if threw in the odd "con" in amongst the "pros".

Nothing in life is 100% perfect.


--
Graham.


%Profound_observation%

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 20:37:57 GMT, Paul Ratcliffe
wrote:

On Tue, 21 Jan 2014 17:09:21 -0000, Woody
wrote:

As was reported the other day in one of the telecom NGs, a
salesperson told a customer that if they were going to
Scotland they would need a new phone as our phones won't
work there.

I'm sure that's on barking mad Salmond's list of things to
achieve.


Salmond... Salmon... Wasn't there a mobile system called Salmon?

No, Dolphin.

As you were.




--
Graham.


%Profound_observation%

Jim Lesurf wrote:

He found this was harder than was
assumed if he started off with even half-decent examples, even when
they were grossly mistreated.

I have doubts about his experimental methods, then. Find some ICs of
around 10 years old or more; their legs will have a dully, frosty look
to them, especially if they've been used in an external environment.
It's most noticeable if you compare them with new ICs.

As I said earlier, I've cleared a number of intermittent or permanent
faults just by unplugging every socketed IC, polishing the legs, and
replugging. Devices include a ZX Spectrum, a pub game, and another
couple of things I'm struggling to remember.

--
SteveT