Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83 v7 ucbtopaz-1.8; site ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!ucbvax!ucbtopaz!newton2 From: newton2@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA Newsgroups: net.audio Subject: Re: Re: cables - (nf) Message-ID: <515@ucbtopaz.CC.Berkeley.ARPA> Date: Fri, 27-Jul-84 01:09:50 EDT Article-I.D.: ucbtopaz.515 Posted: Fri Jul 27 01:09:50 1984 Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jul-84 21:08:33 EDT References: <50@whuxl.UUCP>, <55100046@trsvax.UUCP> Organization: Univ. of Calif., Berkeley CA USA Lines: 41 I don't know where to start with people who entertain quasi-religious beliefs (i.e. unverifiable) about mere engineered hardware when it's applied to something as sacred as perception of music (or is it just sound?), but I suppose the "filaments of the Gods" cult around audio cables --excuse me, two-port transmission lines-- is as good a place as any. A couple of years ago, I designed a fairly elaborate multichannel noise-reduction-cum-signal-processor intended for the radio/TV broadcast market, particularly for so-called cart machines, which had several well acknowledged problems with noise, stero "phase" stability (actually a mechanical problem inherent in the format) and maintainability. While (according to me) the product was supercalifragilisticexpialidotious in its wonderfulness, selling it proved a different order of undertaking from building it. After casting about widely under the insistent prodding of nervous investors, we were brought together with a (reputedly) wizard' marketer/salesperson who could (and, properly motivated, would) sell Frigidaires to persons of Aleution ancestry (to observe the modern delicacies of the post-Agnew era). Point of longwinded story: the bulk of the reputation of this sleaze merchant had been earned via the promotion of Monster Cables, the appeal of which this affable cynic credited to factors the least offensively scatalogical of which merely animadverted to the alleged envy of many under-amped audiophilesfor the love-wand of a Watusi --whoops, there he goes again...-- ..anyway, if you're wiring up your house for audio (or video, or data), why not run low-level (low impedance) audio hither and yon, and park an appropriately sized amplifer next to the transducers it drives. Switiching, signal distribution and versatility all benefit greatly- you can route the equivalent of a wide "program bus" everywhere, selecting different local programs in different rooms, spotting program sources in more than one place (monitor the TV audio in various different TV locations etc) and so obviously on. Believe it or not, its cheaper to build (or buy, if you're not suffering from the "carve me an amplifier froma single flawless blue-white block of silicon --or is it thorium cathode?-- syndrome) an appropriate number of properly sized and locally sited power amps than one giant one (which will fry the tweeters of your many speaker systems one by one, weakest first) together with the necessary 000 gauge welding cable to hook it up everywhere. Well- had enough? Me too.