Comments on: Kimber Kable: Another company loses my respect & business http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/05/13/kimber-kable-another-company-loses-my-respect-business/ ...so google can organize my head. Fri, 21 Nov 2008 04:33:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Jon H http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/05/13/kimber-kable-another-company-loses-my-respect-business/#comment-5379 Jon H Mon, 29 May 2006 01:10:27 +0000 http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/05/13/kimber-kable-another-company-loses-my-respect-business/#comment-5379 The worst offender of the cable snake-oil variety is the outfit which claims to have a special technology that uses *light* to shield the audio signal from interference. I suppose there's some fiber wrapped around the copper, which carries light from an LED source. That is, if they even bother doing that much and don't just run a fiber along parallel to the copper so that the light can come out at the other end. And for this, they charge something like $10,000 per meter for interconnect cables. "The Radiant Light Cable System, newly introduced by Purist Audio Design in 1998, is the only system of its kind in the world. It takes the already superb Dominus cable and adds a special form of radiant-optical fiber. These optical fibers are illuminated by a specially designed light source and radiate light around the conductors. The light changes the properties of the insulation surrounding the conductors, thus minimizing distortion in music reception." The worst offender of the cable snake-oil variety is the outfit which claims to have a special technology that uses *light* to shield the audio signal from interference. I suppose there’s some fiber wrapped around the copper, which carries light from an LED source. That is, if they even bother doing that much and don’t just run a fiber along parallel to the copper so that the light can come out at the other end.

And for this, they charge something like $10,000 per meter for interconnect cables.

“The Radiant Light Cable System, newly introduced by Purist Audio Design in 1998, is the only system of its kind in the world. It takes the already superb Dominus cable and adds a special form of radiant-optical fiber. These optical fibers are illuminated by a specially designed light source and radiate light around the conductors. The light changes the properties of the insulation surrounding the conductors, thus minimizing distortion in music reception.”

]]> By: bbum http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/05/13/kimber-kable-another-company-loses-my-respect-business/#comment-4171 bbum Sat, 20 May 2006 23:56:33 +0000 http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/05/13/kimber-kable-another-company-loses-my-respect-business/#comment-4171 Sure; there are certainly USB cables made so far out of spec as to not reliably carry data. But once you make a cable "good enough" to get the data from one device or another then you are done. No amount of super spastic uber aligned copper molecules is going to make digital audio over USB sound any better. You could go down to CompUSA and grab a $5 USB cable on closeout that would work just as well, assuming it is made to spec. Sure; there are certainly USB cables made so far out of spec as to not reliably carry data.

But once you make a cable “good enough” to get the data from one device or another then you are done. No amount of super spastic uber aligned copper molecules is going to make digital audio over USB sound any better.

You could go down to CompUSA and grab a $5 USB cable on closeout that would work just as well, assuming it is made to spec.

]]> By: Steve Simms http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/05/13/kimber-kable-another-company-loses-my-respect-business/#comment-4170 Steve Simms Sat, 20 May 2006 23:50:04 +0000 http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/05/13/kimber-kable-another-company-loses-my-respect-business/#comment-4170 It is true that not all USB cables are created equal. USB has signal integrity problems all the way from the chip to the end of the cable. I tested a bunch of USB cables with a TDR scope and found some have really bad reflection problems. Belkin turned out to be the best. It is true that not all USB cables are created equal. USB has signal integrity problems all the way from the chip to the end of the cable. I tested a bunch of USB cables with a TDR scope and found some have really bad reflection problems. Belkin turned out to be the best.

]]> By: John C. Randolph http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/05/13/kimber-kable-another-company-loses-my-respect-business/#comment-3032 John C. Randolph Sat, 13 May 2006 23:27:45 +0000 http://www.friday.com/bbum/2006/05/13/kimber-kable-another-company-loses-my-respect-business/#comment-3032 "The ferrite noise reduction beads help the cable to preserve the delicate data stream" I was expecting the next line to be "counterpoints the surrealism of the underlying metaphor". Silly gits. -jcr “The ferrite noise reduction beads help the cable to preserve the delicate data stream”

I was expecting the next line to be “counterpoints the surrealism of the underlying metaphor”. Silly gits.

-jcr

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