Good on you Mick, I will re-frame from going into the differences between the human body and a disc of plastic, and I would hate to offend Dave Oliver with statements like 'get real' or 'what possibly is a toxified disc', and I would hate to get technical on a hi Fi site for God's sake whatever next. I will be weary of stating some thing so obvious like 'demagnetize a speaker' and it is no longer a speaker. I would probably be shouted down by saying something so stupid as 'nothing can be demagnetized by sending a signal though it'. If there's any help I can offer with the case then you only have to ask, personally I have had enough of the absurd and silly claims made in the business, so maybe like the banks, who have clung onto their overpriced charges, we may see some reality return to life. I did actually take a bank to task over their charges last year and was refunded the lot so don't give up.
John, I really did purchase this disc against my better judgement still it was only a tenner,I have just slung it down the back garden to see how far it would travel, blimey!! watch it go, thats got to be worth every penny.
We really have gone 'full circle' on this discussion, first deny any technical input on a basically technical subject, then slag off the message carrier by suggesting that their equipment/hearing/eyesight is at fault, but when all that fails then attack spelling and grammar. I wonder what will come next, something like oh you're from Lancashire it is well known to be the thickest part of the country, as in the people. What next I wonder are all Londoners blind, deaf and dumb, after all that is were I come from and it seems that I have no notion as to the subtleties of Hi Fi, maybe I will give this site a rest and watch 'Tomorrow Never Dies' and reminisce on the 130 video screens that all look perfect, and were driven by my distribution systems, or think back to the times when to see a 'bar' on a filmed TV was not uncommon, (pre 1980), that may remind me that I do understand technology.
John...
Now who would believe this, a girlie came here today to clean and tidy the kitchen, do you know what the most startling effect was, I'm sure you will will not believe this, but the sound of the room changed, the achoustics changed to those of clear surfaces and space, now trust me Rik that is how sensitive my hearing is.
Don't knock cockney rhyming slang, where did the expression 'Barnet' come from, 'Barnet fair', hair, horse trading in Barnet goes back many hundreds of years, as many of the rhyming slang expressions do also.
Yes mate you could be right, now something I noticed tonight, and that is an optical illusion, after watching Octopussy yet again, the credits scrolled up for ever but eventually they did stop, at that point I clearly saw the final frame drop down. (as in scroll down) Now was that an illusion, was that my perception, or did it really happen??? Not really a question, I know the credits simply stopped rolling, it was an illusion, it was my brain that tricked me into thinking they rolled down.
An experiment I did many years ago, light a room in a very warm light for an hour or so, get accustomed to it then go back to normal white light, what to you see, no hesitation, no question you see a blue room.
Now whether my girlie caused a sonic placebo or not (as Fred would say), she certainly cleaned up the kitchen, I remember some time ago when a plaster bloke re plastered the hall, he said 'now that sounds like a new room', audio perception is not a snobbish science, everyone is capable of it. In general the hearing capabilities of mankind are actually very similar despite some individuals personal claims.
I'm not suggesting that we are all the same here but simply that our final sensitivities are very similar, I know a scrap dealer who has no interest in music, art, or culture but ultimately his hearing is as good as any.
Maybe despite my Luddite approach to cables I do have a unique hearing ability, and that is to detect the size of a room from sound alone.
Well your unique hearing ability wasn't evident at the cable listening test that's for sure.
Plastering walls will make a difference to room acoustics (I've just had a room done) but cleaning the room wont - unless you were on T10 at the time. I can just imagine the headline in Hi-Fi World, "vacuum cleaning improves bass extension and stero imaging"
I decided to do some Braintorming this morning.....(my wife says to me Brainstorming only works when you have a brain.......cheek...... ).....another slice of controversy coming up.
Ways in which the Mains can affect the signal path :
(or...How stuff from the "wrong side" of the transformer gets in the way )
Method 1 : EMI
Placing a Mains lead next to a badly shielded Interconnect...result from the speakers.....an interesting phenomenon known as Mains hum. (Unfortunately Mains leads can produce quite strong EM fields) Placing some distance between them generally solves the problem.
Method 2 : "The Earth Loop"
Mains arrives in one cable, is bridged through Interconnect shielding to another unit, Mains returns to the socket via another cable and the loop is closed......result...what was it again ? (Oh yes, Mains hum.) Unfortunately the circulating current within the ground loop destabilises the reference voltage used by the amplifer/equipment on the "Secondary Side of the transformer" and the signal is consequentially affected. Result...yet another reproducable Mains problem.....
Method 3 : Sensitive inputs
Sensitive inputs, especially if unconnected to a source (no shielding) are equally liable to such interference in the same manner as an unshielded cable...
Method 4....
Isn't Brainstorming fun !! The advantage of opening a subject to a larger Forum increases the possibilities endlessly Let's take a break here for a moment and smell the flowers.....I remember back in time it was possible for me to occasionally eavesdrop on a local taxi driver's short wave radio transmissions - my amplifier acting as an effective radio receiver while he was parked outside. Nowadays digital transmissions are the norm and not as intelligible but should we necessarily disregard them.....? (Just a thought - I never dismiss anything)
Ok back to methods.....and this involves using the Mains as a Trojan Horse. Interference from a variety of Mains sources e.g. Fridges, fluorescent lights, etc can make their presence felt by transmission (through the ether, energy discharge into air) and/or through the Mains wiring. To an extent this may involve "Method 2". We may have ground loops in our systems which aren't causing any obvious Mains hum.....but what if we add some high voltage spikes.....Ouch!
Breakfast beckons but please feel free to add your own contributions.....
I said "I've just has a room done", not "I've just done a room" my plastering skills are is naff as is my tiling, floor laying, wall paper hanging, well just about anything diy really.
I dont seem to suffer from mains hum and my cables arent the most tidiest I've ever seen, but I do get the odd flicker or drop but very occasionally, I asume I must have a pretty clean mains supply, I do use a tacima 6 way but this was more a surge protection (or so I thought).
Hi Bill, I will do my best to ignore the last few replies and concentrate on Ways in which the Mains can affect the signal path. This was always a thorny problem, often cured by simply 'lifting' the earth connection at the mains plug, not the safest solution. Now it rarely is a problem as most source players etc. are class 2 and do not have an earth connection, as for the physical layout running cables at ninety degrees to each other will normally minimise any interaction.
but what if we add some high voltage spikes.....Ouch. These can be completely controlled by a little known device called a 'voltage dependant resistor' (VDR) and if anyone designed a power supply without this 30p device then they should not be in the business, equally so 'common mode rejection chokes' and 'Y' connected capacitors, for a couple of quid any supply can be completely devoid of such interference and that is about as much as many well respected 'mains conditioners' have in them despite the £30+ ticket.
A VDR takes the form of a flat disc of ceramic material often red or black, a common mode choke takes the form of two separate windings on a ferrite ring, Y connected capacitors are three capacitors, one across the supply and the others from each line to ground, just what do you see in many 'up market' mains blocks.
I really should not be commenting on this thread as my amp is battery powered and not even connected to the mains, but the CD and TV is, and having a switched mode supply in them would also have all the above filtering, all SM supplies have to to stop sending their internally generated c**p back down the mains, a crucial part of CE approval.
Thanks Bill, interesting article, sure you are quite right, suppressing any noise at source it is right and only way, I would like to see even light switches suppressed from 'inrush' current, but maybe that should be the responsibility of the light bulb maker, equally so I think things like immersion heater thermostats should have suppression at source, but then I think the whole planet should be different.
Personally I think if Fred Scuttle has been banned then that is a great shame and maybe the impartiality of this site does come into question!
).....another slice of controversy coming up.
