Mixed Signals
Any sufficiently advanced information is indistinguishable from noise
Friday 31 October 2003, 3:20 PM
Rupert Goodwins' Diary
Wednesday 29/10/2003
Good to see that the old school high fidelity audio loony is still alive and well. A story in New Scientist, backed up by a pal's personal experience, mentions a recent hi-fi show in London. Esteemed UK manufacturer of posh knobbage, Quad, was demonstrating some replica gear -- but one aspect really caught the attention of the assembled golden ears. The speakers were connected to the amp by a mystery cable, bright orange and suggestively thick. Quad wouldn't comment on it, but the listening masses agreed it sounded absolutely splendid.
Now, hi-fi cables are a case unto themselves. You can buy any number of infinitely expensive models, each claiming some arcane magic of mono-crystalline copper, electron enriched, tri-filiar wound wire. Despite the fact that no test equipment on earth can spot so much as a gnat's tweeter difference between any of them, audiophiles swear blind that the psycho-acoustics of each are dramatically different, and there's no way you can possibly enjoy your music without the latest and most gobbledegook-soaked strand of metallic spaghetti.
There should be another branch of the science, called fisco-acoustics, which does qualitative assessment of musical equipment and charts it against the cost of the kit. Unfortunately for Quad, that would be unlikely to score its mysterious supercable very highly: the exceptionally musical device came from those scientific geniuses at B&Q, who sell it for a few quid in their superstores for the purpose of plugging your Flymo into the mains out in the garden.
PreviousComments on this post
The pursuit of excellence in Audio is to be applauded. A certain section of the audiophile community should be rounded up and then sentenced to listen to their collective worst hits in the world acetate played extremely loudly using fence-wire and carbon-ear-pieces. They, after all, are convinced that the most exsquisitely designed and expensive audio components will reveal sublimely and efficaciously, audio signals that studio engineers and performers didn't actually record in the first place.
The worst ever offenders of psycho-acoustic babblings were to be found wielding 'directional cable' whilst ignoring the fact that in audio circuits the Alternating Current goes first one way and then the other. Anyone with high-school physics would know that directionality for electricity is essentially rectification, something that would be too good for these charlatans who perpetuate (un)sound myths and perpetrate Hi-(In)fidelity.
