Cable Pathways Between Audio Components Can Affect Perceived Sound Quality

[idiot_savant]

A quick skim through the paper would imply ( and I’m no analog guy ) that in one of the cables, the screen was not correctly connected, turning the cable into a radio antenna - the fact that a *passive* component is enormously more noisy than another one is telling here, and it hardly feeds into the “no-measurable differences” narrative. 
 

 

 

your friendly neighbourhood idiot 

[idiot_savant]

I don’t think he says which is which, though…

 

Theres also a balanced/unbalanced issue, not really clear. 
 

For an interconnect to pick up 2mV noise, that’s -60dB for 2V if my sums are right 

 

Your friendly neighbourhood idiot 

[idiot_savant]

My apologies, I missed that on my skim through…

 

However, as a “cable differences” test, he *appears* to be comparing different topologies of cables and circuitry ( balanced vs unbalanced ) of wildly different lengths, and he measures a large amount of noise on one cable and not the other.
 

It’s late here, so I’ve not had a proper read, but the fact he measures and comments on the noise is interesting,

 

your friendly neighbourhood idiot