Fool! Those cables aren’t even shielded from electromagnetic radiation! I can literally hear the cosmic background noise of the universe it’s so bad.
As an audio engineer I can confirm that shielding is more important in a cable than whether or not it has gold plated connectors. Gold plated connectors don’t really do much unless the connectors are worn down and don’t make good contact in the first place, shielding actually does something for signal to noise ratio, especially for unbalanced and/or mic level(low level signal) and/or long cables. This is really only applicable for analog stuff for the most part of course.
Not an audio engineer, but I had unshielded (thin) cables in my home speaker setup. If the cables were positioned correctly, everything was fine. Accidentally move them even a little, and there’d be a huge amount of noise, due to power cables going near the speaker cables. Switched to shielded (thick) cables, and there’s no noise ever.
Shielding has to do with the orientation of the ground wire in the cable versus the signal wire. In a shielded cable the ground wire completely surrounds the signal wire like a pipe. In an unshielded cable the ground wire is wrapped around the signal wire or run next to it.
Cables that are shielded like this are coaxial.
Sir, this is an S/PDIF cable.
Side note. How do you pronounce that. Cause I just said spdif as one syllable
Are you American or Czech?
American…
Czech
Yeah, but are they gold plated?
You laugh, but I once had a Future Shop employee try to sell me an expensive toslink cable by saying it had electromagnetic shielding. I replied that it’s light, for him to say that emp affect light. I laughed in his face, leaving with the cheap one.
Even if it does affect light (which I’m not actually sure about since light is EMR) it’s irrelevant because the signal is digital. It only matters whether a 0 or 1 can be interpreted on the other end, which a bit of wiggle won’t change.
Gold analog cables is certainly better than their cheaper counterpart because the connector is less likely to corrode and would maintain perfect contact after repeated connect/disconnect cycles. Gold HDMI cables however is complete scam.
The thing is: For most people and situations cables never corrode so badly that somebody would hear any difference.
Especially gold plated like in the meme. Solid gold isn’t really worth it, but gold plated means a thin layer of gold at the point of contact. Less corrosion at the point of contact, a better electrical connection, fewer sound issues.
The problem is when they start selling digital cables that cost 10x as much and use exotic materials. First of all, digital has error compensation built into the protocols so even if one bit gets flipped occasionally, the numbers still add up and exactly the same data gets through. Second, as long as the cable follows the standard (say HDMI) even the cheapest cable will be indistinguishable from a really expensive one.
Meh, copper is reasonably corrosion resistant and is a slightly better conductor.
The reality is that gold plated cables are typically just better built. Most cables fail due to strain points so having good gauge, soldered connections, strain relief and good thich jacketing is really more important than metallurgy
It has benefits like being more oxygen resistant and with this having more often a clean touch with the device you plug it into.
That is true, but what a lot of people miss is the next part. Gold covered cables were better, before we created modern alloys. Now that cheap cable with a copper connector will tarnish slower than the gold cable.
Tinned copper, I believe.
Gold is non reactive. Gold plating still makes sense for analog cables, but not with digital ones.
With digital, the receiver is able to filter out the noise that a dirty connection might have. It will either work or not and it takes a long time for a moderately well made cable to get dirty enough with regular use to fail.
The meme should have been those 2k diamond hdmi cables or even the monster brand ones.
For anyone learning in this thread, that’s not to say all HDMI cables are created equal.
You want to make sure the HDMI you get has enough bandwidth to push the amount of data you will need. The HDMI that came with your Xbox 360 will hold back the capabilities of your new PS5.
Additionally, some HDMI cables are cheaply made and the signal isn’t maintained in every instance like it should be. LTT tested several to show how they differ.
Yes. There are different specs of hdmi today. Same with how cat5 and cat6 ethernet cable are interlopable, but cat5 will bottleneck equipment designed for cat6. Things like more consistent quality control, wire gauge, or twist angle effect bandwidth.
For the ultimate bullshit factor you need gold plated digital cables.
No shielded gold plated optical cables?
fro quantum™ protection.
What about these directional ethernet cables?
Just checked the cable prices as the article is from 2015.
So, the top of the line RJ45 12m cable is … 13k€
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Can I put gold foil on my bluetooth headphones to improve the audio quality?
Screw that, give me gold plated fiber optics!
They look higher quality that means they are higher quality
Have we forgotten the cryogenically treated cables?
I haven’t ever heard of it. I’m in disbelief and shock that was a thing.
Had a buddy of mine that swore they were a game changer. Ended up spending hundreds or dollars replacing all of his audio cables and couldn’t tell a difference
Nah, you need carbon cables… As anlog interlink, no change what so ever, as digital interlinks the bass seems smoother. (can’t even think of a theory that fits there, but I’ll take it)
“The blue Ethernet cables are the only way to connect to the Internet. But the black Ethernet cables allow you to access the dark web.”
When your download is too big
Aren’t those crystals fluorite? You can brush your teeth with them or something.
Go and get the snake oil for the best sound you can imagine!
Gold plated connectors are better because they’re non reactive. When two dissimilar materials are in contact, oxidation happens at that junction. Especially for analog signals, but even for digital, you want unoxidized surfaces on the connection between equipment.
It’s not a higher audio fidelity part, it’s one that’ll last and not corrode the thing it’s plugged into.
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