Audiophiles Fail to Hear Difference in Signal Passed Through Copper Cable, Banana, and Tray of Mud

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Audiophiles Fail to Hear Difference in Signal Passed Through Copper Cable, Banana, and Tray of Mud
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Try telling the difference yourself before going all Nelson Muntz, though.

Does the “quality” of audio interconnects—cables that conduct an unamplified analog audio signal between components of an audio system—affect the listening experience? You’ll probably be unsurprised to learn that the answer is the subject of much debate: science suggests that any effect on the signal is inaudible; audiophiles, meanwhile,To this effect, he presented four versions of the same 30-second audio sample: the original CD recording, and then looped recordings made after running the sound through a) about 70″ of “pro audio copper wire”; b) about 48″ of copper wire and 8″ of wet mud; and c) 48″ of copper wire and a 5″ banana.

Forum members were challenged to listen to the various versions and then pick which was which. They could not. Only six of the 43 responses submitted correctly identified the original recording or the one routed via audio cable, and at least one member. Some, uh, spirited debate ensued as to how significantly the results differed from random guesses; statistics was never our favorite corner of mathematics, but happily, Tom’s HardwareIt’s easy to present this as a way to make fun of audiophiles—and, indeed, there is something amusing about people who spend loads of money on fancy cables not being able to tell such a cable apart from a banana. But equally, it’s kind of amazing that youdoesn’t conduct electricity , the salts and other impurities dissolved into most water allow it to act as a conductor. are simply like putting a resistor in series, meaning that other than changing the signal level, they don’t do much.” He concluded that while shielding cables from external interference can affect audio quality, “What doesn’t seem to make much difference in sonic quality is the material of the conductor.” There are also some fascinating tidbits of information to be extracted from the very serious eight-page discussion that ensued: the banana’s ripeness: “There are many known physical effects that could affect cable sound which are not tested for by bananas nor by mud.”format, and there are a variety of genres to choose from. For what it’s worth, we listened to the samples of Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” and Nirvana’s “Come As You Are”—via laptop speakers, to be fair—and couldn’t hear any difference.Lenovo Goes All-In on the IdeaPad Slim 3 Chromebook at Nearly 60% Off in Best Buy’s Laptop Clearance DealsSlow Adoption of iOS 26 on iPhones May Have Unexpectedly Hurt Tesla’s Sales: ReportDiscord Will Now Treat Everyone Like a Teen Unless They Prove They’re an Adult The platform is expanding age verification globally, meaning adult users will need to verify their age to access sensitive content.

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