My Crack destruction/build log

[Laudanum]

The Belden that Bottlehead ships with the the FPIII contains a pair of foil shielded solid conductors and a drain wire within one jacket.   What I used was of the same exact construction type with the exception of the conductors being stranded rather than solid.   If something is "off" because of the of the contruction type of wiring I used the same would be said of the Belden that they ship with the kit.    I dont spend a lot of money on wire or cable but I do believe there CAN be sonic differences that are explainable by science.  NOT the voo doo science that the wire companies try and sell though.   Maybe some things are just not completely understood as of yet.  Im open to it.   

I understand that you dont buy into much about wire and cable but you did use silver plated copper instead of just copper 

BTW ... the Crack has turned out very nice.  Well done sir.

[Laudanum]

The FPIII's signal is wired with the shielded, paired cable, not the Crack.

Nobody has ever been able to scientifically explain or measure anything YET.  That's the problem with "us" as a species, we think we already know and understand everything there is to know and understand.   Like I said, Im open to it.   You still arent convincing me that you are a complete wire naysayer though.  Cloth insulation?  Solid silver?   Precious metal wire erotica?   

Legos would definitely be unique!

[galyons]

...I will repeat AGAIN that there is NOTHING science does not understand about an electrical signal.

Uh huh! Arrogance is not science. Ignorance easily passes as absolute knowledge, that is, until more is learned/discovered. The only absolute in human scientific knowledge is that "We do not understand everything".  If the musical signal existed in a purely electrical state without interface or interaction with any other component, we MIGHT know most.  But there is so much interaction, reaction and interface that above mantra is, at least, entertaining. But you are certainly welcome to your own "opinions"

Cheers,
Geary

[Paul Birkeland]

Keep thinking these delusional thoughts and just watch the money fly out of your wallet.

You can find bad wire with high capacitance, and measure its impact on the signal, this is known and measurable.

You can construct similar situations by arranging the cable to maximize inductance, and this has a measurable impact on the signal.

Teflon is awesome because it doesn't melt when you solder it, all other benefits (real or imaginary) I take as a bonus.

For some additional reading, this is one way to look at things: http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=10&pagestring=Measuring+

Here is a nice paper from the AES that goes a little more into depth, and is not driven by marketing:
http://www.apiguide.net/04actu/04musik/AES-cableInteractions.pdf

I don't get too crazy with wire, I can build out a badly designed circuit and no amount of fancy wire or fancy caps will correct the design itself.

[Paul Birkeland]

So there is a line in the sand between high quality wire and high quality capacitors? (getting back to your build)

[Paul Joppa]

...  If it can't be measured, it sure as hell won't be audible outside of the imagination.  All of these things are completely understood. ...

This is the only part with which I disagree. I'm old enough to have learned that we underestimate our ignorance all the time, every day. For one thing, we measure things that do in fact correlate with what we hear, such as distortion, and then SETs force us to acknowledge that we have over-estimated the importance of THD measurements. Symmetrically it is highly likely - almost certain, in fact - that there are measurements we either have not yet learned to make, or of which we seriously underestimate the importance.

The classic example for me is break-in of capacitors and transformers. I am not aware of any measurements that correlate, but I have heard the effect so consistently, in so many cases where I was not aware of the history, that I cannot deny the effect.

We, and other species, have many senses which are more sensitive than we can measure. Why else would anyone use dope-sniffing, or bomb-sniffing, dogs if we could simply measure the trace aromas?

My career experience is as an engineer, so I respect the consensus of perception when I am unable to make a measurement to trump it. Sure, often enough the consensus is a form of mass hypnotism and one must always be prepared to abandon it when something more reliable appears. But until then, the closest thing to reliable always wins, no matter how far it may be from satisfactory. In this I differ from my training (I was originally a mathematician). I am however very cautious about extrapolating beyond the realm of actual, experience-based consensus!

For what it's worth, I have heard the effects of different wires and interconnects but my personal experience base is too small for me to have a solid opinion. I rely on the forums for a wider range of experience (and on those whose ears I trust) but I remain deeply suspicious.  :^)

[Paul Birkeland]

it's the coloration and flaws of such devices that make a pleasing sound.  It doesn't make it accurate for one second.  

You're right on the money there.  You'll notice that we will only describe our C4S loads as increasing accuracy (by lowering distortion), preferences for wire, caps, and resistors are more like subtle tone controls (though cap ESR in a power supply will influence noise reduction).  As PJ said, we find ourselves liking amps that have 5-10% THD over amps with 0.0001% THD, that's a tough one to swallow and explain!

We get pretty irritated about snake oil here, but we are also perfectly happy to admit when we have a preference but have no idea why!  We are always happy to chime in and recommend boutique parts, but shy away from the "what sounds best" conversation.

Sorry, but what sense of any animal do you believe is more sensitive than any lab equipment that exists?

Bats, it's kind of crazy to think about what we could learn by unraveling their sensitivities!
http://nocamels.com/2012/06/new-lab-aims-to-discover-secret-of-super-sonar-bats/
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/12/1212_021212_batsonar.html

[Paul Birkeland]

The distortion argument is the most commonly presented, but there are others that have not been invalidated. I've seen some papers suggesting that slew rate accounts for these differences, others get into the nitty gritty of electrons moving through silicon vs. air, though most go after the distortion argument.  Recently, labs have developed nano-tubes which are essentially fets that are so small that the space between the elements is so fine that atmospheric gaseous molecules are unable to occupy said space.  I would be fascinated to hear those acting on a music signal, but I'm sure we are years away form that. 

One hypothesis that really resonates with my experience is the nearly mandatory need for global feedback that we run into to tame solid state circuits.  I've heard a couple of 0 negative feedback, directly coupled solid state circuits that are pretty amazing, but they are incredibly rare and super expensive!  Along the same lines, I can add global feedback to a Paramount (or a Crack for that matter) and be dissatisfied with the results, which all measure and pencil out really well. 

The more reading I do on these topics, the more questions bubble to the surface (and to some degree, frustration).

[Laudanum]

Ramicio, the intentions of my last post to you should have been crystal clear, I was just having some fun.   I thought we were all friends (or atleast friendly) here.   Im sorry that you feel differently about that and that you took it as an affront.  Others can disagree with you, as they have here, and it should be OK to keep it friendly.   I was clearly not, nor is anyone else, trying to invent YOUR beliefs, form your opinions or rob you of them ... or steal "your" thread for that matter.   That said, your thread is all yours.