over the last few months we designed & built various pc's (power cables)
some were hand wound from various types of spool wire including pure cooper, silver tinned cooper & various gauges.
various jackets, shielding were also used.
some were just commercially available finished cable like Cardas & Neotech, which we terminated with plug-ends.
various plug-end terminals, from solid cooper to rhodium, to silver or gold plated cooper were used.
others were fully assembled audio brand, Signal Cable & Nodost, et.al.
four of us did a double blind evaluation with the help of a V tolerant & understanding wife of one of the participants.
each of the 12 cables was evaluated as we played snippets of 6 different tracks of muisc varying from orchestral, techno, jazz, a Capella, et, al.
the tricky part, as found after the test, was that rating the cables performance was somewhat difficult from the standpoint of individual tastes.
for example while a cable would display obvious differences, those differences may have been pleasing to some, but considered deficient to others.
any way, we learned a lot.
about how complicated developing a test plan is along with an evaluation criteria is, to how much & little difference there can be between cost & overall performance.
we are going to spend a few weeks analyzing the data & modifying the testing methodology, then give it another go.
btw, the guys obliged this crusty old fart (me) by constructing a sort of 'baseline' style cable design.
it was made from Ag/Cu wire & used cryo'ed silver terminal plugs.
each wire was separated & held by maple blocks, with the ground leg (green) run in the middle position.
it was this cable that all of the participants (including me) rated dead last!
over the last few months we designed & built various pc's (power cables)
some were hand wound from various types of spool wire including pure cooper, silver tinned cooper & various gauges.
various jackets, shielding were also used.
some were just commercially available finished cable like Cardas & Neotech, which we terminated with plug-ends.
various plug-end terminals, from solid cooper to rhodium, to silver or gold plated cooper were used.
others were fully assembled audio brand, Signal Cable & Nodost, et.al.
four of us did a double blind evaluation with the help of a V tolerant & understanding wife of one of the participants.
each of the 12 cables was evaluated as we played snippets of 6 different tracks of muisc varying from orchestral, techno, jazz, a Capella, et, al.
the tricky part, as found after the test, was that rating the cables performance was somewhat difficult from the standpoint of individual tastes.
for example while a cable would display obvious differences, those differences may have been pleasing to some, but considered deficient to others.
any way, we learned a lot.
about how complicated developing a test plan is along with an evaluation criteria is, to how much & little difference there can be between cost & overall performance.
we are going to spend a few weeks analyzing the data & modifying the testing methodology, then give it another go.
btw, the guys obliged this crusty old fart (me) by constructing a sort of 'baseline' style cable design.
it was made from Ag/Cu wire & used cryo'ed silver terminal plugs.
each wire was separated & held by maple blocks, with the ground leg (green) run in the middle position.
it was this cable that all of the participants (including me) rated dead last!