From: "Rich Peet" <>
> If you want to read your white pages it suggests that skin effect is
> important at af freqs. Maximizing skin effect transmission by
> increasing the number of cables really is not a good thing.
This would be so, but the skin effect really does not appear to apply at
the wire gauges in question. At 20 khz the skin effect only comes into
play at wire diameters greater than 18 gauge, and even greater wire size
is required at lower frequencies. With any of this mic cable we are
talking much finer gauge. The conduction occurs in these finer wires
throughout their cross section. The white paper gives that. I'm really
not sure why they even got into skin effect. Maybe to warn against using
too heavy a gauge wire. That white paper is on all kinds of mic cable,
not just star quad.
And their summary of sound quality with star-quad:
"In short, star-quad cables seem to offer lower inductance and lower
phase shift, both of which are parameters that directly affect the
clarity and coherence of high-frequency complex waveforms. Their
inherently superior noise-rejection also reduces intermodulation
distortion, a type which is particularly offensive because it produces
=93side-tones=94 not harmonically related to the fundamental. While the
improvement may not be as dramatic as changing the microphone, an
increasing number of audio professionals seem to be embracing the sonic
benefits of star-quad construction."
> I will try it but still think that I read a bunch of trash when
> reading sales stuff and try to translate it to basic electricity.
Oh, I generally don't trust sales stuff unless it's supported
independently, I check it out independently by looking for other's
reviews. It was the independent reviews that got me to try it. In fact
I'm not sure if I even read Canare's stuff back then, but it agrees with
what others have found in their tests.
Speaking of which, Cornell's equipment section only recommends star
quad. They list the Canare and Belkin versions.
I don't believe the better companies intentionally mislead. Particularly
in the case of companies supplying pro audio folks such a thing would
work against them. They do tend to try and shade the data to make their
stuff look better. That does not make it trash, there is nearly always
good data being provided.
> It after all is just wire and not that much to it.
But, some very critical wire. Try the equivalent statement:
"It, after all, is just a microphone, and only a small one."
Walt
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