The guy saying the paint color on magnets makes a difference is the same guy who told us several years ago that one of his little clocks affects the sound of a live symphony orchestra and the picture on a television even if the battery in the clock is dead. You decide who is worth listening to. That's the last I'll have to say about this individual. So lets drop all the snarky comments and silliness (paint colors on magnets make a difference) and talk some science.
If you focus on what is really happening in a cable or any path that a signal follows then it makes sense that magnets will affect that signal. Talking about electron flow is fundamentally the wrong way to describe what is happening. The water flowing in a hose analogy is fundamentally flawed. The correct way to look at it is that energy is being transferred from the source to the load (like amp to speaker) in the form of an electromagnetic wave. Any movement of electrons is a result of the energy transfer, not the other way around. This is proven by the fact that electromagnetic waves do not need electrons in wires to travel as evidenced by the ones that travel from a radio tower to your receiver's antenna.
Since the moving energy has a magnetic component, and magnets interact with each other, it makes sense that introducing magnets will affect this transfer. It seems to me that the end result can only be that the signal is changed (distorted). I suppose that change could be perceived as an improvement.
For this discussion to really be useful we need some results as Parabolic states. Like where the magnets were placed and how it affected the sound.
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Sabai, I don’t question that you hear an improvement. What is undeniable is that if the magnets do change things, that change is a distortion of the original. By definition a change in any signal is a distortion of that signal. Distortion doesn’t necessarily mean it is worse, only that it is different. However, I get your point as distortion is usually used to annotate a negative result. If what you are doing to change the signal sounds to you like it is clearer then that is a good distortion. |
Someone mentioned magnets were being used to cut down on RFI/EMI. That’s an interesting idea in light of the fact, no pun intended, that RF is comprised of photons which as we know have no magnetic charge
EMI stands for ElectroMagnetic Interference. RFI stands for Radio Frequency Interference which is comprised of electromagnetic waves, not photons.
the magnetic field produced by the magnet on the cable is orthogonal to the signal flow Since you can orient the static field of the magnet in any direction you please and the magnetic field of the signal is constantly changing it makes no sense that this would be true. Anytime you bring 2 magnetic fields near each other they will interact. I'll leave it to the group to decide who is correct. The person stating facts that can be found in countless scientific textbooks or the person stating RFI is comprised of photons. In the meantime, I will bow out as there is no point in any further debate about pseudoscience versus real science. |
For me this is not an intellectual or scientific pursuit. It is strictly a pursuit of the best possible sound. My ears have been tested to 18000Hz. I trust my ears. Brilliant! |
OK, you have me on a technicality about photons but you are still wrong at the most fundamental level. As you can see from the quotes below and many others, if you care to look, photons are usually reserved for visible light. The term photon (meaning "visible-light particle") was coined for these energy packets. from http://prasoondiwakar.com/wordpress/trivia/origin-of-word-photonThe word photon can be broken down to Greek word phōs, which means light. Phōs can also be related to Sanskrit word bhā or ābhā which means light. When you discuss RF you usually don’t hear any discussion of photons, just the electromagnetic wave. In any case they are all electromagnetic waves so any contention that RF does not have a magnetic component is just wrong from http://www.universetoday.com/74027/what-are-photons/Photons are basically the most visible portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.
from http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/photonThe photon is the fundamental particle of visible light. In some ways, visible light behaves like a wave phenomenon, but in other respects it acts like a stream of high-speed, submicroscopic particles. Isaac Newton was one of the first scientists to theorize that light consists of particles. Modern physicists have demonstrated that the energy in any electromagnetic field is made up of discrete packets. The term photon (meaning "visible-light particle") was coined for these energy packets.
photon[foh-ton]
noun1.a quantum of electromagnetic radiation,
A photon is an elementary particle, the quantum of the electromagnetic field including electromagnetic radiation such as light, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force As always, it is interesting to see how some twist the science to suit their needs. In this case, latching onto the nonmagnetic nature of photons to justify a position while ignoring the fact that it is also an electromagnetic wave. I apologize to those who are more interested in the end result than the science behind it. |
Sabai, we have both been lured into yet another convoluted thread where geoff alternates his position . He has stated that magnets do not affect the signal
When magnets are used around the room, on chassis, on walls, on wood shelves, on mirrors, on glass, they have no bearing whatsoever on the signal
the magnetic field produced by the magnet on the cable is orthogonal to the signal flow. Which in layman terms means it won't affect the signal He has also emphatically stated that it does I already stated the signal IS affected by magnets.
I am ashamed to admit I got pulled in yet again.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_troll
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Sabai, you are right. The posts are purely for entertainment value since they can't possibly be based on anything factual All you need is plain old tap water. Everyone should be familiar with the relationship of heat and sound, that sound travels faster through warm air than it does through cold air. So you can easily control how sound waves travel through the air in your room by placing bowls of very cold water out in front of the speakers in a row, let's say 3 or 4 bowls depending on how big the room is and how big the bowls are. Thus when you listen to your favorite track you'll notice it's clearer, more open and more realistic. Because the sound waves are bending downwards due to the slowing up of the waves close to the bowls of cold water more sound reaches the listener's ears. What if the speakers are lower than the listener's ear? How can you possibly assume that the sound waves "are bending downwards.?" Why else would I go to the trouble of putting up 40 copper bowls since I do not have a conventional speaker system, only the headphone system? So Geoff claims that the bowls he is using clean up the sound of speakers but he doesn't have any speakers. This guy has been , as you suggest, an endless source of amusement. However, since as I see it, the forum is a means to help all of us reach the goal of audiophile nirvana, the baseless, idiotic, suppositions that we often get here just serve to muddy the waters and the only useful purpose is to entertain the trolls and possibly enrich them as they sell magic pebbles, flowers, clocks, and ................ |
More tongues wagging here than at a little old ladies quilting convention I find that remark very offensive!!!!!! my grandmother is a "little old lady" who quilts |
That probably explains your proclivity for wagging your tongue. It must be genetic. she is my grandfather's second wife, not my Mother's mother, so not genetic |
what is interesting is he sells magic pebbles, magic plastic flowers, magic little digital clocks, magic phone calls that transform your room when you hold the receiver up in the room, etc.......
So how do you explain he currently has 1193 positive feedbacks with 2 neutral, no negative. It is inconceivable that in over a thousand sales of voodoo nobody would post negative feedback.... shame on Audiogon |
on topic, no anger
too Todd's point, I use DIY cat5 cables for both speaker and interconnects.
IMHO opinion there are so many other variables that the wires you use are the final piece to the puzzle. Since things like speaker placement and electronics (amps, sources, etc.) play such a huge role in the sound and wires so little I don't see any reason to spend megabucks on wires when other things have so much more impact. As I see it I will never reach the point, for that matter get even close, to spending money to improve components that I can justify spending more on wires.
If I was filthy rich I would play with wires but paying so much for wire is a huge waste of money on my budget. I think the elephant in the room is how much the sound varies between recordings. People spend way too much time optimizing their system for a particular group of recordings (whatever they consider to be their reference recordings) when optimizing for whatever they picked may have a negative impact on recordings they don't
On the other hand, I do find that when I have my wife stand in the corner on one leg and cluck like a chicken for a few minutes before a listening session that the sound waves bend downwards then slightly upwards as they approach my chair revealing subtle details that I would otherwise overlook. YMMV
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