Denon's $499 Ethernet Cable 719
Guysmiley777 writes with what looks like a very late (or very, very early) April Fool's joke: "Denon's $499 Ethernet cable 'brings out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction.' Sure, that seems plausible. After all, nuances in digital signals are so subtle. Oh, and 'signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer.'" Considering that $499 will get you a competent laptop these days, I wonder how big the market is for such a thing — then I look at Stereophile magazine's annual list of recommended components. The "view more images" link shows that they take cable porn seriously at Denon.
...This got greenlit? (Score:2, Insightful)
Audiophools (Score:3, Insightful)
Some day... (Score:5, Insightful)
In other news... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Audiophools (Score:2, Insightful)
And it's unfortunate that people who are really into the sound system stuff and who like having well-tuned systems/rooms/whatever get lumped into the schmucks who would drop $500 cables and crap like cable elevators [musicdirect.com].
Is ALL Denon suspect? (Score:5, Insightful)
Then I see this. Are all their claims just sheer puffery? How can I take their brand seriously?
If this Ethernet garbage is just an aberration, don't they know that doing it will have the reverse effect on consumers with clue?
Re:It's worth every penny (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Audiophools (Score:3, Insightful)
A fool and his money deserve to be parted.
Re:Is ALL Denon suspect? (Score:2, Insightful)
I've been very VERY happy with it. I really like that this particular model upsamples all video inputs to HDMI, greatly simplifying my remote control macros and keeping the cabling from being such a tangle.
I don't think that the fact that they make a silly, overpriced cable for "golden ears" (or more likely for wannabe "golden ears") really shouldn't dissuade you from the whole company. Judge the product on features and how it sounds and how it treats your video. My guess is that you might get some decent advice, reviews, and alternatives from AVS Forum [avsforum.com].
Re:Some day... (Score:4, Insightful)
It works for spirits too, I'm pretty sure that $13 Smirnoff is more than 40% as good as $29 absolut or $35 Goose. Probably like 85%. 5 O'clock is probably about 5% as good.
So a $100 DVD player may actually be quite a lot better than a $25 DVD player (perhaps the menus are sane, or it is more reliable), but the only difference between the $100 DVD player and a $500 DVD player is about $400 of profit.
Re:Is ALL Denon suspect? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Is ALL Denon suspect? (Score:2, Insightful)
Less expensive, more powerful, and vastly less snake oil, compared to Denon. I've long considered Denon to be way over priced, and under performing. Money would be better spent on good 70's hifi stereo amp & receiver, compared to their stuff (which, incidentally is not a bad place to start). But that's just my opinion.
Re:Nope, no typo, just a thinko :) (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's worth every penny (Score:4, Insightful)
empoying? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:...This got greenlit? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:datasheet (Score:3, Insightful)
not with today's routers. they all have priority queueing.
the problem occurs when the logically set (administrative) value conflicts with the value stamped on the PVC cable jacket.
I mean, what's a packet to do?
THIS is why there is delay in networks. sometimes, a packet has to sit and think before it hops.
Re:It's worth every penny (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:There is more (Score:4, Insightful)
Take a CD (or better yet, several CDs of different brands) and record a set of sounds on them. For example, record sine wave tones of 50, 500, 1k, 5k, 10k, and 20k Hertz. Go a step further and record square and sawtooth waves of the same set of audible frequencies.
Now, run the audio output of a CD player (the CD drive audio out will suffice I would think) into a oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer and capture the resulting output wave/spectrum. Maybe take a few sample runs and compile each run into an average.
Get your EE dept. to buy one of these devices (you're a college student; don't spend your own money), treat the CDs with the device, and repeat the test. Compare the audio waveform and the spectral content before and after the "demagnetization" treatment.
You will note the the 6moons site states that the equipment and CDs "sound" better; it's purely subjective. YOU, on the other hand, will scientifically demonstrate what we all believe to be a big sham. "Just like with treated CDs, a veil or haze was lifted and more and finer details were able to make it through to the listener." Yeah, because the listener believed that was supposed to happen.
Re:Some day... (Score:5, Insightful)
Yah, but that missing 15% really fucking hurts the next day.
Re:empoying? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:It's worth every penny (Score:4, Insightful)
You do realize we're talking about a $499 ethernet cable that claims to "bring out nuances" here, right? If the idiot believed that the $499 cable was actually different in the first place, then he would only be compounding his idiocy by failing to care whether the repair was sloppy.
Re:empoying? (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously, cable vendors and cable fetishists need to be buried alive under a truckload of Monster interconnects. If you buy a cable and you can hear a difference with the rest, it's because you've got a bad cable. Audio doesn't go anywhere close to the high frequencies that are affected by line capacitance and the so-called skin-effect. As long as they've got enough bulk to support the current being driven, everything else is virtually identical.
Re:It's worth every penny (Score:5, Insightful)
False advertising? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:It's worth every penny (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Audiophools (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It's worth every penny (Score:3, Insightful)
Remember, Telsa firmly believed that a single power station could power every electric device on the entire planet wirelessly, and that the only reason his station didn't work is that it wasn't huge enough. I think he electrocuted a few cows trying this one out.
Re:Audiophools (Score:3, Insightful)
American 'beer flavoured coolers' are made with distilled rice and corn alcohols added to artificial flavours.
That said, it is a matter of taste. There's no right or wrong answer. Some people like beer flavoured coolers, but myself, I really enjoy a good beer. You know, the way they've made beer for 6,000 years. I've got nothing against the coolers, but when you're adding rice and corn alcohol to flavouring, that's not how you make beer.