Calling Shenanigans On Super SATA's Claimed Audio Qualities 827
nk497 writes "Veteran Hi-Fi journalist Malcolm Steward has pushed newfangled Super SATA cables via his blog as a way to improve the sound quality of music, saying: 'My only guess is that the Super SATAs reject interference significantly better than the standard cables and in so doing lower the noise floor revealing greater low-level musical detail and presentational improvements in the soundstage and the "air" around instruments.' If that doesn't sound right to you, you're not alone. As PC Pro blogger Sasha Muller argues: 'How on earth can a SATA cable delivering 0s and 1s to their respective destination have any effect on those 0s and 1s? The answer is, it can't. Unless it's a magical one made of pixie shoes.' So maybe don't invest in Super SATA cables unless you have proof they're magical first."
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:5, Funny)
It seems like a pretty good buy to me. Those Monster cables have prevented any Monsters from infesting my home audio equipment. My anti-shark rock is working well in the living room, too.
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:5, Funny)
If there is a more gullible group of people than audiophiles, I haven't met them.
Alliterate headline (Score:5, Funny)
Steward Says Super SATA Sound Swindles Some Suckers
Ah.. he has not reached audio nirvana yet! (Score:5, Funny)
Wait until he installs the pure ivory motherboard standoffs!
They might work (Score:5, Funny)
Don't ignore the placebo effect in audio perception. Placebos have been proven to work, and it has also been shown that higher priced placebos are more effective.
Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s (Score:5, Funny)
These are _musical_ 0s and 1s (Score:5, Funny)
It could succeed or fail to deliver the 0s and 1s with their souls intact.
You morons don't unstand how Super SATA works (Score:5, Funny)
A normal SATA can only carry 0s and 1s, but Super SATA carries 0.0000s and 1.0000s. Thats 4 digits of precision beyond the bits that normal SATA can represent.
Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s (Score:4, Funny)
In this economy? Good luck.
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s (Score:5, Funny)
the audiophile world (Score:1, Funny)
Too bad they don't sell that "Isobase Cradle for Laptops" anymore. Thankfully, the manual is still available [mapleshadestore.com] for download. My favorite part from it:
Whenever you want to play music or watch video with improved quality, place the laptop on the three rounded footers. You will see an immediate improvement in color saturation and pastel shading, shadow detail and edge resolution. On the audio side, whether youre listening with headphones, computer speakers, or a full high end stereo system, you will her deeper and much cleaner bass, warmer and more detailed midrange and extended, cleaner treble.
IIRC, they were only charging a few hundred bucks for it!
The colors! The colors! (Score:5, Funny)
The 0s are zeroier, and the 1s more one-ey!
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:5, Funny)
Those Denon cables look great, but there's some severe problems with them, mainly because they're so good, the transmission rate exceeds lightspeed. Check out this review from Amazon.com:
Even worse, you might experience much worse effects with these cables. This review is very ominous:
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:3, Funny)
Wow. Just wow.
Get the purest digital audio you've ever experienced from multi-channel DVD and CD playback through your Denon home theater receiver with the AK-DL1 dedicated cable. Made of high-purity copper wire, it's designed to thoroughly eliminate adverse effects from vibration (it stays plugged in!) and helps stabilize the digital transmission from occurrences of jitter and ripple (I just made that up!). A tin-bearing copper alloy (brass, idiots!) is used for the cable's shield while the insulation is made of a fluoropolymer material (for those awkward moments when you just dropped your cable into a puddle of battery acid) with superior heat resistance, weather resistance, and anti-aging properties. The connector features a rounded plug lever to prevent bending or breaking and direction marks to indicate correct direction for connecting cable (sound goes in direction of arrow).
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:5, Funny)
my Pink Elephant cables have turned out to be a mixed bag, they're only an effective repellent during the work week, when I'm sober.
Re:If you will buy this.... (Score:5, Funny)
I have some 700$ RCA cables you would love. A 1200$ toilet seat that I swear will make thinks "move" easier.
Just swipe your credit card here....
Dude, that's not a credit card reader. Stand up and pull your pants back up.
Re:Ah.. he has not reached audio nirvana yet! (Score:5, Funny)
It does work you fool... (Score:1, Funny)
This is an article about a CD coating that improves audio quality of CDs (which are ones and zeros) As it turns out, the signal intensity of the ones and zeroes has an affect on the audio quality. I don't see how these SATA cables would be any different. They improve the signal intensity by reducing noise on the line, and thus increase the quality of the sound.
http://www.audiophilia.com/hardware/yamamura.htm
"I tried Q-151 on La Luna by the Canadian Guitar Trio [Skylark 9802 CD] because I am quite familiar with the disc and have been listening to it a lot while breaking in the Welborne Labs Apollo I amps. A quick A/B comparison was possible, and with my modest NAD 502 CD player in the dead of night when the house is totally quiet, I really did hear a difference. The music sounded more relaxed, detailed and subtle inflections were revealed. There was more spaciousness to the studio acoustic and lower frequencies became richer and more substantial. This is the sort of improvement people often would use to justify an upgrade of CD player or outboard processor. You have little risk in trying it for yourself. This one really works. "
Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Comments Disabled (Score:3, Funny)
Well, it's a darn good thing that you're the 93rd slashdotter to post the exact same comment. I might've missed it otherwise!
HA HA HA HA: (Score:5, Funny)
I have disabled Comments on this post so that respectable visitors do not have to read the remarks made by a small number of extremely ignorant, rude, malicious and disingenuous individuals who cannot tolerate people expressing opinions that do not concur with their own.
Looks like someone commented about how asinine that the premise these cables could matter to sound quality.
Re:What an idiot. (Score:5, Funny)
He's improved it. Now he's taken his entire site offline. It now simply reads
Error establishing a database connection
Oh wait, that was us.
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:3, Funny)
"If there is a more gullible group of people than audiophiles, I haven't met them."
Furries.
You can get them to do ANYTHING, buy the most insane poorly-drawn stuff from the most talentless artists, and then the ability to lead them into drama.
Furries definitely top audiophiles in gullibility.
Actually, I know a furry audiophile. That's mind-numbing, there.
Re:Not the first time... (Score:4, Funny)
Best Quote from the Blog Post: (Score:2, Funny)
Just read that aloud and try not to laugh.
Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s (Score:4, Funny)
I personally love how you can buy a DVD player at Best Buy for under $100, and then when you need a HDMI cable to hook it up? Over $100. Why does the cable that just sits there cost more than the DVD player it connects, when the DVD player has moving parts, a laser, and a remote control?
3. Profit!
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:3, Funny)
Enough bleach or peroxide might do the trick.
Re:Ah.. he has not reached audio nirvana yet! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:2, Funny)
What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?
45% buy HDMI Cable 2M (6 Feet) 4.6 out of 5 stars (3,015) $2.27
Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s (Score:3, Funny)
Re:HA HA HA HA: (Score:5, Funny)
The translator needs some work though.
I did a BS-English-BS translation and got this:
I have special comment abilities on this post so that scepticly impaired persons do not have to read remarks by Rubinesque intellectuals who prefer not to appreciate biting the wax tadpole.
Re:Digital? (Score:3, Funny)
Furthermore... if there is some gigantic RF source that’s screwing up the data crossing your SATA cable, you have worse things to worry about than something a fancy SATA cable will fix.
In fact, DON'T MOVE. Someone might have accidentally installed a 110 kilovolt power line directly through the room you're in, or, alternately, you might have set up your sound system around one of those. Very carefully look around around the room you're in, or around the tower you're at the top of, to see if you can see a six inch thick wire suspended by thirty-foot high pylons. THEY ARE NOT INSULATED, DO NOT TOUCH THEM, THEY WILL KILL YOU. Call emergency services if you can reach a phone. Otherwise, see if you can use them to transmit the audio signal.
Once you've discounted that, it's time to check for other problems.
For example, did you accidentally install your sound system inside a microwave oven? If so, simply do not use them both at the same time. Also, do not operate the microwave while you are inside it. (Also, don't operate your sound system when you're inside it, either. Also don't put either of those inside of you. Just stop putting things inside of things, okay?)
Another thing to check is if the sun gone supernova. You can check by seeing if everything's on fire. If so, RF is going to be a bitch for the next several hours, until the blast wave from the sun destroys the earth...we don't recommend trying to fix the cabling, and instead sitting and contemplating how you could have gone to six flags yesterday instead of spending the money on those cables.
Then check for dark matter and other dimensions. Some theories suggests that gravity might be able to cross dimensional barriers, which has bugger-all to do with any RF problems, but, frankly, you people who think digital signals degrade like that can't be swayed with facts.
Once you've eliminated all RF options, there are only a few possibilities left.
A major remaining cause of problems is if one part of your sound system traveling a significant portion of the speed of light compared to another part. Even if they were in the same frame of reference when you installed, they might not be anymore, so check. If so, time dilation will cause a frequency shift. Also, after several milliseconds, your entire system will be ripped apart as the cables no longer reach.
Re:A fool and his money... (Score:4, Funny)
High end digital cables are totally worth it, especially if they have pretty lights! ;)
And titanium binary shielding to prevent bit leakage, drift, and collisions. When ALL the bits are travelling in the same direction with perfect coherency, the sound quality is so good it induces multiple orgasms even in males. I'd like to see a cable without binary shielding do that! And if its not titanium, it's crap. But that goes without saying.
...unless you have proof they're magical first. (Score:2, Funny)
Beware!!! If they are cursed, you will be unable to remove them from your rig, once put in action.
Re:HA HA HA HA: (Score:4, Funny)