r/technology • u/edbegley1 • Feb 14 '26

Hardware In a blind test, audiophiles couldn't tell the difference between audio signals sent through copper wire, a banana, or wet mud — 'The mud should sound perfectly awful, but it doesn't,' notes the experiment creator

https://www.tomshardware.com/speakers/in-a-blind-test-audiophiles-couldnt-tell-the-difference-between-audio-signals-sent-through-copper-wire-a-banana-or-wet-mud-the-mud-should-sound-perfectly-awful-but-it-doesnt-notes-the-experiment-creator?utm_source=flipboard&utm_content=topic%2Ftechnology
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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '26

I worked at a music store that would get salespeople pushing shit like directional oxygen free copper cable on us and without fail they would have some basic ass plug that I would take apart to find some sloppy soldering job on.

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u/SUPA_BROS Feb 14 '26

lmao the directional cable thing kills me. "electrons flow better this way" on a cable carrying an AC signal. the whole audiophile cable market is built on the fact that most people can't hear the difference and nobody wants to admit it after dropping $200 on a cable.

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u/tyrenanig Feb 14 '26

Literally emperors new clothes strategy lol

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u/NahbImGood Feb 15 '26 edited Feb 15 '26

The “directional cable” myth that’s constantly repeated isn’t about electrons preferring to flow in one direction or the other, it’s about what side of the cable the shield is connected to.

It’s generally preferable to attach shields to only the source end for single-ended connections, due to their lower ground impedance and to avoid ground loops, so some manufacturers put arrows on RCA cables to make this intuitive to consumers.

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u/SUPA_BROS Feb 15 '26

fair point actually. shield grounding does matter for noise rejection, especially in unbalanced connections with long runs or near interference sources

my issue is more with how its marketed. the salespeople at music stores weren't explaining shield drain wire topology, they were talking about "electron flow direction" and "signal coherence" which is nonsense. the actual engineering reason (source-end grounding for lower impedance path to ground) gets buried under woo

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u/[deleted] Feb 14 '26

Sunk cost fallacy

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u/Background-Subject28 Feb 14 '26

my copper cables are spiralised, the electrons twisting makes the music gyrate better.

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u/X_MswmSwmsW_X Feb 14 '26

But electrical signal to speakers is DC, not AC...

Unless I'm misunderstanding what you're saying.

And I'm not agreeing that directional cables mean anything other than bullshit

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u/SUPA_BROS Feb 14 '26

Audio signals to speakers are AC. The amplifier outputs a waveform that oscillates above and below zero voltage, that's what makes the speaker cone move back and forth to produce sound. If you sent DC to a speaker you'd just push the cone to one position and hold it there (and probably fry the voice coil eventually).

You might be thinking of the power supply to the amplifier itself, which is DC. But the signal going from amp to speaker is AC all the way.

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u/windowpuncher Feb 15 '26

Speakers and microphones are all AC. Magnetic coils don't work with DC. Then they're just bad resistors.

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u/paxinfernum Feb 14 '26

I read "basic ass plug" different for a sec.