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Audio Cable Distortion is Not a Myth!

Specialist audio cables are often sold to the consumer on the basis of eyebrow-raising claims for technical performance, though to date no repeatable test has shown any effect more surprising than mild frequency-selective attenuation. However, because the loudspeaker load is typically nonlinear and causes harmonic currents to flow, finite impedance in an audio cable does indeed cause harmonic voltages to appear across the loudspeaker. This distortion term is similar to, or even greater than, that produced by the amplifier’s intrinsic nonlinearity.

Author: Black, Richard
Affiliation: Richard Black Associates
AES Convention:120 (May 2006) Paper Number:6858 Import into BibTeX
Subject:Audio Recording and Reproduction

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