7 ms·

AK-DL1 The most expensive ethernet cable ever...

17 points by blackmac 17y ago

trafficlight 17y ago
The comments on the Amazon page are classic. "Due to the extreme speeds at which energy moves through the cable, it was no surprise that these effects would cause the cable housing to become quantum entangled with itself in space and time, thusly bringing the cable (interior and exterior) into its own self-generating time dilation field." http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1240504056&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B0...
quoderat 17y ago
Some people really don't understand the concept of "digital," do they? Someone ran a test where they used wire coathangers vs. the best audiophile cable there was. No one could tell the difference.
- eru 17y ago
  Was the test done with digital music?
  - Steve0 17y ago
    It wasn't the best audiphile cable, but one from Monster Cables. More details here: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php?s=97d4a3c39d247bf955a57b3953326a34&p=15412&postcount=28 http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php?s=97d4a3c3...
    - wallflower 17y ago
      Monster Cables. I was with a friend buying a HDTV at BestBuy and the salesperson there tried repeatedly to get us to buy $75 HDMI cables from Monster. We just laughed. The scary thing is the salesperson's pitch "You just bought a fancy TV, want some fancy, 24K gold-plated cables to go with it." probably works on many consumers who don't know the difference.
      - Confusion 17y ago
        The main question this raises in me is: isn't it illegal to claim such cables are better? Should we try to make it illegal to sell stuff at artificially inflated prices that are solely based on make belief, misinformation and a lack of knowledge in the customer? Would a class action lawsuit have any chance? In some sense, it's a con.
        jerf 17y ago
        It would be tricky to get such a law right. They are better cables. No, seriously. (Or, at least they can be, I don't actually know if they really are better, but it's possible.) It's just that they way they are better doesn't matter, because for moving digital data around, having 10,000% of the necessary capacity/overhead/whatever is no better than having 101% of the necessary capacity. But the 10,000% cable is, in some sense, better, and you aren't going to be able to write a sensible law stopping a salesperson from building that "better" into a "shouldn't you buy this?". Some things just can't be outlawed sensibly.
        eru 17y ago
        And such a law could be used to sue competitors.
- samlittlewood 17y ago
  Reminds me of another (probably apocryphal) tale: http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1464 http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1464
blackmac 17y ago
I know someone who told me not to copy mp3s more than once, because quality gets worse with every copy. Moreover if you store mp3s too long the quality also decreases. This is known as a serious problem among audiophiles, because it prevents digital files from being archived for a longer time. (he REALLY meant it)
- cperciva 17y ago
  if you store mp3s too long the quality also decreases... Well, depending on the underlying physical storage, there's a good chance that you'll see some data corruption on timescales ranging from a few years to a few centuries... so he's not COMPLETELY wrong. :-)
- Steve0 17y ago
  True, amongst other things, it depends on the fragmentation of the disk, if you listen to your mp3's after a defrag the highs are more pronounced; the soundstage better defined; the bass will improve in several subtle ways. Hmm, might be a startup in selling an mp3-defragger. Of course you need to charge at least 666$ for anyone in the niche to take you seriously.
fishercs 17y ago
i wonder if an 80 year old IT artisan crafted those cables by hand.
mseebach 17y ago
> Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer. That's my favorite feature.
- acangiano 17y ago
  Children, Christians and audiophiles say the darnest things.
  - tjic 17y ago
    Downvoted for irrelevant flame-baiting. Please keep your religious biases out of HN.
- huhtenberg 17y ago
  Especially considering that these markings are bi-directional: http://www.usa.denon.com/AKDL1_G.gif http://www.usa.denon.com/AKDL1_G.gif I'm sure this is going to confuse the hell out of any true audiophile.
noonespecial 17y ago
Well, you could gold plate and tin shield every nanometer of conductor to make sure that no bit is ever lost... OR you could, I don't know make some sort of algorithm that, I don't know calculated some sort of sum of every block of data transmitted and then, like checked the sum to see if it was right. You could retransmit the block if it wasn't since Gig-ethernet is what like 1000 times faster than cd audio? My plastic cables available with this revolutionary data integrity algorithm on sale now for just $499.
jws 17y ago
I'm certain that 500 meters of 10base-5 cost several times more than this cable. This was the "original" popular ethernet. It was a coaxial cable about as big around as a finger and had a stripe around it every 2.5 meters. Wherever you needed a connection you found the nearest stripe, drilled into the cable until you just reached the core and inserted a special vampire tap attached to a transceiver the size of a shoe which sent another finger sized cable down to your device.
jcromartie 17y ago
> bring out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction Isn't this sort of advertising illegal?
thalur 17y ago
And there was me thinking it would be an article about some undersea cable across the atlantic or pacific...
tjic 17y ago
My favorite audiophile insanity: Mpingo Disks. http://www.shunmook.com/text1.htm http://www.shunmook.com/text1.htm

17 points by blackmac 17y ago

The comments on the Amazon page are classic. "Due to the extreme speeds at which energy moves through the cable, it was no surprise that these effects would cause the cable housing to become quantum entangled with itself in space and time, thusly bringing the cable (interior and exterior) into its own self-generating time dilation field." http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=musical-instruments&qid=1240504056&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B0...

quoderat 17y ago

Some people really don't understand the concept of "digital," do they? Someone ran a test where they used wire coathangers vs. the best audiophile cable there was. No one could tell the difference.

eru 17y ago
Was the test done with digital music?
- Steve0 17y ago
  It wasn't the best audiphile cable, but one from Monster Cables. More details here: http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php?s=97d4a3c39d247bf955a57b3953326a34&p=15412&postcount=28 http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/showpost.php?s=97d4a3c3...
  - wallflower 17y ago
    Monster Cables. I was with a friend buying a HDTV at BestBuy and the salesperson there tried repeatedly to get us to buy $75 HDMI cables from Monster. We just laughed. The scary thing is the salesperson's pitch "You just bought a fancy TV, want some fancy, 24K gold-plated cables to go with it." probably works on many consumers who don't know the difference.
    - Confusion 17y ago
      The main question this raises in me is: isn't it illegal to claim such cables are better? Should we try to make it illegal to sell stuff at artificially inflated prices that are solely based on make belief, misinformation and a lack of knowledge in the customer? Would a class action lawsuit have any chance? In some sense, it's a con.
      - jerf 17y ago
        It would be tricky to get such a law right. They are better cables. No, seriously. (Or, at least they can be, I don't actually know if they really are better, but it's possible.) It's just that they way they are better doesn't matter, because for moving digital data around, having 10,000% of the necessary capacity/overhead/whatever is no better than having 101% of the necessary capacity. But the 10,000% cable is, in some sense, better, and you aren't going to be able to write a sensible law stopping a salesperson from building that "better" into a "shouldn't you buy this?". Some things just can't be outlawed sensibly.
        eru 17y ago
        And such a law could be used to sue competitors.
samlittlewood 17y ago
Reminds me of another (probably apocryphal) tale: http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1464 http://www.zerogain.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1464

blackmac 17y ago

I know someone who told me not to copy mp3s more than once, because quality gets worse with every copy. Moreover if you store mp3s too long the quality also decreases. This is known as a serious problem among audiophiles, because it prevents digital files from being archived for a longer time. (he REALLY meant it)

cperciva 17y ago
if you store mp3s too long the quality also decreases... Well, depending on the underlying physical storage, there's a good chance that you'll see some data corruption on timescales ranging from a few years to a few centuries... so he's not COMPLETELY wrong. :-)
Steve0 17y ago
True, amongst other things, it depends on the fragmentation of the disk, if you listen to your mp3's after a defrag the highs are more pronounced; the soundstage better defined; the bass will improve in several subtle ways. Hmm, might be a startup in selling an mp3-defragger. Of course you need to charge at least 666$ for anyone in the niche to take you seriously.

fishercs 17y ago

i wonder if an 80 year old IT artisan crafted those cables by hand.

mseebach 17y ago

> Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer. That's my favorite feature.

acangiano 17y ago
Children, Christians and audiophiles say the darnest things.
- tjic 17y ago
  Downvoted for irrelevant flame-baiting. Please keep your religious biases out of HN.
huhtenberg 17y ago
Especially considering that these markings are bi-directional: http://www.usa.denon.com/AKDL1_G.gif http://www.usa.denon.com/AKDL1_G.gif I'm sure this is going to confuse the hell out of any true audiophile.

noonespecial 17y ago

Well, you could gold plate and tin shield every nanometer of conductor to make sure that no bit is ever lost... OR you could, I don't know make some sort of algorithm that, I don't know calculated some sort of sum of every block of data transmitted and then, like checked the sum to see if it was right. You could retransmit the block if it wasn't since Gig-ethernet is what like 1000 times faster than cd audio? My plastic cables available with this revolutionary data integrity algorithm on sale now for just $499.

jws 17y ago

I'm certain that 500 meters of 10base-5 cost several times more than this cable. This was the "original" popular ethernet. It was a coaxial cable about as big around as a finger and had a stripe around it every 2.5 meters. Wherever you needed a connection you found the nearest stripe, drilled into the cable until you just reached the core and inserted a special vampire tap attached to a transceiver the size of a shoe which sent another finger sized cable down to your device.

jcromartie 17y ago

> bring out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction Isn't this sort of advertising illegal?

thalur 17y ago

And there was me thinking it would be an article about some undersea cable across the atlantic or pacific...

tjic 17y ago

My favorite audiophile insanity: Mpingo Disks. http://www.shunmook.com/text1.htm http://www.shunmook.com/text1.htm