How stupid do they think we are!?

So Denon’s selling digital interconnects at 500 dollars a pop. Cable is 5 feet btw in case anyone’s interested.

It’s basically an ethernet cable, which could be had at $3 at that same length. Yeah, it’s the same shit you use to connect your computer to broadband internetz.

I had tears in my eyes (from laughing) after reading one of the comments/reviews:

If I could use a rusty boxcutter to carve a new orifice in my body that’s compatible with this link cable, I would already be doing it. I can just imagine the pure musical goodness that would flow through this cable into the wound and fill me completely – like white, holy light. Holding this cable in my hands actually makes me feel that much closer to the Lord Jesus Christ.

I only make $6.25/hr at Jack in the Box, but I saved up for three months so I could have this cable. It sits in a shrine I constructed next to my futon in Mother’s basement.

I only gave it four stars in my review because I can’t find music that is worthy enough to flow through this utterly perfect interconnect.

Ok I know this is pretty obvious, but just in case there are people too stupid to fully grasp the fundamental concept behind the word “digital” I’m going to explain it as simple as possible.

While analog data is basically fluctuations in frequencies (waveforms if you will), digital information is just bits – 1s and 0s to be precise.

Applying it to Audio

So having said that, applying that to audio of any kind – what’s the most obvious thing you will notice? That in digital communication, it’s an all or nothing game. Either you get the data as intended or you don’t get it at all.

With analog signals, we’ve have EMI or all sorts of noise/interference that can be introduced into the waveform data; which is why it’s reasonable to invest in analog interconnects. I have to stress the term reasonable – because there are companies that just take everything to a ridiculous level – and at that point, it all becomes absurd once again.

But again, when talking analog, you can see how quality of materials, sheilding, lengths, etc. can make a difference – because the analog waveform can be altered by different external factors.

And because the the audio converter will interpret that data as is, if the frequency has been altered by interference, you will hear it – which is why you have noise and hum and such.

In digital information however, you only have two states to contend with. 1/0, on/off, etc. Outside interference cannot make that information turn into a 1.58 or -36 because the converter will still read that as either a 0 or 1. Those 0s and 1s ultimately make up the audio waveform. ¹ Unlike in analog, the audio waveform IS the waveform itself.

So what does this digital presentation of information entail?

Putting it all into perspective.

Let’s just assume you have the absolute best equipment money can buy in your home setup – just so we can eliminate whatever external interference can introduce. ² Of course this isn’t applicable unless you’re dealing with ridiculously long lengths, but I’ll indulge you a bit. Lets just say for kicks that you’ve got a cable that uses conducting material from the lost city of Atlantis and protected by no less than God’s pure love.

Now once your “system” starts getting that High Definition inter-racial porn lossless audio torrent files from the internetz, now what kind of cables do you think your data will eventually pass through? That’s right; it’s your regular twisted-pairs that are also used for dial-up. ³ Or your regular coaxial if you’re on cable. If you don’t believe me, then why not just look at your Cable/DSL modem and check what type of connection you’ve got from the modem to your wall.

Yet, as if by magic, you still get that lossless audio file in all its… err… lossless glory? How is that even possible given the attenuation of the signal, interference from powerlines, and whatever external force in the outside environment ⁴ Not to mention that the actual data passing through the world is actually analog as well – that’s why we’ve got modems; MOdulate, DE-Modulate; which basically means the 0s and 1s are converted to waveforms/frequencies, passed through the world, then converted back to 1s and 0s. I just blew your mind. on which these cables have to traverse. Clearly it’s some sort of sorcery is it not?

No! It’s because coupled with error-correction (which I will not bother to discuss here), digital information is more accurate and resilient in the sense that you are only concerned with two states. And let me demonstrate how this is applies in real world terms.

Putting even more perspective.

Imagine being in a football field. Then seeing a person at the end of the field – they may be miniscule, but [I’d like to think] he’s still visible enough let you know if he’s got his hands up in the air, or down. It may be difficult to discern the “in-betweens,” which is analogous to analog (see what I did there?); like has he got his hands straight up or is it about 90% up; but that doesn’t matter! What matters is if they’re up or not (1 or 0). And that explains how reliable digital information can be. ⁵ And is proven by how we can get anything from the intarweb. There will be a point where he may be too far (attenuation) to even see his hands, and that’s where the signal boosters come in, but that’s out of the scope of this discussion.

Pulling it all together.

So again, with most (if not all) digital information transfer, any sort of interference of the magnitude experienced by the average user will not impact the quality of the data. Hence in audio, once your converter starts converting that digital data back into analog form for your speaker, you basically did not lose any quality… REGARDLESS of the digital cable you used.

I’d go as far as to say that audio degradation is only affected at each analog point of your system.

For example, you have your computer (digital) connected to the amp via regular RCA (analog) then the amp to your speaker (analog) the possibility of audio degradation would be in the last two connections. If you had computer (digital) to amp via TosLink or SPDIF (digital) to speaker (analog) then the only degradation would only be at the last stage – which is usually unavoidable ⁶ Unless the speaker has digital interconnects and a D/A converter inside each cabinet – in which case your whole path to the speaker could be all digital.

But going back to those Denon interconnects mentioned above (or any “premium” digital cable ⁷ Whether it be for audio, video, or data for that matter), it’s an utter waste of money because even the cheapest alternatives will perform just as well… especially if you’re just transferring data (of whatever sort) a couple of feet away – and especially because it’s digital.