GR Research B24 AC Cable Review: Does it Make an Audible Difference?
Summary
TLDRこのビデオでは、オーディオサイエンスレビューのサミールが、GRリサーチ社から発売されたアフターマーケットACパワーコード「B24」についてレビューしています。このケーブルは非常に太く、厚みが特徴で、価格は349ドル+送料40ドルと比較的高価ですが、他のアフターマーケットケーブルと比べると手ごろです。しかし、プラグのサイズが大きすぎるため、挿すのに非常に力を入れなければならなかったり、プラグインした状態で電気が供給されない問題がありました。さらに、安全基準にも疑問が残ります。サミールは、このケーブルを使用した音質の変化を科学的に検証し、聴覚テストや測定を通じて、特にACケーブルによる音質の違いは検出されなかったと結論付けています。
Takeaways
- 🔌 GR研究社から発売された業務用ACケーブル「B24」についてレビューが行われている。
- 💸 価格はケーブル349ドル、送料40ドルと、高級ケーブルとしては手ごろい価格である。
- 🛠️ B24は非常に太く、プラグを差し込むのが非常に困難で、安全性にも懸念が生じる。
- 🔍 レビューでは、B24ケーブルが音質に及ぼす影響について実験的検証が行われている。
- 🎧 音質比較のためのリスニングテストでは、B24ケーブルと通常ケーブルの間には顕著な違いはなかった。
- 📊 科学的に測定した結果、B24ケーブルは音響的な利点を提供していないことが示された。
- 👂 ABXテストやノルテストを通じて、聴衆はほとんどの場合、ケーブルの差異を認識できなかった。
- 🔊 ACケーブルによるノイズ除去の主張にも科学的根拠がなく、実用的な効果は不明である。
- 🛡️ 安全性に関する規程や認証が不十分で、使用には注意が必要とされている。
- 🚫 レビューではB24ケーブルの推奨がされず、その使用には多くの欠点があると結論付けられている。
- 🌐 レビューではまた、ACケーブルが音質に影響を与えないという科学的事実が強調されている。
Q & A
製品レビューの対象となるACケーブルは哪家社からのものですか?
-製品レビューの対象となるACケーブルは、GR Research社からのものです。
GR Research社から提供されているACケーブルのモデル名は何ですか?
-GR Research社から提供されているACケーブルのモデル名はB24です。
B24ケーブルはどのような価格帯で購入できますか?
-B24ケーブルは349ドルで購入できますが、それに加えて40ドルの配送料がかかります。
このACケーブルの厚みはどのように考えられていますか?
-一般的にACケーブルでは太いほど良く考えており、B24は非常に太く作られていますが、実際には導体がどれほど入っているかによってその価値は変わります。
B24ケーブルのプラグは標準的なコンセントに挿せるほど大きいですか?
-B24ケーブルのプラグは非常に大きく、特に接地ピンが標準のコンセントに挿せるほど広くはありませんでした。
このACケーブルを使用した際に問題が発生しましたが、それはどのような問題ですか?
-ACケーブルを挿す際に接地ピンが大きくて挿せない問題がありました。また、挿し込んだと思っても実際にはピンが接触していないという問題もありました。
製品レビューの中で言及された「地球は平たい」という表現とは何を意味していますか?
-「地球は平たい」という表現は、人々がACケーブルの音の違いを感じないと言いたい時に使われている比喩的な表現です。
製品レビューの中でなぜTシャツを着ていたのですか?
-製品レビューでは、GR Research社のオーナーが同じTシャツを着ていたことを理由に、地球は平たいという議論を参照してTシャツを着ていたと説明しています。
製品レビューの中でどのようなテストを行いましたか?
-製品レビューでは、ACケーブルの音の違いを確認するために、RMEオーディオインターフェースを使用して異なるACケーブルでの出力をキャプチャし、比較を行いました。
製品レビューの中でどのような音楽を用いてテストを行いましたか?
-製品レビューでは、Vivaldiの「四季」やRadical Faceの「Missing Films」アルバムからの楽曲を用いてテストを行いました。
製品レビューの中でどのような結論に達しましたか?
-製品レビューでは、ACケーブルの変更が音に及ぼす影響はほとんどなく、特にGR Research社のB24ケーブルを使用しても音の質に変化はなかったという結論に達しました。
製品レビューの中でなぜACケーブルの安全性についても触れましたか?
-製品レビューでは、ACケーブルの安全性も考慮すべき重要な要素であるとされており、製品が安全基準に準拠しているかどうかが問題提起されました。
製品レビューの中でどのような製品の欠点が指摘されましたか?
-製品レビューでは、ACケーブルのプラグがコンセントに挿しにくいことや、使用感が悪く、長期間にわたって使用するとコンセントやケーブルの損傷を引き起こす可能性があることが指摘されました。
製品レビューの中でなぜ製品を推薦しないと結論付けましたか?
-製品レビューでは、ACケーブルの性能と価格のバランス、安全性、使用感の悪さから、GR Research社のB24ケーブルを推薦しないと結論付けました。
Outlines
🔌 ACケーブルのレビューと問題点
SamirはオーディオサイエンスレビューからGR研究社が開発したAC電源ケーブルのレビューを行いました。このケーブルは太さに特徴があり、24本のワイヤーを持ち「B24」と名付けられています。高額で購入したものの、包装には問題があり、取り付けが非常に困難で、コンタクトが取れなかったり、プラグを挿すのに非常に力を入れなければならなかったりと、安全性に疑問が残ります。
🛑 安全性と信頼性の欠如
レビューではACケーブルの安全性と信頼性に関する懸念が示されています。製品には安全規程に準拠しているというマークはありますが、その安全性は不明であり、専門家のレビューが行われていないと指摘しています。また、返品に関する条件が厳しかったり、製品の評価が低いことも触れられています。
📊 技術的なテストと比較
Samirは技術的なテストを行い、GR研究のACケーブルと他のケーブルを比較しました。DC抵抗の測定から、GRのケーブルは比較的其他のケーブルと同等かそれ以上の性能を持っていることを示しましたが、実際の音の質に違いはないと結論付けています。
🎵 聴覚テストと無差別比較
聴覚テストを通じて、ACケーブルの変更が音の質に影響を与えるかどうかを検証しました。特別なソフトウェアを使用して、異なるケーブルでの再生音を比較し、聴衆に違いを感じさせるものがないことを証明しました。
🔊 音響的差の有無を数理的に検証
Samirは科学的なアプローチを取って、音響的差が存在するかどうかを数理的に検証しました。専門のソフトウェアを使用して、異なるケーブルでの再生音を数値的に比較し、音の差が存在しないことを明確にしました。
🔍 ACケーブルの機能と評価
ACケーブルが持つ主張された機能と実際の性能について評価し、Samirは製品の設計と安全性に問題があると結論付けました。また、ACケーブルが音の質に与える影響は科学的には認められないと主張し、その理由を説明しています。
🚫 製品の推奨しない結論
最終的に、SamirはGR研究社が開発したACケーブルを推奨しない結論に達しました。製品の欠陥、安全性の疑問、そして実験的に証明された音の質への影響の欠如から、このケーブルは購入しない方がよいとアドバイスしています。
Mindmap
Keywords
💡ACケーブル
💡アフターマーケットケーブル
💡コンダクター
💡安全性
💡評価
💡オーディオテスト
💡ノイズキャンセレーション
💡周波数応答
💡シナプス
💡製品レビュー
Highlights
Samir from Audio Science Review discusses an aftermarket AC power cord by GR Research.
The B24 cable is thicker and more expensive than the B16 version, costing $349 plus $40 shipping.
The cable has a design issue where the earth pin is large, causing difficulty in plugging it into outlets.
The cable's jacket slides up and down, potentially causing a poor electrical connection.
The cable lacks safety certifications, raising concerns about its compliance with safety standards.
Samir performs a null test using an RME audio interface to compare the sound quality between the GR Research cable and a generic cable.
The null test results show no audible difference between the GR Research B24 cable and the generic AC cable.
Samir questions the company's recommendation to use the thicker B24 cable for source devices and the thinner B16 for power amplifiers.
The company's claim that the cable filters out interference is debunked by Samir's measurements and logic.
Tests show that the cable has low DC resistance, but this has negligible impact on audio performance.
The cable's design and assembly are criticized for being poorly built and potentially damaging to outlets and connectors.
Samir emphasizes the importance of safety and proper testing for cables that are plugged into the wall.
The video concludes that AC cables do not make a difference in sound quality, and the GR Research B24 cable is not recommended.
The testing methodology used in the video is highlighted as a new technique for future reviews.
Samir invites viewers to conduct their own blind tests using the provided files to verify the findings.
The video ends with a humorous reference to the Earth not being flat, relating to the idea that some people may still believe in the benefits of high-end cables despite evidence.
Transcripts
hello everyone this is samir from audio
science review i have another product
review for you
in the form of a aftermarket ac power
cord by a company called gr research
this is the cable uh typical of these
aftermarket tape cables uh size matters
so the thicker they are the you know
typical person thinks they're
you know better ac cables so it's
mandatory to make them this thick even
if the conductor's inside or not
this one's called the b24 which i assume
it has 24 wires i think 12 per plus a
ground i'm not sure but that's what it's
called they also have a b16 version of
this which is thinner so i opted to get
the more expensive one get the full
treatment
um
the i paid 349 dollars for this cable
plus 40 dollars in shipping to get it in
a couple days i think regular shipping
was 25 dollars
and
so as high-end cables goes it's not
outrageous although i've tested
aftermarket cables that cost 40 50 60 80
100
um so it's price low relative to the
garden hose size that you see
sadly it didn't come with these velcros
i put them on you would think that they
would throw a couple of them in there to
you know if you're not using it to be
able to contain the size and shape of
this thing
when i first tried to use this cable i
could not um
when i tried to plug it in this
earth pin
was so large and so uh
well so wide that i could not get it
into the
outlet that i was plugging it into
it took incredible amount of force to
push this thing in the first time
after about five or six times it started
to get some scratches and wore out or
got a little bit more compact i don't
know which or damaged my outlet one of
one or both of those things
and it got a little bit better but still
i'm talking about 50 times more force to
plug this in than any kind of uh generic
thin
you know standard iec cable that you get
but the bigger problem was that when i
plugged it in it wouldn't work i was
like wow how could they you know so many
strands going from one side to the other
surely he's got to work i had it plugged
in this side i wiggled it every way i
could and he was plugged in properly
and there's still no power so i went to
pull it out of the outlet and i noticed
something which is this which is i don't
know if you can see it on the side
better but as you try to push this
monster
you know cable in
this jacket
actually slides up and down so you're
trying to push it in because this pin is
so hard to get in there as you push it
forward look at what happens
this thing comes forward
so far that these pins are barely going
past it so you think you've got it
plugged in and is flush with the outlet
but in reality these two pins are not
making contact
so
and that's what was happening is that it
was in there was secure because this
monster earth pin was holding it but it
wasn't so to get it in there you had to
simultaneously pull this back while you
push the cable in by the you know girth
of the the whole bundle
and you're fighting the pressure of this
pin
and it was just a nightmare every time i
had to switch
i could unplug it i was dreading it i
was like you know what's the best way to
do this testing without having to plug
this in again or not
it's also uh
exacerbated by the fact that this
ground pin is actually pretty long uh
the ones that you know usually it is
more proud than these two
you know business end of the plug but
this is actually longer than usual which
means that you really got to force this
thing in quite far before these two make
a connection
there's danger in there that these could
barely make a connection
and
as a result generate heat
and actually make a poor connection
because
it could look like you've plugged it in
but in reality you
basically have inserted most of this
this pin in the earth pin and the and
the two you know how neutral haven't
gone in there looking at right now i see
that it's scratched up from the hole up
but the rest of it is not scratched up
that much so
it just
you know high-end cables may not have
audible benefit but a lot of them are
put together extremely well i mean some
people come you know out of your jewelry
for that reason whether it's
functionality or usability this thing is
just the total disaster so
at some level i don't care what it does
if you can't plug it in and get it in
there uh what kind of usability this
testing did they do beta testing anybody
getting this cable
we surely complained saying oh my god
this thing is just a nightmare to plug
and unplug
on this thing
um there's no other marking on it
strangely came with the masking tape
with uh u or n written on it i don't
know what that is about why this wasn't
uh
taken off um this end of it
the ic plug side has some kind of ce
mark on it so wherever they source this
part of it this
some kind of certification got into just
the plug this side i can't find anything
in here
and
even if these were safety regulated the
whole assembly is unknown
so
you know let's say you get a short in
your equipment you're relying on a very
strong and low impedance path between
these uh you know going through coming
out to the outlet and
who knows if this is compliant or not
you know we want safety experts looking
at something like this and that you're
gonna plug into the wall that you're
gonna leave unattended and make sure
that it is safe uh
you know audio is a great hobby but it's
not worth you know setting your house on
fire now these things obviously don't
happen it's a one in a million chance
but if it happens to you it doesn't
matter that it's a one in a million
chance it's happened to you and and it's
bad so personally you know even if it
had audible benefits it's just there's
so many reasons not like this uh i
should say that
half a dozen or a few other ac cables
after market ac cables i've tested they
also don't have certification on them
which is very disappointing um yes it
costs two or three thousand dollars or
you know they're about to go to get a ul
tested
in for us
but hey you're selling me a shortest
cable is almost 400
for the price of four or five of them
you know get me a safety certification
so i can sleep easy on this thing uh
on that so
a lot of misses but
you know let's put that aside
um
you might be wondering why i'm wearing a
t-shirt uh this is a
uh
tries to settle the argument that
earth is not flat and that nasa has seen
it with their spaceship
and
the reason i'm wearing it is that the
company's
owner danny from gr research wore this
to say that people who say there's no
audible difference between these cables
and others must be thinking the earth is
flat so i thought it was fitting that i
wear the same
t-shirt as he did and we'll find out who
thinks the
earth is flat or not
so with that introduction you don't need
to look at me anymore let's look at the
cabling
i already explained this thing you can
see just sitting in here how proud this
sleeve is by the way this sleeve is
supposed to be some kind of shield
it's a little some kind of copper sleeve
or something uh which is fine you know
they want to shield it they want to
shield it but then the only thing that
seems to hold it there is this heat
shrink tube and the heat shrink tube is
attached to this
jacket in here and
so of course the whole thing just moves
back and forth maybe it was supposed to
be glued and wasn't i don't know
and then here i'll show you how much
you know how proud this uh ground pin is
uh relative to the uh
the two main connectors
uh on this so
the company in the video says look go
ahead and try this you know don't like
it return it so before buying it i once
looked at their uh terms for returning
it it says that hey you have to pay for
the shipping from both directions
so about 40 dollars coming to me
uh so
you know if somebody doesn't have a
commercial account shipping account
going back probably it will cost them
another forty dollars and then he says
you gotta pass the credit card
transaction fees too
excuse me i'm like whoa
what is that you're gonna charge me you
know
best case is probably two two and a half
percent but you know maybe they charge
you five percent of this thing so you
add it all up you're out eighty ninety
dollars you know if you're not careful
uh to send the free cable back so this
is not a free evaluation by any stretch
i don't think you could just you know
listen to it and you think it made no
difference send it back you're not out
anything
you're out you know almost a hundred
dollars and you could buy 50 other ac
cables for that same price so it better
do some good and you better produce some
results
um
i try to do always some basic you know
tests on on things and here i just
measured the
dc resistance of the one end to the
other uh you need to have a special
meter that can measure very small uh
resistances and an idea
and
i then converted that resistance to how
much it is per meter because the other
cables that i compared it to the pangaea
and audio quest and the thin cable i use
for comparisons
they come in different lengths and
they're all actually longer than this
i didn't want to buy a longer one
because it was four of those as it is
with the shortest line
so but if we normalize everything to
a million or thousands of an o
per meter the gr research cable is only
four
uh
million per thousand uh uh
per meter or uh you know if you have a
thousand meter it would it would only be
four ohms the pangea core that i have is
an ac
14se
it's also a thick cable but not as thick
as this so as a result it's actually 9
million per meter
i had an article audioquest nrg x3 i
believe that i reviewed recently and
that one's 11 so a little bit worse than
this and for the bulk of the test you
see in here i actually picked the exact
opposite to show any difference that
might be which is a very thin
chinese-made
cable though had nice specifications on
the outside jacket and so forth which
this one does not and that it naturally
had more resistance so 81 million but
again remember this is 81 thousands of
an ohm for one meter
so if you do the math and you pull 15
amps out of this cable so about 1 800
watts or so
you will have a 1.5 voltage drop
with the thing cable that i use this one
versus 0.1 for the gr research so
technically there's less drop now that's
negligible it's dropping the bucket your
equipment doesn't care uh i think it the
yeah 1.8 volt voltage drop at 15 amps
continuous which you're not none of your
equipment gonna do that even power ramps
will have cycles in them but anyway uh
given benefit of doubt yes if you stack
so many conductors you know for each pin
you're getting essentially a very thick
gauge cable
i'm not going to try to guess but maybe
it's like an eight gauge or six gauge
cable you're getting
now you would think that this
would then
get the company to recommend that you
hook this up to your power amps but
ironically i don't know if you was in
the video promoting it or on a forum
discussions they recommend that you use
this thicker cable for your source
products your cd player your dax and
preamps and use the thinner cable the
b16 for uh power amplifier
uh don't ask me to explain why i don't i
only work here i you know the logic of
subjective is audio uh does not compute
with me so i follow instructions and
therefore i
tested this device uh for uh
um you know in my case i use the
preamplifier which was most convenient
thing to do
i'll really explain there's no safety
standards in here and hopefully some of
you will start insisting on only buying
uh certified cables and and nothing else
uh on this thing
so now typically i would go and show you
umpteen measurements at this point
to prove that nothing changes in the
output of the
audio device and
people then don't read the rest of the
the review where i often do listening
tests and complain that you just did
measurements and the magic of these
cables doesn't show up in measurement so
i'm going to
not talk about measurements right now
i'm actually going to talk about how the
cable sounds
so
the target device that i use is this
topping a90 discrete preamplifier and
headphone amplifier
it's an exceptionally high performance
device and
beautifully made with stepladder volume
control and so forth and it has an ac
power supply inside of it therefore it
just accepts an iec cable so ideal
setup for this some of these products
have external power supplies that don't
accept the regular ac cable
and
then i did something else now i could
tell you that what i heard or didn't
hear but how do you know that's true how
do you know i wasn't biased for or
against this cable and so
instead of that i did another test which
is i used an rme audio interface
interface that's my desktop product uh
audio interface i used to listen to
everything and uh you know my headphones
normally i'm working i'm listening with
the rme but it has a you know high
performance analog to digital converter
and i captured the output of the topping
890
when it's powered with a thin ac cable
versus the gr resist b24 and then what
i've done is that i i captured the two
analog files um converse to digital and
then i have them but importantly i
perform a null test now this nalt has a
smart null test in that when you
do consecutive captures they can be
clock drift where that means the two
tracks aren't running in sync they could
be out of alignment
you know one maybe hair off than the
other one and so if you just do the dumb
mathematical subtraction the null
actually is not zero even if you have
changed nothing you will actually hear
the music as if you had changed
something and for me that's the control
by the way i change nothing in my setup
and i do two consecutive captures if
nulling them is silent that i know that
my not nulling process is right if i
hear the music still that means you know
denial is not correct and in this case
it worked really well
and so i picked different kinds of music
one of them is this vivaldi four seasons
one of my favorite composers
and
uh i've got the details of the recording
if you want to know in here
and uh i went ahead and and captured it
once with the thin cable let me see if i
have my thin cable to show you
uh yes
so this is the uh
the thin cable is as i said it's a
generic thing cable uh nothing fancy
this is probably on a seven or eight
dollar cable uh and i'm comparing this
four hundred dollar cable so not the
fancier audio cables that i talked about
before
on this thing so
i played this with multi-track captured
it and then i run it through
both ways with two different power
cables and i run it through this
great program
called the delta wave that a forum
member
going by the alias p kane
has written which does a beautiful job
of matching volumes and syncing two
tracks down to sub samples that means
not just digital samples or a line but
it actually is a fraction of a sample
which is what you have to do to get
things to be lined up what i do this it
it computes the objective level of
matching that it is finding so it
computes a difference and says what's
the difference ratio of that difference
relative to
originals and it's finding that down
here you can see
93 correlated null is 93 db this is a cd
rip so best case is actually 93 db said
the third file so instead of 96 we get
dyn3 so essentially our null is as good
as the resolution of the original
recording and it what is there lenses
in the null itself the spectrum is noise
and you can see the spectrum of of the
noise in here it's purely around doesn't
look anything like music there's none of
the music spectra is in here
and i can save this file and listen to
it so let's go ahead and listen to this
let me pause for a second and make sure
this volume comes through i'll be right
back
okay i'm back
so
i'm going to play the difference file
between the two
and it's on the dropbox you can go
download it and play with it the link is
here so when i open that
you can see the dropbox come up and
dropbox is able to play these files in
place so you don't even need to have uh
you know download them and play them
elsewhere so
fortunately you can't see the bottom of
my browser but just trust me i'm going
to play this
do you hear anything
i don't
even my sensitive iems and cranking the
volume way up if i go way way up where i
would go deaf if music is playing i just
hear the hiss
and that's it
usually dropbox is also showing the
spectrum over here and you don't see
that because there's just nothing to say
so i'm gonna pause this and uh close
this guy and go back uh this music is
copyrighted so i'm not giving you the
two source versions but for the next
track two tracks i can share the uh
actual captures i did not make the test
blind so you can actually download them
know which is which and you're welcome
to do your own comparison um it's from
one of my favorite bands called radical
face i think the artist's name is ben
cooper and he has an album called
missing film
and it's basically compose
compositions that he created for
different projects that didn't get used
and he was very kind enough to give away
this album i actually purchased it
from
band camp where you can donate any
amount of money you want or nothing
there's also a site where you can get it
for free
but i thought it was worthwhile to buy
it so if you like this music at all
please
go and donate something on this but
you're welcome to download these tracks
and
use them as is he provides them with
with no restrictions
so
this one i'm gonna warn you as soon as i
play the first track it's gonna be quite
loud so make sure your volume is down
uh a bit because a very dynamic track
and these by the way these two tracks i
didn't try to hand pick them to
disadvantage this this test i uh is
actually part of my reference tracks
that i use for testing headphones and
speakers
so here we go this is with a generic ac
cable
so once again dropbox loads now you can
see the peaks in here of the uh uh
spectrum so let me see if i can
make this guy zero now you're still not
gonna see it
no i lost my controls there we go
so i'm going to play it again it's going
to be loud at the beginning
so i'm going to pause it here so this
was a generic code
generic cohort and now this is the gr
research version um
all that's changed is the ac power cord
so let's go ahead and play this
now you're probably going to have one of
three reactions one is that you're going
to say well i couldn't hear a difference
but some of you will think that
the second version was better some might
think that the first version is better
indeed when i listen to them on a
computer so i can quickly switch between
them um sometimes i preferred one versus
the other and other times i couldn't
tell the difference depending on how i
play them if i play them inside delta
wave where they're synced and one face
to the other i couldn't hear a
difference
so
and by the way which one's better
changes depending on the sequence i
played i'm not part of the music so
statistically speaking in a sighted test
it's all over the place and it's okay
for you to have had a preference um but
if you want to know if you really heard
the difference then you got to pull them
into abx program like fubar and
see if you can tell then if there's a
difference and you gotta get it eight
out of ten times or nine out of ten
times to do that
but uh better yet we could just subtract
those two computationally as i mentioned
over here and now i'll play the
difference for you between the two and
we can all try to see if we hear
anything so now you can turn it up turn
up the volume if you like to hear the
difference
nothing right
again dropbox is showing a progress
monitor in here and the progress monitor
is
showing nothing there's no spectrum for
it to show
and
there's no difference if i crank this
way way way way up i'm talking 50 60 db
raising the noise floor
then i can hear this impulsive thing
that goes at a very regular cadence
what the cause of that is i don't know
it's not music it only happens once in a
while
certain would be anything that would get
me excited thinking that the two are are
different and that's what this low
peaking is over here
once again we're at 94 db nulling which
is the noise floor of the source so
and this is a spectrum you can see going
all the way to above 20 kilos it's just
all noise there's nothing else there so
mathematically we know
there's no difference between these two
files and
so if you think inside the test oh of
course the one sounds better than the
other
you just have proof that you what you
heard was not reality you know the
reality is that when we subtract these
two when they're we align them
then the different stitch disappears so
whatever you think you're hearing is
incorrect
so that was one track another track i
have from this album that i use as a
reference
again turn on the volume this one is
even though it's from same band it's got
a very different composition in it and
so let's play the uh
generic track
[Music]
so this generic ac cable
[Music]
let me stop it so as i mentioned these
are reference tracks they sound
beautiful on my system they sound
gorgeous on good headphones
uh it has all the characteristics that
people look for
is there sound stage is there a
separation between instruments is there
not the case you can listen to
all of that is there as you can see
these transient massive transients over
here it's got all of that so this was
with generic ac cord and now let's play
the gr research version
[Music]
i could listen to these tracks forever
but i won't bore you so let's go to the
uh difference uh this time the
difference is just as pure as you can
get so let's go ahead and play this and
you're welcome to turn up the volume now
to see if you can hear anything in the
silence
so i've got it up
i'm gonna do the same thing crank it up
i hear nothing but random yes um again
all these tracks are available as a
dropbox download i don't know if i'll
keep them there forever but if you're
watching this video fresh and for a few
weeks from now you certainly can
download them and listen to them and uh
you know you form your own opinion you
can
get delta wave and and all them yourself
if you don't trust what i did but again
this one also knocks down to the noise
floor that we have 93 db so there's zero
evidence that the jr research b24 cable
is able to modify the sound that you're
hearing we have objective proof using
our ears
we have computationally subtracted two
waveforms from each other and we have
nothing that would help widen the sound
stage tighten the bass and you know
smooth out the highs all the stuff
people talk about
uh you know block your background none
of that is in there or we would see it
in different tests like this
okay
so we now have this by the way any track
i throw at the system will do the same
thing i've tested more tracks that i'm
showing you in here i try to pick the
shortest one so i wouldn't take as much
space on dropbox
but there's nothing specific
about these tracks you know if you think
there's some other tracks that shows a
difference you have this cable you think
makes a difference give me you know
comment and give me the track and i'll
create a null test for it and we'll go
ahead and look at
now if in their video the company says
the reason this cable sounds better is
because it filters out
uh i guess interference coming into it
uh
an ac cable first thing happens is goes
inside your device and there's a
transformer there which is a filter
already then it gets converted do you
see an um thin amount of filtering is
done to it so why would a you know an ac
cable noise make a difference it there's
no engineering reason behind it but less
humor the uh the company and what i then
did was that instead of using this cable
as an ac cable i treated it as an audio
interconnect cable meaning i hooked up
to my analyzer output of the analyzer
input of an analyzer it generated 121 db
synapse which means that it's always as
perfect as a uh by the way so it was a
generic cable both of them were great as
an interconnect cable also
not that you'd want to use an ac cable
for that purpose but they did um but i
wasn't happy with that i wanted to see
if i could induce a difference between
the cables so what i did was i took uh
this cable and my cheap cable
excuse me
and i stuck a big transformer to it uh
i can't get to the transformer but i've
got a chunky big ac transformer that is
part of my grass measurement system for
headphone
and i brought it next to the cable and i
rotate it to get this sort of worst case
inducement into it from the magnetic
field of that transformer while it's
plugged in and with gr research you can
see it in blue over here so relative to
our tone which is a 0 db this is minus
135 db so
20 db better than threshold of hearing
and at all frequencies and then i put in
my generic ac cord and it actually is
about 20 db worse
uh so
you know is that important
if you were using this cable i said here
can i turns out even if you use these ac
cables as interconnect it wouldn't make
a difference i have scaled the threshold
of hearing from fletcher months and to
match this graph it's sort of
non-trivial you have to understand how
you're doing it and this specific
reference to 120db sbl but essentially
if your playback peak level is 120
25 db
this would be per frequency noise level
so therefore all of these spikes fall
well below it and naturally so what our
hearing is not sensitive to low
frequencies so we see that even my cheap
cable using the interconnect it still
would be inaudible and would be totally
uh silent on this thing so
um
yes the weave that they have
does provide some some cancellation or
you could be generation but uh it
certainly is doing what it says it's
doing it's just that it's not important
it's like somebody says uh if you wax
your tires you'll be smoother it's like
yeah it'll be smoother but you know when
i drive it on on a dirt road why would i
care that is a little bit smoother
anyway car analogies are terrible i
shouldn't have gone there
on this thing so
you know i just want to say what's fair
is fair they talk about the geometry and
there is science behind that geometry
being good for noise but
for a c power coordinate is non it's
it just doesn't apply and certainly as
an interconnect it didn't
create an audible case
i then plugged it into my
a90d and ran a frequency response test
naturally these two curves land right on
top of each other absolutely no
difference in the frequency response of
the
preamp and that guarantees that tonality
has not changed so anybody wants to say
well it's got more highs less highs more
bass less but it's just impossible this
graph mandates that they cannot have any
tonality difference uh on this thing and
i mentioned that you know you get a 121
db synapse when you use it as an
interconnect and i don't show you the
generic one but it's identical to this
there's just no difference and notice
that
there is no noise spectrum over here to
speak of
even though i'm using the cable again as
an interconnect and and i'm in a very
noisy environment i have a full-blown
analyzer running i've got my desktop
workstations running gun monitor i've
got
tons of gear running in here so it's
much dirtier than your audio system is
sitting by itself none of that got
picked up in here and what you see in
here is basically performance of the
analyzer itself
on this thing with you know combined
nose and distortion that's below
threshold of here so even as an
interconnect cable there's just nothing
there it's just you know typical
environment so remember i said to induce
noise i had to stick a transformer on
top of the cable and rotate it to get
the best case
interference if you don't do that just
have any distance
this is what you get on the measurements
on this thing
that's at one frequency but let's go at
all frequencies and
we can see the distortion plus noise of
of
the topping a90 digital or discrete and
no matter what frequency we tested out
the noise and distortion does not change
and we're going all the way up to 90
kilohertz so any claim that this cable
provides noise reduction
it may on ac cable side of it
but once you go inside an equipment
equipment has so much better filtering
that it doesn't matter what you stick in
front of the
the device um people say well this
stuff's not music well all right well we
have 32 tones simulating music and i
measure the distortion whether with a
90d uh with a generic chord versus this
other chord
it'll make no difference
so
you know
it's very very clear that
there is just no difference to be had
there's a reason those audio files were
silent it's because even the most
trivial implementation of a power supply
is immune to these noises nobody
designing audio electronics says ah i'm
going to assume that the
incoming ac is pure and clean and if
it's not my performance going to degrade
i'm going to somehow shrink the sound
stage and all that stuff you're not but
i want to emphasize in this review that
bulk of this testing was done with
listening and you're welcome to do blind
test if you want i've provided the files
then nulling is as clean you can get an
ultra b
no debate said there's zero zero zero
difference coming out of this thing now
somebody may say well you know maybe on
this device is good and others wouldn't
be well
then you better listen to my
recommendations when i tell you this is
a great preamp
then that's what you want to buy
but i'm confident that i could run this
test on a bunch of other devices and
have it uh make no difference now if you
have some kind of hum and buzz and you
disconnect the regular cable and you're
plugging this monster thing in there and
it changes that for some reason and it
can because the ground currents change
okay but i've never seen anybody buy
aftermarket ac cable for that reason
they all think their system was great
then they plug in the aftermarket cable
then all this unveil is removed and the
detail got better what have you and
there's just we've proven here with our
ears and only our ears that there's no
difference in there because the null
tests
powerfully show that you know changing
power cables makes no difference on this
thing
so there are many many strikes against
this cable in the specific and that it's
just poorly built poorly assembled from
point of view that shrink wrap that
moves you can't plug it in you can't use
it i don't even know if it's damaged my
outlet now and enlarge the safety pin so
when i now plug in a regular cable with
the last two loose won't make a good
connection cause it generate heat or
cause it to not trip the breaker uh you
know why would you jump through so many
hoops and uh
to plug in this monster cable which by
the way i didn't even talk about the
cantilever force this thing puts on your
connectors no question in my mind over
time you could damage and break
lots of out you could damage your outlet
by the wall or power strips you could
damage this i had to keep worrying that
the whole thing wouldn't topple over
it's just gone through so much pain
for supposed benefit but those benefits
are simply not there
we know as a matter of engineering it's
not there matter of listening tests not
their matter of measurements
okay
so
we have proven that science works that
nasa is right when you apply science you
can't find that the earth is round and
we've applied science in here i didn't
just deliver a monologue and say whoa
you know i've weaved these wires this
way trust me it's better than a 2 000
cable and certainly better than anything
cable you get and and you don't have the
correct system if you don't have these
cables or that you know it's just
lameness excuse me oh you get to a level
where your system is so good that only
then you hear the benefit of this well
okay go ahead and show me this you can
pass an a b test of the files that are
provided blind and then we can talk set
up a camera run the test 10 times if you
get eight or nine times correct
identifying one versus the other and
i'll try to replicate that then we can
go from there but uh i'd say this is the
most powerful proof we have that in
general ac cables don't make a
difference at all and in this specific
we just have so many negative things in
here that i absolutely cannot recommend
this cable from gr research okay
hopefully you learned something and by
the way this is a new technique that i'm
going to use in future videos with
knowledge
of two samples
see you in the future bye bye future
video bye bye
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