Denon's $499 Ethernet Cable

Guysmiley777 writes with what looks like a very late (or very, very early) April Fool's joke: "Denon's $499 Ethernet cable 'brings out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction.' Sure, that seems plausible. After all, nuances in digital signals are so subtle. Oh, and 'signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer.'" Considering that $499 will get you a competent laptop these days, I wonder how big the market is for such a thing — then I look at Stereophile magazine's annual list of recommended components. The "view more images" link shows that they take cable porn seriously at Denon.

Comments

...This got greenlit?

[Anonymous Coward]

Companies tax morons for their lack of knowledge, the sky is blue, and water is wet, news at 11.

Re:...This got greenlit?

[neomunk]

Nope, undercutting doesn't work on the target demographic for these kinds of 'specialty purchases'. You must always charge MORE, as cost is directly indicative of perceived quality. There is simply no other worldly explanation for 500 dollar ethernet cables, short of very large ones.

Audiophools

[ylikone]

Products like this are proof that audiophiles are not very intelligent and easily swayed to buying things they do not need.

Re:Audiophools

[MP3Chuck]

The sad thing is that this whole discussion is just going to spiral into a flamewar about how people with fancy stereos are idiots and how Anonymous Coward #1 can't tell the difference between a CD and a 256kbps MP3, while the people with fancy stereos defend themselves saying they just want a good setup and aren't out buying $500 CAT5 cables.

And it's unfortunate that people who are really into the sound system stuff and who like having well-tuned systems/rooms/whatever get lumped into the schmucks who would drop $500 cables and crap like cable elevators.

Re:Audiophools

[couchslug]

"Products like this are proof that audiophiles are not very intelligent and easily swayed to buying things they do not need."

A fool and his money deserve to be parted. :)

Re:Audiophools

[agendi]

I was with you until you suggested drinking a Miller Lite... guess it's back to being a beer snob then.

Re:Audiophools

[Sj0]

That shit isn't beer. Beer is made with barley, hopps, malt, sometimes wheat, yeast, and water.

American 'beer flavoured coolers' are made with distilled rice and corn alcohols added to artificial flavours.

That said, it is a matter of taste. There's no right or wrong answer. Some people like beer flavoured coolers, but myself, I really enjoy a good beer. You know, the way they've made beer for 6,000 years. I've got nothing against the coolers, but when you're adding rice and corn alcohol to flavouring, that's not how you make beer.

Some day...

[Kjella]

...I wish someone would do a form of blind test - split a bunch of audiophiles into two different groups. Tell one group the price and quality of each system, while the other group isn't told anything and can only listen to the system. Or for extra fun, a third group that's telling them all sorts of wrong information. It'd be fun to see how much that would impact their impression of the system.

Re:Some day...

[maxume]

I'm pretty sure there is a decay function. A $3 bottle generally isn't going to be as good as a $10 bottle, but even though a $10 bottle that you like is a better experience than a $25 you don't like, people need to feel like that $15 bought something, so they 'prefer' the $25 bottle.

It works for spirits too, I'm pretty sure that $13 Smirnoff is more than 40% as good as $29 absolut or $35 Goose. Probably like 85%. 5 O'clock is probably about 5% as good.

So a $100 DVD player may actually be quite a lot better than a $25 DVD player (perhaps the menus are sane, or it is more reliable), but the only difference between the $100 DVD player and a $500 DVD player is about $400 of profit.

Re:Some day...

[squidfood]

It works for spirits too, I'm pretty sure that $13 Smirnoff is more than 40% as good as $29 absolut or $35 Goose. Probably like 85%.

Yah, but that missing 15% really fucking hurts the next day.

In other news...

[Radium_]

A fool and his money are soon parted

Is ALL Denon suspect?

[hirschma]

I was thinking of buying a Denon AV receiver for my home theater upgrade.

Then I see this. Are all their claims just sheer puffery? How can I take their brand seriously?

If this Ethernet garbage is just an aberration, don't they know that doing it will have the reverse effect on consumers with clue?

Re:Is ALL Denon suspect?

[DigitalSorceress]

I've got an AVR 4306 - this is my second Denon, having outgrown the "gazintas" and "gazoutas" of my previous one (which now does duty as my bedroom stereo)

I've been very VERY happy with it. I really like that this particular model upsamples all video inputs to HDMI, greatly simplifying my remote control macros and keeping the cabling from being such a tangle.

I don't think that the fact that they make a silly, overpriced cable for "golden ears" (or more likely for wannabe "golden ears") really shouldn't dissuade you from the whole company. Judge the product on features and how it sounds and how it treats your video. My guess is that you might get some decent advice, reviews, and alternatives from AVS Forum.

Re:Is ALL Denon suspect?

[ScrewMaster]

There are very few established brands anymore. Unfortunately for us and the Europeans, China has been using our brand-consciousness against us for some years now. Old-line American audio equipment manufacturers like Marantz sold their names and are now just marketing fronts. The point being, a particular model from a particular maker may be good quality and worth the money, but you can no longer depend upon branding as a reliable indicator of quality. You need to do your research first before you plunk down your money (good advice in any event, but it's especially true today.)

Re:Is ALL Denon suspect?

[Anonymous Coward]

Harman Kardon. They still measure the old fashioned way: the one true way, using all frequencies (pink noise), and all channels. Their watts are real watts. When they say you get 50 watts per channel, you get 50 watts per channel, instead of 2-300 watts for five to seven channels, on a narrow frequency, like most other amp-receivers, including Denon.

Less expensive, more powerful, and vastly less snake oil, compared to Denon. I've long considered Denon to be way over priced, and under performing. Money would be better spent on good 70's hifi stereo amp & receiver, compared to their stuff (which, incidentally is not a bad place to start). But that's just my opinion.

Re:It's worth every penny

[black6host]

I'd be willing to bet it's a typo. Look at the pricing of the other cables (HDMI, IPod) etc. They're more like 60.00 to 100.00. Still expensive, but not ridiculous like 499.00 for an ethernet cable.

Re:Nope, no typo, just a thinko :)

[user-hostile]

Thank you. Yes, the reviews are great, and the _comments_ (replies) to the reviews are even funnier!

Re:It's worth every penny

[History's Coming To]

Hmm...I'm not an audio geek, but my flatmates make a living from music with a lot of talent and little technical knowledge. And I help them on the techie side. Suffice to say, Denon have made their brand very clear, and very un-buyable to me, and hence to a group of musicians.

empoying?

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

You think at $500 a pop, Denon could afford a copy editor - or at least a spellchecker! The tortured grammar of the non-statement about design is also a howler.

Re:empoying?

[anomaly256]

What's even funnier than 'empoying', is the context in which they use it: "Attention to detail when building this cable was used by empoying high quality insulation, tin-bearing alloy shielding and woven jacketing to reduce vibration and to add durability." Great attention to detail guys!

Re:empoying?

[billcopc]

That's actually a feature! It's audiophile-talk for "This shit is so advanced you can't even comprehend its futuristic grammar".

Seriously, cable vendors and cable fetishists need to be buried alive under a truckload of Monster interconnects. If you buy a cable and you can hear a difference with the rest, it's because you've got a bad cable. Audio doesn't go anywhere close to the high frequencies that are affected by line capacitance and the so-called skin-effect. As long as they've got enough bulk to support the current being driven, everything else is virtually identical.

Re:datasheet

[TheGratefulNet]

I know that before I put little arrows on my cat5 a lot of my ethernet packets were getting lost.

not with today's routers. they all have priority queueing.

the problem occurs when the logically set (administrative) value conflicts with the value stamped on the PVC cable jacket.

I mean, what's a packet to do?

THIS is why there is delay in networks. sometimes, a packet has to sit and think before it hops.

Re:It's worth every penny

[jimmydevice]

For $499.00 is should come with a hot 6 foot tall blond virgin.

Re:There is more

[frdmfghtr]

As an EE major this seriously makes me want to hurt someone.

As an EE major you should make it a senior project to prove/debunk this scientifically.

Take a CD (or better yet, several CDs of different brands) and record a set of sounds on them. For example, record sine wave tones of 50, 500, 1k, 5k, 10k, and 20k Hertz. Go a step further and record square and sawtooth waves of the same set of audible frequencies.

Now, run the audio output of a CD player (the CD drive audio out will suffice I would think) into a oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer and capture the resulting output wave/spectrum. Maybe take a few sample runs and compile each run into an average.

Get your EE dept. to buy one of these devices (you're a college student; don't spend your own money), treat the CDs with the device, and repeat the test. Compare the audio waveform and the spectral content before and after the "demagnetization" treatment.

You will note the the 6moons site states that the equipment and CDs "sound" better; it's purely subjective. YOU, on the other hand, will scientifically demonstrate what we all believe to be a big sham. "Just like with treated CDs, a veil or haze was lifted and more and finer details were able to make it through to the listener." Yeah, because the listener believed that was supposed to happen.

Re:It's worth every penny

[mrchaotica]

I use that when connection quality doesn't matter.

You do realize we're talking about a $499 ethernet cable that claims to "bring out nuances" here, right? If the idiot believed that the $499 cable was actually different in the first place, then he would only be compounding his idiocy by failing to care whether the repair was sloppy.

Re:It's worth every penny

[dreddnott]

That is an incredible thread. I didn't know people this gullible existed. What an amazingly profitable scam business!

False advertising?

[tygt]

Isn't it false advertising to claim a benefit where none exists?

Re:It's worth every penny

[dkf]

Even if they were twisted out of 6 foot tall blond virgins' pubic hair, it's still not worth it! Well, we've got virgins galore on /. and some of them must be 6 foot tall and blond, so I think a live test should be possible...

Re:It's worth every penny

[Blakey Rat]

I dunno, considering some of the crap Tesla was peddling, I bet he'd be pretty proud of the whole thing.

Remember, Telsa firmly believed that a single power station could power every electric device on the entire planet wirelessly, and that the only reason his station didn't work is that it wasn't huge enough. I think he electrocuted a few cows trying this one out.