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Calling Shenanigans On Super SATA's Claimed Audio Qualities

Posted by timothy on from the 0s-are-rounder-1s-more-linear dept.

nk497 writes "Veteran Hi-Fi journalist Malcolm Steward has pushed newfangled Super SATA cables via his blog as a way to improve the sound quality of music, saying: 'My only guess is that the Super SATAs reject interference significantly better than the standard cables and in so doing lower the noise floor revealing greater low-level musical detail and presentational improvements in the soundstage and the "air" around instruments.' If that doesn't sound right to you, you're not alone. As PC Pro blogger Sasha Muller argues: 'How on earth can a SATA cable delivering 0s and 1s to their respective destination have any effect on those 0s and 1s? The answer is, it can't. Unless it's a magical one made of pixie shoes.' So maybe don't invest in Super SATA cables unless you have proof they're magical first."

25 of 827 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A fool and his money... by onionman · · Score: 5, Funny

    It seems like a pretty good buy to me. Those Monster cables have prevented any Monsters from infesting my home audio equipment. My anti-shark rock is working well in the living room, too.

  2. Re:A fool and his money... by NiceGeek · · Score: 5, Funny

    If there is a more gullible group of people than audiophiles, I haven't met them.

  3. Alliterate headline by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Steward Says Super SATA Sound Swindles Some Suckers

  4. Ah.. he has not reached audio nirvana yet! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Wait until he installs the pure ivory motherboard standoffs!

    1. Re:Ah.. he has not reached audio nirvana yet! by Abstrackt · · Score: 5, Funny

      Until you use whale semen as thermal paste you're just wasting your money on ivory standoffs.

      --
      They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. - Terry Pratchett
  5. They might work by bgspence · · Score: 4, Funny

    Don't ignore the placebo effect in audio perception. Placebos have been proven to work, and it has also been shown that higher priced placebos are more effective.

  6. Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 5, Funny

    You conjugation need work

    --

    "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
  7. These are _musical_ 0s and 1s by Cajun+Hell · · Score: 4, Funny

    How on earth can a SATA cable delivering 0s and 1s to their respective destination have any effect on those 0s and 1s?

    It could succeed or fail to deliver the 0s and 1s with their souls intact.

    --
    "Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
  8. You morons don't unstand how Super SATA works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    A normal SATA can only carry 0s and 1s, but Super SATA carries 0.0000s and 1.0000s. Thats 4 digits of precision beyond the bits that normal SATA can represent.

  9. Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

    In this economy? Good luck.

  10. Re:A fool and his money... by 0racle · · Score: 5, Funny

    Denon AKDL1 Dedicated Link Cable 2 used from $2,499.98 1 refurbished from $999.99 Read the reviews.

    --
    "I use a Mac because I'm just better than you are."
  11. Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s by trentblase · · Score: 5, Funny

    Me: You're absolutely right. But don't buy those crappy $90 cables. I've got a special stash of $150 cables I can let you have for $200.

  12. The colors! The colors! by jejones · · Score: 5, Funny

    The 0s are zeroier, and the 1s more one-ey!

  13. Re:A fool and his money... by Grishnakh · · Score: 5, Funny

    Those Denon cables look great, but there's some severe problems with them, mainly because they're so good, the transmission rate exceeds lightspeed. Check out this review from Amazon.com:

    Transmission of music data at rates faster than the speed of light seemed convenient, until I realized I was hearing the music before I actually wanted to play it. Apparently Denon forgot how accustomed most of us are to unidirectional time and the general laws of physics. I tried to get used to this effect but hearing songs play before I even realized I was in the mood for them just really screwed up my preconceptions of choice and free will. I'm still having a major existential hangover.

    Would not purchase again.

    Even worse, you might experience much worse effects with these cables. This review is very ominous:

    This connection isn't sound. If my calculations are correct, it should be sometime around 2007 for whomever is reading this. DO NOT USE THESE CABLES. Something... happens with them. Something came through, something from somewhere else. We were overrun in days, not many of us are left. WE LIVE UNDERGROUND! ONLY YOU CAN STOP IT NOW. SAVE US. DO NOT USE THESE CABLES.

    I don't have much time. This connection isn't sound. If my calculations are correct, it should be--

  14. Re:A fool and his money... by rubycodez · · Score: 4, Funny

    my Pink Elephant cables have turned out to be a mixed bag, they're only an effective repellent during the work week, when I'm sober.

  15. Re:If you will buy this.... by spun · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have some 700$ RCA cables you would love. A 1200$ toilet seat that I swear will make thinks "move" easier.

    Just swipe your credit card here....

    Dude, that's not a credit card reader. Stand up and pull your pants back up.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
  16. HA HA HA HA: by networkBoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    I have disabled Comments on this post so that respectable visitors do not have to read the remarks made by a small number of extremely ignorant, rude, malicious and disingenuous individuals who cannot tolerate people expressing opinions that do not concur with their own.

    Looks like someone commented about how asinine that the premise these cables could matter to sound quality.

    --
    whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    1. Re:HA HA HA HA: by istartedi · · Score: 5, Funny

      The translator needs some work though.

      I did a BS-English-BS translation and got this:

      I have special comment abilities on this post so that scepticly impaired persons do not have to read remarks by Rubinesque intellectuals who prefer not to appreciate biting the wax tadpole.

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    2. Re:HA HA HA HA: by ReallyEvilCanine · · Score: 3, Funny
      Still in the Google cache:

      Super SATA Cables on Sale Soon
      Posted by Malcolm Steward on 8/17/10 Categorized as Audio

      The Super SATA cables I recently tested proved to be real shockers. Every logical thought was telling me that the wires that transmit the raw digital data between a hard disk and the motherboard in a NAS simply could not influence the sound that emerged from the player – after the music has already subsequently passed through metres of CAT5.

      But they do.

      I listened to the cables in my NAS feeding my Naim HDX/DAC/XPS and clearly identified easily perceptible improvements through my highly revealing active Naim DBL system. Quite what it is that wrought these improvements I do not know. My only guess is that the Super SATAs reject interference significantly better than the standard cables and in so doing lower the noise floor revealing greater low-level musical detail and presentational improvements in the soundstage and the ‘air’ around instruments.

      The most marked and worthwhile difference, I felt, was in the increased naturalness in both the sound of instruments and voices, which seemed more organic, human and less ‘electronic’, and in the music’s rhythmical progression, which was also more natural and had the realistic ebb and flow that musicians exhibit when playing live. In short, recordings sounded more like musical performances then recordings.

      As you can see the cables do not look anything special even though they are far more robust than the standard issue flat cables, and they are are irradiated, I am told, to vapourise any moisture that has found its way into the molecular structure of the conductors.

      The photo here shows the original, Generation 1 cable but there is now a more advanced, wider bandwidth Generation 2 version that is soon going to be available from the same American manufacturer. They will, of course, be more expensive than ‘ordinary’ SATA cables – the red and grey insulated flat cables that come free with hard disks or sell for around £2.99. But their superior performance easily justifies the extra expense.

      When I have a definite price on the new cables and the URL from which they will be able to be purchased, I will post the information here. I cannot wait: I only have one of the generation 1 cables and wanted a dozen more for other hard disks and SATA peripherals. Now there is a supposedly ‘better’ version I cannot wait to evaluate it and if it is, as I am told, substantially superior, get my order in for a dozen of those.

  17. Re:What an idiot. by Annirak · · Score: 4, Funny

    He's improved it. Now he's taken his entire site offline. It now simply reads

    Error establishing a database connection

    Oh wait, that was us.

  18. Re:A fool and his money... by acnicklas · · Score: 3, Funny

    I'm a wine snob - I won't touch Mad Dog 20/20. Thunderbird all the way....

  19. Re:Not the first time... by monkeySauce · · Score: 3, Funny

    Maybe it was also meant to be purchased and used in a "low oxygen" environment. I'm sure the sound is much better when there isn't so much oxygen permeating your brain and impeding the high quality sound particles, etc.

  20. Re:This will not stop best buy from have monster s by Pharmboy · · Score: 3, Funny

    I personally love how you can buy a DVD player at Best Buy for under $100, and then when you need a HDMI cable to hook it up? Over $100. Why does the cable that just sits there cost more than the DVD player it connects, when the DVD player has moving parts, a laser, and a remote control?

    3. Profit!

    --
    Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
  21. Re:A fool and his money... by Darinbob · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't bother with all the techie stuff. I just ask my astrologer to tell me when the best time is to listen to my hi-fi recordings.

  22. Re:A fool and his money... by fyoder · · Score: 4, Funny

    High end digital cables are totally worth it, especially if they have pretty lights! ;)

    And titanium binary shielding to prevent bit leakage, drift, and collisions. When ALL the bits are travelling in the same direction with perfect coherency, the sound quality is so good it induces multiple orgasms even in males. I'd like to see a cable without binary shielding do that! And if its not titanium, it's crap. But that goes without saying.

    --
    Loose lips lose spit.