Key Takeaways
- Gold-plated cables do not enhance sound high quality, they’re primarily for esthetics and sturdiness.
- Bluetooth has latency, making it unsuitable for lossless audio — persist with wired headphones.
- Extra drivers in headphones does not at all times imply higher sound high quality — give attention to driver high quality as an alternative.
The web permits us to search out data at speeds by no means earlier than seen in historical past, with tons of authoritative sources and boards full of doubtless educated folks disseminating details, but in addition falsehoods. Audio tech is not any exception to this, with even probably the most dedicated audiophiles typically falling for incorrect or overblown data.
So, I discovered among the commonest audio myths I might discover on the web, and I will current the reality behind each. Fortunately, these myths are largely innocent, and simply have the impact of constructing folks spend more cash unnecessarily, or giving into misleading advertising and marketing. However when you’re within the know, you may hopefully avoid wasting time and cash.
1 Fable: Gold plated cables are higher for conductivity
Reality: Gold plating serves a function, but it surely definitely does not make your music sound higher
Gold plating on digital cables serves two features — to stop tarnishing of the copper inside, and for esthetics. Gold does not rust or tarnish like copper does, and when copper oxidizes and turns that particular inexperienced coloration, it loses contact space, and turns into much less efficient. Together with not rusting or tarnishing, gold is pricey and fairly, so it provides producers a purpose to promote you one thing shiny and useful. However this doesn’t suggest it is any higher than different metals, and it definitely doesn’t have an effect on conductivity.
Shopping for a cable with nickel-plated connectors is lots cheaper and can sound simply pretty much as good as a gold-plated connector. Since nickel isn’t as tender as gold, being a 4 on the Mohs hardness scale, whereas gold is 2.5, it will not put on away as simply with repeated use. Contemplating the gold-plated cables will in all probability not have very thick plating, it can put on away to both reveal the copper beneath, or a layer of nickel plating. If the cable is plated with a gold-nickel alloy, it will not put on away as shortly, and you will get the great esthetics of gold whereas having a stronger coating across the connector.
In the end, you’ll not hear a distinction between gold-plated and nickel-plated cables.
2 Fable: Bluetooth is able to having no latency and supporting lossless audio
Reality: The constraints of Bluetooth imply you are by no means going to get the identical expertise as wired headphones offer you
There appears to be an concept that Bluetooth, because it progresses, now has little to no latency, or that Bluetooth is on a path to having no latency. Moreover, some folks appear to be below the impression you could take heed to lossless music over Bluetooth. Each of those concepts are myths, as a result of nature of Bluetooth itself.
Bluetooth requires encoding and decoding information when it is transmitted out of your gadget to your headphones, so latency will at all times be current with Bluetooth. Which means you may at all times have some lag between your audio supply and the audio when it reaches your ears, making Bluetooth headphones impractical for watching films or taking part in video games. Whereas some codecs might need decrease latency or sound higher, they are not going to be good.
Use wired headphones — they last more than wi-fi ones, anyway.
If you’d like wireless headphones or earbuds for gaming or for films, you are higher off getting headphones that use a 2.4GHz connection or Wi-Fi connectivity. Each of those wi-fi connectivity sorts have considerably decrease latency, making them perfect for conditions the place you want audio and video to be very carefully synced. In any other case, simply use wired headphones for the bottom latency.
Whereas Bluetooth has loads of latency, you are going to get the bottom latency with 2.4GHz or Wi-Fi headphones as an alternative.
On the subject of lossless audio, the bandwidth required to transmit lossless audio is way too excessive for Bluetooth, so you are not going to have the ability to get probably the most out of lossless audio over Bluetooth. To have the ability to take heed to lossless audio over a wi-fi connection, you are going to want Wi-Fi enabled headphones, or simply give in and use wired headphones. They last more than wi-fi ones, anyway.
3 Fable: The extra drivers, the higher
Reality: One good driver is healthier than 4 sub-par ones
Headphone producers will typically boast headphones with quad drivers as being considerably higher than twin or single drivers, however extra drivers is not essentially higher. It is like how extra cylinders in an engine does not essentially make a automotive higher — headphones, like vehicles, have loads of components, and the standard of these components, together with the drivers, is what issues greater than merely the variety of drivers.
The concept behind having a number of drivers is to cowl the entire frequency vary higher, like a speaker system would with a devoted subwoofer, for instance. However simply because these devoted drivers are within the headphones or earbuds does not imply that they’re going to really be efficient. Excessive-quality multi-driver IEMs will also be tremendous helpful for musicians that want a excessive vary of frequencies tuned in a selected manner to assist them as they work, however the common particular person does not must spend all that cash on multi-driver headphones or IEMs, and is healthier off with a great high quality single-driver headset.
It is like how extra gears can profit a truck driver who wants them, however you do not want 12 gears in a Honda Civic.
4 Fable: Wider frequency response vary means higher sound
Reality: Human listening to has its limits
Whenever you take a look at a spec desk for a pair of headphones, it will at all times listing the frequency response vary of the headphones, most frequently within the vary of 20 to 20000Hz. Typically headphones will listing a variety that begins decrease and ends larger, and that is typically touted as being higher than the standard 20 to 20000Hz vary. One might imagine that this implies you’ll be able to hear a wider vary of sound from the headphones, however that is merely not the case.
Except you are placing the headphones on a canine, you are not going to get something out of a wider frequency response.
Human hearing itself ranges from 20 to 20000Hz, and that is at its greatest with no listening to loss. All of us lose the power to listen to this full vary as we age, and you are not going to have the ability to hear sounds decrease or larger than this vary. So, shopping for headphones with a much bigger vary is actually ineffective. Except you are placing the headphones on a canine, you are not going to get something out of a wider frequency response.
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