Debunking widespread audio myths

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 info, but additionally falsehoods. Audio tech isn’t 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 am going to current the reality behind every one. Fortunately, these myths are largely innocent, and simply have the impact of constructing folks spend extra money 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 objective, however it actually does not make your music sound higher

Gold plating on digital cables serves two capabilities — 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 colour, it loses contact space, and turns into much less efficient. Together with not rusting or tarnishing, gold is dear and fairly, so it provides producers a purpose to promote you one thing shiny and practical. However this doesn’t suggest it is any higher than different metals, and it actually 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 just isn’t as delicate 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’s going to 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 rapidly, and you will get the great esthetics of gold whereas having a stronger coating across the connector.

2 Fable: Bluetooth is able to having no latency and supporting lossless audio

Reality: The restrictions of Bluetooth imply you are by no means going to get the identical expertise as wired headphones provide you with

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 beneath the impression that you could take heed to lossless music over Bluetooth. Each of those concepts are myths, because of the nature of Bluetooth itself.

Bluetooth requires encoding and decoding knowledge when it is transmitted out of your machine 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 motion pictures or enjoying video games. Whereas some codecs might need decrease latency or sound higher, they are not going to be good.

If you’d like wireless headphones or earbuds for gaming or for motion pictures, you are higher off getting headphones that use a 2.4GHz connection or Wi-Fi connectivity. Each of those wi-fi connectivity varieties have considerably decrease latency, making them preferrred for conditions the place you want audio and video to be very intently synced. In any other case, simply use wired headphones for the bottom latency.

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 generally 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 automobiles, have a number 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 truly be efficient. Excessive-quality multi-driver IEMs may also be tremendous helpful for musicians that want a excessive vary of frequencies tuned in a selected means to assist them as they work, however the common individual does not have to spend all that cash on multi-driver headphones or IEMs, and is healthier off with high quality single-driver headset.

4 Fable: Wider frequency response vary means higher sound

Reality: Human listening to has its limits

If you take a look at a spec desk for a pair of headphones, it’s going to at all times checklist the frequency response vary of the headphones, most frequently within the vary of 20 to 20000Hz. Typically headphones will checklist a spread that begins decrease and ends increased, and that is typically touted as being higher than the standard 20 to 20000Hz vary. One might imagine that this implies you may hear a wider vary of sound from the headphones, however that is merely not the case.

Human hearing itself ranges from 20 to 20000Hz, and that is at its greatest with no listening to loss. All of us lose the flexibility to listen to this full vary as we age, and you are not going to have the ability to hear sounds decrease or increased than this vary. So, shopping for headphones with an even bigger vary is basically ineffective. Until you are placing the headphones on a canine, you are not going to get something out of a wider frequency response.