This was just too good to pass up writing about.

For all you audiophiles out there, I’m sure you recognize the Denon name: they sell ridiculously high-priced audio and video equipment to “discriminating customers.” If you have any interest in spending $7000 on an A/V receiver, they are the crew to go to.

But that’s fine: there is a market for ultra-premium electronics out there and I’m sure Denon offers a fine product. If they can produce a quality item and move it for $7000 grand, then rock ‘n’ roll. It’s a free country.

However, is there any possible reason to pay $8.33 an inch for an ethernet cable?

Here’s is Denon’s product description:

Denon’s 1.5 meter (59 in.) ultra premium Denon Link cable was designed for the audio enthusiast. Made from high purity copper wire and high performance connection parts, the AK-DL1 will bring out all the nuances in digital audio reproduction from any of our Denon DVD players with the Denon Link feature. Attention to detail when building this cable was used by employing high quality insulation, tin-bearing alloy shielding and woven jacketing to reduce vibration and to add durability. Additionally, signal directional markings are provided for optimum signal transfer. Rounded plug levers help prevent breakage.

Indeed, nuance is important in transmitting electronic data. Your old cable was just sending through the actual digital bits as they were from the source. Denon is getting the nuance out of those bits, as the artist intended it.

Listen, I like gadgets as much as everybody else. But there have been tests on this subject: for example, there’s a story floating around where a group of audiophiles listened to music, one connected through high-end cable, and the other through what was basically a coat hanger. The audiophiles couldn’t tell the difference.

There was another test floating around about whether people could tell the difference between 128 bps and 320 bps music. Nobody really could–I know I couldn’t.

But pitching a $500 cable for a digital signal has to take the cake for ridiculous electronics scams. I’m sure there will be a few gullible enough to take this on. But based on the press Denon is receiving for this, it only makes them look quite ridiculous.

This is inspiring: I’m going to put a coat hanger on eBay, call it a lossless digital cable, and charge $1000 for it. See you in Monte Carlo.

Story via Network World.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 20th, 2008 at 12:48 pmand is filed under Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.