Part 1| Exploring Types of Noise

As promised, we are kicking off the year with a four-part series on a critically important, but often misunderstood, topic in audio - noise. We'll discuss some of the different types of noise found in cables, and how you are probably experiencing them without even knowing!

As the saying goes, “nothing is certain in life except death and taxes.”  If we were all wires instead of humans, the saying would be about resistance.  Outside of superconductor technology, which is not readily applicable at home, resistance in wires is a certainty.  Where there is resistance, there is heat, and heat is vibration.  Until a wire is created that has zero Ohms resistance, there will always be vibration.  And vibration, due to the piezoelectric effect, causes micro voltages which all have a negative impact.

These micro voltages generate a low level noise that disrupts the clarity of the audio signal.  Many describe the issues that this noise causes as a haze in the midrange, sibilance in the high frequencies, and a dullness of tone in the bass.  So many of the worst issues in audio - sizzling cymbals, bloated horns, winds and violins, instruments seemingly blending together - are all caused by vibrations.  Sound familiar?  It is crucial to address the resonance of a wire because if it is not properly damped, certain frequencies will ring or distort more than others.  And since every cable design will have a different harmonic resonance - even bending the wire in a different place will change the harmonic - this relationship to noise will begin the creation of a tone control through wiring which obscures the truth of the music.

At Turnbull, we use many forms of vibration control.  We are not looking to damp any one particular frequency, but remove all resonant frequencies in equal amounts.  We use mass damping, constrained layer damping, viscous damping, and high pressure resonance control in concert to achieve the ultimate goal - uniformity.  This consistency allows cymbals to ring with their full harmonic integrity and no extra sizzle, revealing lower and higher harmonics previously unheard.  Similar instruments and voices will now have noticeable subtle differences.  This clarity often causes one to realize that there are usually more background singers than previously thought.  Instruments like oboe and clarinet, trombone and french horn, will have their own positioning and better expression.  Bass will have more texture, structure, and especially purity of the note.  These and many more benefits come from dealing with noise and preventing it from attaching similar frequencies to each other.  This is the goal at Turnbull, to elevate sound to its purest form.

Frank Zappa once opined that “writing about music is like dancing about architecture,” demonstrating that there is no substitute for firsthand experience.  Now that you know a little bit more about the disruptions that noise causes and how Turnbull addresses these issues, please reach out to a Turnbull dealer to hear the difference for yourself.  True refinement leaves no mark.