“Our invention is the worlds first optical analogue jack to jack guitar cable, where absolutely no modification is needed to the guitar or amp for the invention to be used. It boasts zero capacitance, zero loading, electronic safety and a virtually infinite life span amongst other features. This signal is not digitised in any way, and is not on any kind of carrier.”
I’m not a guitar guy (I literally just got my first one, to play with in Rocksmith) or a musician.
But I do know a bit about electronics and audio, which is where the real claims are – and this is audiophile-grade* hype.
It’s not that it’s an outright lie; I’m sure it really is optical, and I’m sure it’s analog-domain; that’s not really new technology. There’s no big trick to converting analog RF to light and back, really.
(No idea why they think using a carrier signal would be bad, enough to highlight not doing so; there’s no reason I can think of.)
And you get the almost-entirely-irrelevant “electronic safety” as a side effect, just like an opto-isolator in the digital realm.
(Anyone really worried about a bad amp/wiring electrocuting them needs to, instead of buying this, have their ancient vintage amp’s wiring tested, and use a ground tester and always use a full three-prong outlet when connecting any amp to strange wiring.
Because even if a bad wireup electrifies the amp and this saves you from the guitar being hot, the amp still will be. Far better to fix the problem itself.)
The ludicrous thing is the idea that all that really matters.
If you’re that worried about capacitance** or shielding, buy a better standard cable, at a much lower price.
As for lifespan, well… suffice it to say that optical fiber doesn’t have a reputation as a sturdy material in field use, even compared to the legendarily finicky audio XLR – they say their cable with unspecified actual construction is “obviously” unbreakable. I’d love to know how they keep you from coiling it too tight or otherwise snapping the optical fiber.
And there’s those plastic compartments on both ends where the batteries are – and whatever it is for their “simulated loading” four position; those look a LOT more fragile than a 1/4″ mono plug.
I would not invest, myself, or buy one.
(* By which I mean “green pen on the CD rim” or “$25 a foot speaker wire” stuff. Wastes of money at best.
** A good cable can be shielded perfectly enough to matter, but they will all admittedly have capacitance, except for this optical one.
But looking at the charts, any good cable’s actual frequency response is damn near flat outside of the low-end of a bass to the harmonics on the high end on the edge of human hearing. So it’s solving a non-problem.)
Though, the technophile in me thinks it’s awesome because racecar.
But that doesn’t make it a good idea.
There’s no patent filings that I can find. They say it’s Patent Pending, and it would have to be before they showed it in public, so maybe it’s just delay in the online searches, but neither of the ‘Inventors’ listed on the web page have patents associate with this.
Then again, they also say it’s a “sleek” design and it’s certainly not that..!
“Our invention is the worlds first optical analogue jack to jack guitar cable, where absolutely no modification is needed to the guitar or amp for the invention to be used. It boasts zero capacitance, zero loading, electronic safety and a virtually infinite life span amongst other features. This signal is not digitised in any way, and is not on any kind of carrier.”
I’m not a guitar guy (I literally just got my first one, to play with in Rocksmith) or a musician.
But I do know a bit about electronics and audio, which is where the real claims are – and this is audiophile-grade* hype.
It’s not that it’s an outright lie; I’m sure it really is optical, and I’m sure it’s analog-domain; that’s not really new technology. There’s no big trick to converting analog RF to light and back, really.
(No idea why they think using a carrier signal would be bad, enough to highlight not doing so; there’s no reason I can think of.)
And you get the almost-entirely-irrelevant “electronic safety” as a side effect, just like an opto-isolator in the digital realm.
(Anyone really worried about a bad amp/wiring electrocuting them needs to, instead of buying this, have their ancient vintage amp’s wiring tested, and use a ground tester and always use a full three-prong outlet when connecting any amp to strange wiring.
Because even if a bad wireup electrifies the amp and this saves you from the guitar being hot, the amp still will be. Far better to fix the problem itself.)
The ludicrous thing is the idea that all that really matters.
If you’re that worried about capacitance** or shielding, buy a better standard cable, at a much lower price.
As for lifespan, well… suffice it to say that optical fiber doesn’t have a reputation as a sturdy material in field use, even compared to the legendarily finicky audio XLR – they say their cable with unspecified actual construction is “obviously” unbreakable. I’d love to know how they keep you from coiling it too tight or otherwise snapping the optical fiber.
And there’s those plastic compartments on both ends where the batteries are – and whatever it is for their “simulated loading” four position; those look a LOT more fragile than a 1/4″ mono plug.
I would not invest, myself, or buy one.
(* By which I mean “green pen on the CD rim” or “$25 a foot speaker wire” stuff. Wastes of money at best.
** A good cable can be shielded perfectly enough to matter, but they will all admittedly have capacitance, except for this optical one.
But looking at the charts, any good cable’s actual frequency response is damn near flat outside of the low-end of a bass to the harmonics on the high end on the edge of human hearing. So it’s solving a non-problem.)
Though, the technophile in me thinks it’s awesome because racecar.
But that doesn’t make it a good idea.
There’s no patent filings that I can find. They say it’s Patent Pending, and it would have to be before they showed it in public, so maybe it’s just delay in the online searches, but neither of the ‘Inventors’ listed on the web page have patents associate with this.
Then again, they also say it’s a “sleek” design and it’s certainly not that..!