It is not too often that I see a high-end tech product that makes me laugh, but I could barely conceal a snicker or five when I saw the AK-DLI: Ultra Premium Denon Link Cable, an Ethernet cable by any other name.
To be fair it is insulated, because we all know how much signal strength you lose from those ghastly non-insulated Ethernet cables. They do claim to be using “high-purity” copper; though something inside me suspects that this makes absolutely no difference at all. It looks slick, but who really cares, it is only going to be hiding away behind your equipment anyway. So what’s the punch line?
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 empoying 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.
The punch line is the price; a mere 1.5m of cable is selling for $500. I would say that there is a serious placebo factor in play here that could only be tested out via some Monster Cable vs. coat hanger styled experimentation [Denon via Crunch Gear]
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Tags: obscenely-expensive, Technology
3 responses
Jun 11, 2008 at 10:34 pm
$500 for only 1.5m (~5ft)?
For that much, it should be made out of ultrapure GOLD, not copper, heh.
All that for great audio… you know, all that high quality audio we’re sending over ethernet cables.
Wait, what?
Jun 12, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Can’t do cat-5 over a coat hanger so you couldn’t do a test like that.
Still, You can stick that on an advanced cable tester and just see if it is any better.
This is pure snake oil.
Jun 20, 2008 at 4:52 pm
The ludicrous part is that this cable is marketed for a digital application. It is transmitting 1s and 0s. This cable won’t transmit a digital signal any better than any other functional 5ft run of shielded CAT5 cable. What a joke.
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