The widely quoted carrot factoid that the vegetable’s orange colour is the result of patriotic Dutch farmers breeding them that way may be an urban myth, but it’s certainly true that they can pass an audio signal in a time of need. [Julian Krause] follows up on a Reddit meme of a carrot being used to join two phono plugs, and appears to find the organic interconnect to be of good quality.
We had to admit a second look at a calendar to be sure that it’s not April 1st, but while his manner is slightly tongue in cheek it seems he’s really characterising the audio performance of a carrot. What he finds is a bit of attenuation, some bass cut, and an intrusion of RF interference pickup, but surprisingly, not a bad distortion figure.
Of course, we’re guessing the real point of the exercise is to poke fun at the world of excessive hi-fi equipment, something we’ve been only too glad to have a go at ourselves from time to time. But if the tests are to be taken at face value it seems that in a pinch, a carrot will do as a means to hook together line level audio cables, no doubt lending a sweet and crunchy overtone to the result. The video is below the break, for your entertainment.
Better save that video — it might get a copyright strike!
Indeed, that is a highly proprietary Disney™ carrot he’s using
” intrusion of RF interference pickup”
Not connecting the ground of the plugs is probably the reqson.
For anyone else that didn’t watch the video, he says he connected ground to ground directly, and the signal wire through the carrot.
And the ground going different path gives higher loop area for inductive coupling.
You need organic cucumbers for that.
I thought it took 24 carrots to make a true audiophile cable,
Definitely sounds better at night when you use a carrot as an interconnect.
were up to cucumbers now.
don’t use it in automotive applications, or the vehicle will start to biodegrade :o)
Most likely the squirrels will eat it first.
How about aerospace applications?
no problem, it’s a carrot, not a planerot
Lettuce hope that real wires beet root vegetables.
Dad…? Is that you?
+2
Can’t be any worse than some Monster Audio products…
Everyone knows carrots are only good for treble. If you want true hi fidelity you need to use a potato. And don’t you start thinking a Russet is good. You need to use Yukon golds for deep bass.
… and there I am, being told at university that potatoes are for HF, not realizing the difference between the HF-potato and the HiFi-potato, resulting in bad grades on the Electromagnetic Fields test…
I was wondering about such things also. Would a single lemon work as a class A gain stage?
When using carrots always remember that power is measured in root mean square.
Reminds me of my time at university, close to four decades ago. We were handed out “black boxes” with four electrical test-plugs and through measurement we had to find out what kind of “simple circuit” was hidden inside. Well most boxes made sense, like high pass filter, low pass filter etc. But there was one which was strange and also repeated measurements didn’t line up that well.
The solution: Inside was a pickle with four wire ends poked into it………. so a “pickle four pole”.
I can hardly wait for the next wave of UltraFi amps, with cucumbers sticking out of the top, replacing the tubes.
I can haz 24 carrot logic? PLLLlll…Z!
Every now and then I buy carrots in my local supermarket (Yes in the Netherlands), but they are a mixed bag. Their color is from pretty light yellow to purple, just a few shades lighter as beetroot. And they are tastier then the orange carrots. This is probably not due to the color on itself, I assume the regular orange carrots are mass produced at the lowest price, and the mixed color are more of a niche product with more emphasis on quality (taste) instead of visuals. I have not tested their audiophile qualities though.
gonna put one in my guitar signal path and see if it makes my guitar playing sound more grimdark. carrot metal!
Is that an oxygen-free carrot?
Carrots and seeing in the dark. The longest lived disinformation ever. Made up during WW2 to account for Allied air victories to cover up what was really why, radar. So we got radar connections now, neat! WIFI.
For VR there is Voicemeeter Banana and some other fruits that connect audio in Windows like Jack in linux.
How lame. Everyone knows you only get the best sound with a $1000 audiophile-grade unidirectional carrot.
… oh, wow, I last saw something like this 15 years ago when someone sent composite video through a steak while it was being cooked
Wet thing with measurable resistance conducts signal. Wow, who knew.