Comparing Speaker Cables


I have accumulated several pairs of speaker cables that I have never tried to do careful A/B comparisons of because the time it takes to swap them is longer than my audio memory. But my speakers are bi-wired and it occurred to me that I could hook two different cables up and then only swap them at the amp which would be much faster. Is there any sonic downside to having a pair of unconnected cables hanging off one of the sets of inputs while the second set is connected to the amp?

pinwa

Showing 1 response by verdantaudio

My advice is to pick a small number of tracks and take very careful notes.  Listen for the extremes and pick tracks that are hard to reproduce.  This is the best possible way to do these kinds of comparisons.  

If, based on your notes, you don't get a general sense of any differences, then that is very good and it suggests the sound profile of the cables is similar.  

I have found there is usually a difference in treble or bass that becomes noticeable if you focus in those areas and possibly in terms of nuance and detail.