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If Cables Are Not Tone Controls...

I can't count the times audiophiles have said "Cables are not tone controls".  But if we audition (remember that?) two sets of speaker cables and decide that one sounds "better" than the other, aren't we using it as a tone control?  You can call it whatever you want, but in reality we are deciding which cable contours the sound to our liking?  Or should we just buy the speaker cable with the lowest resistance, inductance and capacitance we can find and if it sounds like crap, change other components until it sounds good?  Then we're just using the other components we've swapped out as tone controls. Just asking.  
chayro

Showing 4 responses by inna

inna
7,865 posts
 
Forgot another brand that I use, one interconnect, but I cannot upgrade it because I am near top of the line already, upgrading it would be extremely expensive.
inna
7,865 posts
 
I use only two brands and just move higher, step by step. See no reason to experiment with other brands until I start seriously upgrading all or most of the active components. In any case, the most important cable - tonearm cable - I cannot change without tonearm rewiring, it is fixed.
inna
7,865 posts
 
Cables or active components, I always 'compare' the sound I get from the speakers with what I heard live, as I remember it. I have a few recordings of the musicians that I heard live, some of them without microphones. So I always know, if I remember right, where the system is going. 
By the way, microphones do not 'hear' everything there is to hear, only ear can do it. Might come close but not really there.
inna
7,865 posts
 
Coloration or color ? Those are very different terms. 
Purist Neptune is a great cable, I have it as well. It seemingly brings out all the colors but it also brings in some colorations. Colorations by addition mostly not by subtraction, as far as I can tell. This is not a neutral cable, if there is any neutral cable.
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