Thanks for alerting me to the fact that you posted this Ed. As most of you know, i haven't been on the puter nearly as much as i usually am and i probably would have missed this had you not contacted me directly.
I'm glad that you were able to perform such a test AND hear a noticeable difference. Being familiar with both zip cord and Nordost, i had little doubt that the sonic differences would be easily detected by anyone that was fair, honest and had half their hearing. Given that most would consider you amongst the "cable naysayer's" group prior to this test and that your stance on cabling was pretty well covered in previous posts, your willingness to share your recent observations that run contrary to your previous posts and publicly declared points of view demonstrate that you are capable of being all of the above. That is, you are fair, honest and have at least half your hearing left : )
I only want to add one thing here. That is, most of the reasons that some things that shouldn't make a difference but really do has to do with the stability of the circuitry being used. The more stable that the circuit is, and the less of an impedance mismatch that there is at any point within the circuit, the less of a difference there will be amongst cabling. As i've commented before, most gear is not very stable, therefore cable changes can and does often make both audible and electrical differences in a system.
Other than that, by no means was my sending Ed the Nordost speaker cabling for sake of comparison an endorsement by me of those specific products. I picked that cable because i knew that the sonic characteristics of Nordost run just the opposite of zip cord, hence the contrasting sonics are easily identified.
As most regulars will know, i'm a big fan of Goertz Matched Impedance ( MI ) flat speaker cabling, which is both very different electrically and sonically than the Nordost. Whether or not someone prefers one over the other in their own system is basically a matter of personal preference and system synergy. Having said that, i can pretty much guarantee that the Goertz is a more suitable match electrically, even if one doesn't prefer the sonics that it generates within their system.
If you don't like the sound of your system with the Goertz installed, that's just it i.e. you don't like the sound of your system. As such, you may have to resort to using another electrically inferior cable to "band aid" or "colour" the sound of your components in order to tailor the sonics to your specific liking. Nobody can say what is right or wrong here in terms of personal preference, but it's not hard to measure and verify what is more accurate electrically. Sean
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I'm glad that you were able to perform such a test AND hear a noticeable difference. Being familiar with both zip cord and Nordost, i had little doubt that the sonic differences would be easily detected by anyone that was fair, honest and had half their hearing. Given that most would consider you amongst the "cable naysayer's" group prior to this test and that your stance on cabling was pretty well covered in previous posts, your willingness to share your recent observations that run contrary to your previous posts and publicly declared points of view demonstrate that you are capable of being all of the above. That is, you are fair, honest and have at least half your hearing left : )
I only want to add one thing here. That is, most of the reasons that some things that shouldn't make a difference but really do has to do with the stability of the circuitry being used. The more stable that the circuit is, and the less of an impedance mismatch that there is at any point within the circuit, the less of a difference there will be amongst cabling. As i've commented before, most gear is not very stable, therefore cable changes can and does often make both audible and electrical differences in a system.
Other than that, by no means was my sending Ed the Nordost speaker cabling for sake of comparison an endorsement by me of those specific products. I picked that cable because i knew that the sonic characteristics of Nordost run just the opposite of zip cord, hence the contrasting sonics are easily identified.
As most regulars will know, i'm a big fan of Goertz Matched Impedance ( MI ) flat speaker cabling, which is both very different electrically and sonically than the Nordost. Whether or not someone prefers one over the other in their own system is basically a matter of personal preference and system synergy. Having said that, i can pretty much guarantee that the Goertz is a more suitable match electrically, even if one doesn't prefer the sonics that it generates within their system.
If you don't like the sound of your system with the Goertz installed, that's just it i.e. you don't like the sound of your system. As such, you may have to resort to using another electrically inferior cable to "band aid" or "colour" the sound of your components in order to tailor the sonics to your specific liking. Nobody can say what is right or wrong here in terms of personal preference, but it's not hard to measure and verify what is more accurate electrically. Sean
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