Speaker wire is it science or psychology

Stevemj: You're not off-base. Cables are not directional and can't be for audio, specifically for the reasons you described. The conductors have to pass current equally well in either direction.

Nilthepill: Why would the switching cause "some dilution?" Do you own a sound system with no switching? With no contacts? All junctions soldered from source to speaker drivers? I doubt it. With good switches, you don't get "dilution."

Detlof: I'm not clear on what you're saying. Do you actually listen to two DUTs simultaneously? What was your "blind" testing setup?

Garfish: Why do you believe that trying to understand audio technology precludes music appreciation? Understanding how things like wires work can help prevent you from ascribing non-existant characteristics to them, because your senses, or how you perceive what your senses tell you, can be misled by your expectations.

Detlof: Thank you for the clarification. How closely did you match the levels on the preamps, and many trials did you do?

Garfish: We're in agreement on the need for enjoyment. I like to get as much musical enjoyment from audio equipment as I can, too. Listening to music is almost as much fun as making music. But if I can get the same level of high performance and enjoyment for X dollars instead of 20X dollars, I know I'm going to hold on to 19X dollars, because there are other things in life I like to do, too. That's my sensibility; other people can have theirs, however much they differ. It's a free country. I enjoy driving my car, and if I have a choice between a Shell station selling gas for $1.60 a gallon and a posh, gilded station selling gas for $18 a gallon and serving free cappuccino, my choice is already made, and I don't care if I'm giving up the snob appeal of the more expensive gas.

Steve, Tom Nousaine published a very interesting article in Sound & Vision detailing the results of blind tests of speaker cables. He had audiophile listeners compare 16 AWG zip cord to their own chosen brand/model of speaker cable, in their own homes, on their own systems, with their own chosen playback source and media. He gave the listeners a choice between ABX switching and cable-swap (scored as same-different) methods (except the last listener; for her, he used both ABX and the cable-swap method because the others had chosen ABX). No time limits; in fact, he let the listeners warm up and practice so they would become as comfortable as possible with the tests. A minimum of 10 trials per listener. None of the listeners, despite their high opinions of their own hearing prowess, could correctly identify the cables they were listening to a statistically significant number of times: in comparing the zip cord to a set of T1 bi-wires, one listener guessed correctly 3 out of 10 times, which is within the likely range of results that would arise from just guessing or flipping a coin. Another listener's results were 4 out of 10; again, within the range of strictly chance.

In short, the listeners were asked to prove that they could indeed hear audible differences between the cables, and none succeeded.

Regarding ABX: Some may allege that rapid A-B switching "hides" real differences. That's one vague assertion! My opinion is to the contrary: it allows the closest thing to actual side-by-side comparison possible in audio. Obviously we can't listen to two things simultaneously and judge between them; the best we can do is put the same audio through both DUTs, match the levels, and freely switch between them as needed to make the comparison.