The Science of Cables

millercarbon  I did the same thing for my video (non-hi fi) system.  I used a Yamaha CR620 receiver and a pair of ADS L620 speakers at a cost of $250, added my friend GroverHuffman.com much older technology ICs and speaker wire from 10 years ago (still better than a lot of expensive HEA cables), some original model Stillpoints under the speakers and one Perfect Path Omega E-mat on my power panel and voila!  A really high quality mid-fi video sound  Great bass, smooth mids and open highs.  Not to be expected from the equipment combo.   Image if I used the latest cables and Stillpoints.  Great sound can be obtained on a budget but with great accessories and tweaks.  (The room also has acceptable acoustics).

That is one cable that I have found no difference with.    HDMI cable for video purposes produce all the same video quality on a high end 4K 75" top of the line Sony LCD TV.  Someone lent me a $170 cable to compare to my $15 or $20 Fry's HDMI cable (6' length).   Many video enthusiasts told me the same thing.  No difference. 

USB cables differ in audio quality, but not HDMI high speed cable for 4K.  Maybe they will need a higher speed transfer rate for 8K or the future, but not now.

Some cables are made which incur significant time, material and labor costs. They should sell for more than HEA cable prices in the $1000s and $10000s. They include GroverHuffman cables which one can read about on his site. Just drawing the wire into an embossed ribbon is a time consuming, laborious task. Constructing the 3 powdered metal melded shielding is another messy and laborious task. All together, it takes 2 man hours to construct one cable A/C, IC and more for speaker cables. His prices are $300 to $1000 for his two lines. I am the 20 year beta tester for his designs. I have compared them to many of the best. No contest.

I have heard musically involving systems, even a few at audio shows and salons. The best I ever heard replicates the sound of the recording in its venue but the system costs $1.5 million. My system only does half that sound, lacking mostly the open and ambient sound retrieval of that system (of the deep bass which is also room dependant).

There is too much discussion of cables overall. HEA prices of cables are comparable to pharmaceuticals whereby the cost of innovation results in products that cost an arm and a leg (high priced) for profit to result and additional innovation to be funded (at least privately by HEA rather than govt and university funded for many pharmaceuticals).

There should be greater emphasis placed on the room acoustics as it is for music venues and sound studios. Note how long it takes to design and build as well as important for music venues to have proper acoustics for classical music. Other venues concentrate on sound dispersion, use tone controls for obtaining desired frequency balances and balance controls for performers. What is it that audiophiles seek? Is it even frequency reproduction or just dynamic reproduction or resolution of details, ambiance retrieval or a combination? I suggest room acoustics can address many of these HEA requirements.

I must add that some very musically involving systems used $300 to $700 cables (Tiode Labs, Wireworld and others not as well known) while the best one used $400,000 of cabling (an extensive amount in a $1.5 million system).

I've also added a black SR outlet and Perfect Path Omega E-Mat on my power panel.  The latter really boosted the video color density and brightness.  The audio improved as much.  The power outlet improvement was significant but nearly the same price I paid for the E-Mat which was 5X the improvement of the outlet.

I've set up many audio systems for novices who don't know anything about audio (one acquaintance mounted his turntable platter upside down which I determined by his inability to get a record to play correctly and a photo sent by email-fixed the problem over the phone).  They are very pleased with the resulting sound despite it not being high resolution, just very pleasant music being reproduced.  These cheap systems run from $1000 to $2500.  I do it for free just so they can have nice music.  Often I suggest they purchase used electronics and speakers.  I throw in free Monster cables that have a warm, not highly resolving character, rolled off at the frequency extremes but nice to listen to.   They cost me $5 to $10 a cable.  Or some Belden cables.  Or they decide to buy Blue Jeans cables.  

The problem here at the forums and in audiophilia in general is the HEA world.  A novice will be made nuts reading and hearing about all the choices.  That's where the problem lies, not for the novice low cost audio system, but the HEA arena (that includes mid-fi equipment in the $1000+ area per equipment).