The Science of Cables


It seems to me that there is too little scientific, objective evidence for why cables sound the way they do. When I see discussions on cables, physical attributes are discussed; things like shielding, gauge, material, geometry, etc. and rarely are things like resistance, impedance, inductance, capacitance, etc. Why is this? Why aren’t cables discussed in terms of physical measurements very often?

Seems to me like that would increase the customer base. I know several “objectivist” that won’t accept any of your claims unless you have measurements and blind tests. If there were measurements that correlated to what you hear, I think more people would be interested in cables. 

I know cables are often system dependent but there are still many generalizations that can be made.
mkgus

Showing 2 responses by larry5729

I have read some articles that said high end speaker cables are like smoke and mirrors.  Wouldn't you get much better results by using the extra $5,000 on something like a better amplifier or better pair of speakers.  If you were thinking about using $5,000 for speaker wire or using that money for better speakers I wonder what people would do.  Unfortunately, I have never heard a retailer demo speaker cable.
Can you honestly hear the difference?  I would be curious to do a blind test on cables costing $250 to $10,000 and see if you can hear the difference.  The question is how much better for every $100 spent.  I would think you would be better off buying more expensive speakers instead.