2. cables
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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 1 response by malcolmomar

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malcolmomar
5 posts
 
Pleased to see that cable science remains as contentious as ever with arguments having run now for many years... most of my life in fact! IMHO it probably comes down to what should be measured especially as frequency response and THD/IM distortion seem not too helpful other than maybe minor changes resulting in part from interface issues. The conundrum centres on what factor(s) can be measured where classical measurements (or more critically the way in which they are performed) normally offer poor sensitivity. last year i was invited to give the AES Heyser Lecture in Milano. I touched on a range of topics but decided to take the controversial step to include a section on cables... always dangerous! I reported on a recent experiment performed in consultation with Armour Home (QED) UK where they claimed surprisingly good correlation between measurement and (blind) subjective ranking of 4 cables types. I am not suggesting this is definitive or comprehensive but it is interesting nonetheless in giving some mechanistic insights. The lecture (hopefully) can be downloaded from: 

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/nqvvwnlh6n6b98z/AAC6kOb5NT8Gk8pceZSbpl2ha?dl=0

Please note you need initially to download the files and store them locally, not try to play them directly from the web. In addition there is a demo of a spectral-domain method of DSD-to-LPCM conversion which you are free to try. BTW I apologise in advance for the poor audio quality of the lecture... there was a network interface issue in the lecture theatre beyond my control (how unusual is that...). Anyway, hope its of interest.
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