what do you know"

Most people seem to agree that cable performance is system dependent. Which to me means that you are just as likely to find that an inexpensive quality cable can outperform a much more expensive quality cable, in an arbitrarily chosen system.

My own feeling, as an electrical engineer as well as an audiophile, is that assuming the cables being compared have adequate gauge, are not excessively long, do not have unusually large amounts of resistance, capacitance, or inductance, are constructed and soldered so that the connections are reliable, and have clean connectors, there are no solid technical reasons that would allow prediction of better or worse performance from any one cable compared to any other. Which means that trial and error in your particular system is the only way to find the one with the best performance, and which also means that a $175 cable is just as likely to outperform a $1000 cable as vice versa.

I know many people will disagree with much of that, but as I say I have yet to see a plausible technical explanation (as opposed to marketing techno-babble) that would enable reliable prediction of cable performance, among cables meeting the basic criteria I listed above.

Regards,
-- Al

Yes, I agree with Shadorne's post. My comment in the second post in this thread applies to cables that are designed to simply make a connection, and that have inductance, capacitance, and resistance that are negligible in relation to the impedances of the components at both ends, at the frequencies involved . Cables that are designed to be non-neutral are a different story altogether.

Regards,
-- Al