WHY CABLES MATTER!

He can't resist  🤣

If I were starting over I might look at bulk AudioQuest Rocket-11 or the base Kimber.   In theory maybe better than Belden 5000UP. 

Then  Belden 1800uf  or Mogami W3080 for interconnects. 

I would terminate these myself. 

All the topics mentioned above are religion, not science, unless the said cable is really crap. I have tested and measured some that are!   Beyond that it is a matter of belief which is independent of reality.  A cable can not add anything the source material does not have. That would be magic.  Whatever makes your music sound good to you, be it science or psychology does not actually matter.  

All the " I can't measure" is incomplete. As a technical non-believer, I admit this so to say it measures perfectly therefor it is the same is not accurate. Even the lead engineer for the Audio Precision tester says so. 

All the "sounds like to me" has no bearing on reality either. Again, I don't dispute you do hear a difference. No one can tell you what you hear, only you. The question is why?   If it sounds brighter, it can be measured.  Either linear or non-linear distortion.  Nothing special. If it has more "air" , that is also understood linear distortion or BW.  If it has more detail, it is the other cable has masking distortion.  Well understood.  

I'll stick with my reasonable well made RCA cables ( good to about 50 Mhz), well shielded USB from a trustworthy supplier, generic power cords with a ferrite just for fun, and my generic 12 gauge speaker cables.  If I won the lottery I would buy speakers, electronics and lots more music.  I have generic CAT-5 for my network,  RG-6 for my cable and antenna ( triple shielded for FCC requirements). No problems. HDMI cables are a lot more troublesome but most of that is the fault of the poor specs and interoperability testing of a terrible interface.  Yea, I am not a "believer".  I am too poor for snake oil when there are real sonic improvements to be made.  If anyone would like to drop off a Sonas Faber Stradivari set, maybe I'll try some fancier cables.   Until then, cables are below the noise level. 

All modern solder is Tin/Silver as tin/lead was outlawed.  If two circuits you think are the same but sound different,  ( I accept your word they do)  you might take a closer look.  Transistors have HUGE differences, as do all passive components. Even with high levels of feedback, they can differ.  

Many years ago when all this cable stuff came about, we did testing. Real engineers, one had an earlier career actually designing wire. Objective as much as we could afford, subjective where we could. Scope, Digi-Bridge, AF generator  etc. 

We used two systems. One was CJ tube P5, MV50 into Quads. Records of course. My system was a C&M amp , Hafler preamp, into Celeston 44's, modified with SEAS tweeters. 

Our conclusion that I have held fast until now is there are two kinds of cables. Bad ones and good ones.  I still hold that "truth" for digital cables. Almost for RCAs. 

For speaker cables, our testing convinced us that 14 or 12 AWG zip cord was darn near perfect.  None of the new boutique fire hose stuff was any better. We also tried several fads at the time like ribbon cables, bell wire ( solid core 16 gauge twisted)  etc. One was a ribbon made of twisted pairs. We found some could really upset my amp. ( marginal stability it turns out) 

For RCA cables, as XLR was almost non-existent for consumer audio, found plain old Belden "Brilliance" stranded 75 Ohm or RG59 to be about perfect.  To the credit of some long gone company, you used to be able to get some red colored cable made to length. I remember the display stands on the register counters.  It was again, just 75 Ohm stranded coax.   We did not find any benefit to exotic shielding as that is only applicable to RF and most noise is 60 Hz which copper and foil shield do nothing for.   It can be a bit more difficult for line level as there is possibly a path back into the feedback so one would be "correcting" external noise and not the amplifier, which would be just amplifying the noise.  In power amps, the feedback is before the output filter so it is protected.  I guess I do not see the preference for RG-6 for interconnects. Seems like the thinner can have the same C with lower L and the R is not important.   From my UHF antenna, 100' to my TV, transmitters 47 miles away behind two hills, yea it matters!  Over 3 dB advantage. Granted in the late 70's the level of RF pollution was not what it is today. 

Since then, I had some 4TC Kimber to solve an illegal CB radio transmitter problem. It worked for that, but I did not hear any other difference. Overt time I tried several sets of expensive RCA's at boutique shop insistence and did hear differences. ALL of them worse. Snake oil plain as that.  One was not bad. Tara I think. 

So I have stuck by my zip cord and "well made" RCA cables. I don't have any hum problems, ground loops or other real issues to fix.  I have watched with amusement how a braided sleeve can triple the price of a cable and how  magic properties can add information that does not exist on the source.  It is only insulting when I see a salesman selling $300 cables to someone buying $200 speakers.  Yes, I have seen it Best Buy!   If you are filthy rich and can toss $30,000 into a cable, that's your problem but I would advocate you can find a better use for it in our society. 

Forward 30 years.  A few, and I do mean few, serious engineers have looked at cables from the real measurable parameters.  The gentleman from Belden, now Iconoclast, the fine folks at Blue Jean, and I am sure a few others. Mogami, Cardas etc.   Some has been learned.  

The more believable papers admit they are looking at the cable, not the system. I do not suggest this is an oversight, but practical as no two amps source or speakers are the same.  So we have cable measurements, but not measurements in systems showing the effect if any. 

On speakers, it matters a lot on the speaker design/load. I have always built low Q sealed systems as I think they sound better. They also have a lower broader impedance peak, less phase shift and lower group delay.   As I have also designed and built amplifiers, I prefer higher resistance  drivers for class AB amplifiers.  I have not paid too much attention to impedance at high frequencies, but experiences with class D have identified that as a really serious problem. I am revisiting my last build to see is I can do a little more in the phase and tweeter impedance rise. 

I still can't get carried away with fancy copper.  What does the signal see inside my speaker? A big honking roll of generic copper coil in series with the woofer that may even have an aluminum VC!  On the tweeter side, big aluminum foil caps.  So don't tell me crystal orientation in 10 feet of cable, though measurable, makes a sonic difference.   If you are active crossover, maybe I'll buy it, but a hard sell. 

But geometry and dielectric can.  I am not going as far as suggesting $1000 as perfect as can be measured cables are audible or not, let alone $30,000 but come in a Gucci case cables, but maybe, now we have electronics 100 times cleaner, source 20 dB higher resolution, and tweeters getting better every day, actual audible differences are possible. Finding the real ones through the snake oil is still almost impossible.  We so far only have subjective viewpoints which seem to track the price or back cover advertisement. It could be different cable parameters are desirable depending if transformer, AB or D amplifiers are used.  I may go as far as borrowing some Kimber base again to test. 

I am not as concerned with my RCAs.  One of the "exotic" DIY cables I tired was just a 30 ga ( wire wrap wire, silver plated copper, PTFE insulation) twisted pair.  It was short connecting CD to amp.  I heard no difference compared to my short 75 Ohm coax.  Flexible but fragile.  I will say, this was back in the internal DAC CD player days before I bought my first Wolfson.  Source was not what it is today.  I did use this wire in my tone-arm to advantage. My RIAA amp was in the base of my modified Thorens, so not trying to send MM signals to the preamp over long RCA coax. Only amplified line level. 

Reading the few actual engineering papers and videos  I can find, It did get me wondering. Why 75 Ohm cable? Just because it is made by the parsec?  75 Ohm at a Mhz?  I don't care. What happened to the low C 100 or 110 Ohm cables we used for instrumentation in the lab?  R is not a factor as there is almost no current and we are feeding 22 to 47K typically. Do I care if we have .25dB drop over 1000'?  Nope.  Ever cut open a Scope probe lead?  Tiny steel conductor, rippled inside a tube so majority air dielectric, about a 75% braid.  I bet it would make a great interconnect.  Belden 2221 maybe?   Of course scope probes have an LCR adjustable network so one can compensate the cable for the input reactance.  A proper systems approach. 

The subject of magic power cords comes up. I still contend that a safe ( welded as some Chinese cords were found to only be twisted to the prong and over molded!) plugs on about any old wire is as good as it gets. Again, consider what is on either side of the cable. But, if one is forced to have cables close to electronics and analog cables, some effort to reduce 50/60Hz emission is desirable.  As shielding is useless, that leaves geometry.  As far as RF pickup, I contend that is the responsibility of the power supply. Don't blame the cable for a bad amp design.  I have long twisted ( better than one per inch) 2-conductor zip cord for isolated cords. Works and is free. How about the standard round IEC cables? Twists are as few as 6 inches and the safety ground is in the twist.  Well, how about stripping the outer jacket to the IEC plug. Separate out the green and cut off the paper filler.  Twist the power leads at 1 or 3/4 inch interval. Pull it into a sheath for protection and add whatever plug you need on the wall end.  Now you have a low emission power cord that just by chance, won't pick up much RF either.  Might cost a $2 cord and a $5 plug, with $2 braid.  I suggest leaving the amp end in place as the screw on ends are like $11. 

HDMI is the bigger mess. I only buy BJ cables as they ae tested to spec.  Threw away a lot of total crap cables. I had troubles with POD, noise, ARC and CEC.  USB testing also sent me to Belkin and  Belden cables. Free ones being crap and easy to measure on the scope the spikes they inject to the ground and then audio. Can't say I heard the bad USB cables, but measurable and cheap to do correctly so why not be safe. Drug out my scope and I have not been able to find any RF noise on my Ethernet. Plain old cheap CAT-5.  

Now figure me this: All these high end amps and such in aluminum boxes, then we complain about hum.  What about steel? Mu Metal?  If I was building the highest performance I could, it would be a steel box for LF, copper plated on the inside for RF.  The PS would be in it's own internal steel box.  

Found a case where the cable mattered!

My Mocero hub that monitors my crawlspace for humidity was flakey. Intermittent  Ethernet cable!   New generic cable from Amazon, works fine. 

I do love how those grain crystals are "diodes" so direction matters... in an AC circuit!  🤣

Lower inductance of power cords?  The opposite of what you want.  Sure, twisting reduces emissions which is a good thing. ( at least 1 per inch)  but to block RF, add a big ferrite choke on them.  More inductance.  If you believe the engineers from Jensen who are about the worlds experts on hum, twist the power lines, but separate the ground out. Don't braid it.    This is science, not magic. 

In any case, it does not matter if you hear an actual physical-in-this-universe difference, or if it is your brain telling you so. Your enjoyment is what counts.  I prefer to use science to get there, not advertising.  Others seem to be big fans of Kool-Aid and have the disposable income to indulge chasing their imagination. 

Let's be clear. I am NOT saying there is no difference above the "bad" level. I am not telling you if you hear something or not.  I am not saying the simplistic measurements sometimes quoted are the whole story.  I do want to be clear we can measure all parameters of a cable. We just don't know how to quantify them as a minimum " good enough" combination for one person, let alone everyone's personal preferences. 

No, I believe what I hear. I know it may be real or may be in my head.  I believe in the laws of physics so those things I know are impossible, I know are impossible.  Being an engineer, I know how these things work to a reasonable scale so I know when the invented logic of snake oil salesmen or well meaning people making false logical jumps without the technical understanding come up with pure BS.  BS is actually very good. Makes clay soils much better. Not my stereo though. 

I also know from soft science, we do not understand very well how our brain converts reality to what we hear. We have some clues. Small linear distortions and small timing differences we seem to detect.  We seem to detect timing differences across frequencies our brain does not recognize as natural. We also know our brain "maps" our environment and makes adjustments over time.   If anyone can point to some papers quantifying these issues, I would love to read it. Better yet, if you are a grad student looking for a project, there is a lot to be learned. 

We know  a preconceived negative expectation can create a difference in our head even though no actual difference exists. We know a positive bias will also generate a positive response. We know our brain likes to play tricks on us and flip what we hear from reality.  We know these biases may not hear a difference even when there is one large enough that we should.  Everything we do is biased.  If you ask a random person if they hear a difference, we know a large portion will hear a difference even if there is not one because we biased them with the expectation of a difference. This has been demonstrated many times to statistically valid levels.  We know group think and reinforcement will strongly bias our perception. This is why witness evidence is  recognized as the least reliable in court. 

So, by understanding both hard and soft science, I can take a much shorter route to better sound and avoid the clear snake oil ethereal made up attribute magic crap. I can make a reasonable guess where to stop as we leave engineering into magic. 

Follow the old 90% rule.  Find your biggest problem and fix 90% of it. Then find your next biggest and fix 90% of that.  That last 10% may or may not even be achievable and you get lost in a rabbit hole without improving the situation as a whole.  In theory, that first last 10% will become the largest remaining problem, and you then attack it. In reality, it never happens. Not only are the very best speakers still pretty poor, the source material is even worse. In other words, don't expect a cable to fix either. 

Today we have an advantage we did not have way back in the 70's. We have instrumentation thousands of times better.  We can do things like hook a cable up and measure the signal at both ends, subtracting one from another to quantify the difference.  Qualifying it is harder.   There is no longer a reason to use pure subjective imagination to look for differences.  Alas, the SINAD chasers are stuck in a very limited set of measurements and the subjectivists are completely controlled by their unconscious bias.   I hope real engineers keep an open mind and if a statically valid subjective test shows a difference, we should look to measure and quantify it. Quite a mess. If the esoteric hucksters could prove their cable is better, they have the money to do so.  Not even publishing the R-L-C parameters and explain why their balance is better. No data on rejection vs frequency. ( go look at a Belden data sheet. You find a lot more parameters! ) Some on geometry and engineers can make an educated guess why one many be better at some particular issue than another.  Things any engineer wants to know when selecting a cable.  Nope, hucksters just make up slick-page hyperbole and tell you how great it all is. A lot of exotic products are perfectly fine. Just not magical.  Some people still believe the world if flat and we did not land on the moon.  That is religion and is not easily swayed. 

So in the middle. I use my understanding of physics to rule out the total BS. I can look at measurements on some things to rule out the obvious crap.  Then I have to listen.  100% accurate? Heck no, but neither are any of the supposed double blind tests I have read as none of them reach the 3 sigma level to pay attention to, let alone 5.   I have won 20 games of solitaire in a row. Taken as a sample, I am so great I win 100% of the time!   No it means I still only average 40% over sets of 100. A statistical anomaly is all.   A lot of reviewers need to study statistics before them make claims on tests. 

Now, the really hard part. Do you want your cable to be part of the signal shaping distortion adding part of reproduction, or do you want it to just convey the signal?  BOTH are valid.  Same argument of SS vs tubes.  I happen to prefer my MOSFET amp to a Benchmark.  Is it some added distortion I like, some higher distortion masking something I do not? Some more complex distortion not typically measured? Not a clue but I know what I prefer and there are real measurable parameters that could explain the differences. I just don't know which ones.

Or do you want to let your belief that nirvana is just within reach with one more tweak?   Subconsciously, if it costs more it has to be better?    Music is all in your mind, so how you get there is up to you.  I am not filthy rich, so I take the shorter path that falls within the expectations of reality. My budget is to save for a new roof before it is needed,  not a set of speaker cables. 

FEDX should deliver my new amp today. I have an appointment with a parlor next week to see if I can hear a meaningful difference between my DAC and a Chord or the other mega-buck ones he has. I go in with a bias.  Half says my DACs have reached the as good-as-I-can-hear and the specs are better than the Mojo or Qurest, the other half of my bias is there is still some "digititus" to be smoothed by a more expensive product.  Should be fun. 

I think Harmon has advocated the single speaker for listening as well. 

Stinger cables were one of the things we tried back in the 70's. Zip cord seemed to be better. 

If anyone can suggest a parameter of Ethernet layer one that can translate to a difference in the bits when unpacked, re-assembled,  and delivered by layers 2 through 7,  please suggest them so they can be investigated. 

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. 

I fully accept defective cables, defective switches, and really bad installation practices could cause an issue if using UDP; not likely using TCP. The basic layer one has error rates better than 10 ee-13.  That is before TCP error correction. Once bits are delivered to the MAC and Data link layer, all bets are off. 

Bill Whitlock ( Jensen Transformers) has pretty much covered the power cable issue, building to node. 

We need to separate discussion of speaker and interconnects, which if crap can and do sound different degrading the signal, with things like Ethernet cables and power cords which you may HEAR a difference, but it is impossible by the laws of physics that the actual SOUND is different.  Remember, sound is a real physical property. Hearing is what your brain tells you and it lies like a dog. Excluding defective cables and there are some out there. 

If what you hear is better to you, then better is great for you as you enjoy your system more. Just please don't try to convince others who may be happy with their system that some magic thousands of dollars in snake oil is a must and their system is garbage without it.  That is where the damage is. They could better use the money on better speakers ( the weak link in all systems).  Analog cables can only damage the signal, they can't improve it. You may like that damage. Just recognize that is what is happening. I like my MOSFET amp, some like their tubes. 

In the mean time, I am waiting for someone to demonstrate their exotic cable to beat a Belden 1800F for RCA's  or 5000UP for speakers in a domestic system. for accuracy.   Different does not mean better!   Better, for real, may just mean the cable you had was garbage, not the magic-crystal, micro-diode, voltage-biased shield with colored braid is any better than a "good" $9 cable.  Good: L and C balanced and reasonably low. Enough shielding for spurious RF, and correctly twisted pair to reduce any possible hum pickup.  Cables less than a meter, Belden 1505F is pretty hard to beat. Good does not mean expensive as I have heard and measured for real, boutique cables that were crap.  Length can make a difference. Some boutique cables may be fine at 1M with their high C, but 2M into a low Z input actually roll off the top. I have seen higher than 47p per foot!  That adds up compared to 1800f or 1505f!  In very long runs, geometry like "star quad" do work to the advantage over just a single pair or coax. Understood science. Not magic. 

Carried away with shielding?  Kimber, one of the companies with actual engineers, remains selling braided unshielded interconnects to balance their L and C.  Never heard of any RF or hum problem from them.   Proper science, not magic. 

Wire itself being directional?  Better look up what "AC" means.  Shielding can be terminated to be directional, but not the wire. Just plain not possible. 

Ethernet causing micro timing errors? "Air" "Weight" "Impact"  Not possible. Your interface retransmits it into a buffer.  That is the way it works.  Look it up. Actually, Ethernet reflection issues are more like 75 feet minimum but by the design of the layer One, it is totally irrelevant.  Level one of the IP stack, BITS ARE BITS.  Look it up, don't believe me. I don't care what some advertising sheet says was "empirically tested" . BS. They make an extraordinary claim like that, OK, let's see the data!  What your equipment does with those bits is a different matter. Not the cable.  There is no minimum spec on cables, though in the 10G realm, some have additional termination within the cable to keep the BER below 10 ee-13 reducing the need for re-transmit of errors. 

Still using synchronous mode over USB? Stop doing that and any noise and jitter caused by the cable is irrelevant. The DAC takes care of that. Newer ones, very well indeed. 

Power cable adding "weight" or "air"? I am not saying you don't hear it, I am saying it is not real sound as it is impossible in this universe. 

What you hear is up to you, it is when you cross over from the not well understood and maybe innovation, to the impossible, then I have an issue and will call it out.   When you claim the impossible, the producer of such magic are making an extraordinary claim and need to make extraordinary proof.  Not what you hear, as your brain is lying to you. They lie to all of us.  Music reproduction is all about convincing you that lie is real. 

Now I know, no one wants to hear they have been had. We are all humans and our lying brain does not like that and will jump though hoops denying that lie.  So be it.  Please just make the effort not to propagate the impossible and focus on the at least probable and more people can actually improve the real sound of their system. 

Rolling up replies to be brief. Me brief?

YES, everyone is under the placebo effect. All the time, for all subjects.  Isn't our brain a wonderous thing?   We are never objective.  Not humans at least.  Understanding this will go a long way in life. 

Bad cables may well be more obvious on great gear, but $30,000 speakers are still 1000 times worse than the the worst cables or the best electronics. 

Mono-crystal OFC copper for interconnects is marketing BS.  That's all.  You can measure the difference in conductivity in the lab. Who freaking cares if one cable has 1m Ohm and another 1.02 when you are driving a 40K Ohm load.  Speakers? OK even dipping to 3 Ohms, don't care.  Perspective folks. Capacitance, inductance, and velocity matter and that comes from geometry. Well understood.

Sure I wish Belden 1500 had PTFE insulation, but in a 2 or 3 foot cable, irrelevant

As far as that silver, now at audio frequencies skin depth is about an 18 gauge wire, so full depth. Why do you want two different conductors?  Marketing!  Look inside that speaker and see what your boutique cable is actually driving in the loop.  Unless you are in the Sabrina range, it is going into maybe 100 feet of 18 gauge cheap Chinese recycled wire. Even then, the VC is nothing special at any price.   Caps?  Aluminum foil. Oh yea, how about that steel wire resistor pad on the tweeter?  Where do I wish we used silver?  CONNECTORS.  Silver oxide has the same conductivity as silver. Remember all those ugly brown tarnished  type N 50 Ohm connectors?   Best ever made.  

Beef?   Yea, I have seen big box salesmen selling $300 speaker wire to ladies buying $300 speakers.   Utterly immoral in my book. 

If your old Ethernet cable gave you dropouts, pixel flashes, jitter etc, it was a BAD cable. So replacing it with a cable that meets spec, i.e. CAT5e, certified, and the picture is now great just proves my point. Defective cables are bad. Good cables are good. Simple dividing line in the digital world.  Analog world is touchier.  

.Speaking picture quality, I have cut open a lot of HDMI cables. Cheap ones. I was having issues with POD and CEC.   Several were not even constructed correctly. Drains not attached, foil backwards.  Lots of problems. Replaced with Monoprice and Blue Jean. No more problems.   HDMI cables are not easy to make or terminate so cheap ones tend to be, well cheap. We are still talking digital here, so any perception of resolution is placebo, not real provided you are using the correct spec cable and it does actually meet spec. An exotic Ethernet or HDMI cable can't make a sharper picture than one than only meets spec. Just the way it works. Not magic.  Now, a really bad or sub-par cable may cause your Ethernet to re-negotiate to a lower speed and the TV may be smart enough to drop to a lower resolution. That you would see.  My Sony LED I tested @ 96MB/s which is enough tor 4K. I am not sure what it takes for 3D- Atmos-whatever. It may be more than a Base CAT5 cable can deliver.  8K is. 5e should be good though. 6a has gotten really cheap.  Science. Not magic. 

Iconoclast speaker and interconnect cables are state of the art MEASURING from one of the top engineers in the wire world.  No doubt.  But is the sound actually different?  Not what you hear, the actual sound.  It is possible under the laws of physics, but at a level so far below the source material I seriously doubt it. I would call them excessive, but not snake oil as they are actually carefully designed products with a measurable difference at least in the LAB. 

So, a $3000 amp is no good?   $3000 speakers no good? The very smoothest amp I have ever heard is on my desk right now.  Big beefy 2W Schiit Rekkr costs $150. Of course, this is only good for my desk nearfield and not pushed very hard. 

I have had dozens of amps home. Much above $500 there is no correlation between price and sonic quality.  Some expensive amps are wonderful " wire with gain". Some add delightful distortions we love. Some sound like crap. Some have well designed feedback and are very load invariant. Some will oscillate with a 4 Ohm load.  You can't price categorize them. The cleanest tweeter I know of is the Vifa XT-25 if used at moderate levels above 4K.  Costs $25.   Play lower or play louder, well then it gets really hard and bucks pile up fast. 

Do you know how many hundreds of feet of plain old XLR cables your fancy TITLE MQA file has gone through?  Know how distorted the mic was? Love those old AKG tube jobs for vocals. Wonderful distortion. Old mixing board full of hundreds of NE5558 Op amps?  Yup. Our brains lie to us all the time. The further down the rat hole we fall, the more they lie. 

No complaints about a decent power RF filter, surge suppressor ,and even a DC filter. The power company supplies quality for incandescent light bulbs and motors. So if we need cleaner power, it is up to us as most even boutique makers do a terrible job internally.   JDS and Schiit do a pretty decent job BTW.   Clean power is NOT going to add weight, air, space, texture, depth, or any adjective a subjective You-Tuber or ad jockey can make up. It just lets your equipment work as intended.  Added the Emotivia DC filter when line issues were making my amp toroid buzz.  They make pretty decent power line stuff. So does Trip-Lite,  Iso-Max, Panamax, Furman and even some Monster.

Again: 

Our brains lie

Bad cables are bad

In the digital world we only need a good cable

In the analog world, it is harder but understood and not difficult

Decent power line conditioner is smart. 

Stay skeptical.

A little science if you dare:

Vinyl outgasses. Vinyl is actually a very brittle plastic. You know that film on the windshield of a new car? Yea the rather toxic oils used to "plasticize" the vinyl.  PP or PE do not outgas much compared to vinyl and they are both far better dielectrics. PTFE even better and more stable.   The process of outgassing is not hours in your system, but time and temperature from manufacturing. Vinyl starts immediately and lasts years. ( split dashboards!)  PP takes decades to even measure any change. In a laboratory, I do expect plasticizer outgassing to change the dielectric. Audible?  Well we try not to use vinyl anyway. GOOGLE about plasticizers ad you will find most of the research is involving exposure to solvents. Yea, why the fuel line on your chain saw keeps cracking!  I did a lot of laboratory testing on this subject as it relates to "O-rings" in various solvents. Different use case, same chemistry. 

Now, after 150 hours what is the difference?  Your BRAIN has re-mapped to convince you it is better. Our brain lies. Always. Humans are never objective.  If so, fine and money well sent because it is your perception and enjoyment even if there is no actual change.  Electrolytic caps do "form". Tubes do age.  Speaker suspensions change.  Not much else changes in modern electronics. 

Diodes making the cable directional?   Guess this prestige company has never heard audio is AC.  That alone should unmask the scam.  Only shield termination can make a cable useful in one orientation. The conductors don't know the difference. In actuality, an oxide layer or discontinuity in the crystal structure acts more like a back to back diose, not directional anyway. 

Maybe their cables sound fine. I hope so. Most do.  It is actually not hard. Their claims are total made up to sham the non-technical to spend a lot of money for their ego.  P.T. Barnum had a lot of wisdom. 

"Fluff" is a politically correct way of saying BS.  "Prestige" is the nice word for snake oil. 

Not mentioned as a place where interconnects may play a larger roll is with passive preamps feeding long high capacitance cables into low-ish impedance inputs.  You can do the math.  With a max attenuation making output impedance as low as 5K, and some inputs as low as 10K, it does not take too many "puffs" to roll off the top end.  My advice would be to drive cables much longer than a meter with an active stage rather than searching for magic cables.  Hint:  Pro audio used high current higher voltage balanced lines to overcome this limitation. ( xlr cables)  Well understood. Science and engineering, not "fluff"