Gads.
WHY CABLES MATTER!
I have seen the argument over and over again on why cables matter and the that wire is just wire and how scientifically it’s impossible for them to make a difference. The thing that surprises me the most is that different materials are used. Different shielding is used. Different connectors are used. Different braiding methods of the cables are used. Materials are sourced from different manufacturers and put through different creative processes but I always get some guy who comes on and says. WIRE IS WIRE AND YOU ARE NOT HEARING WHAT YOU ARE HEARING? To me it’s pure arrogance to think you know more than everybody else to the point where you tell me what we are hearing through my ears and we are not smart enough to know when are minds are playing trick on us. But using all these different materials, process and shielding and creative processes don’t make a difference. I spent the last 15 years trying all the cables I could try. Thoughts anyone?
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@joenies love this story. |
A amplifier driving a set of speakers sees not only the impedance of the speakers that varies with frequency but also the whole circuit including the cables. Thin cables represent a resistance and impedance and thus would degrade dynamics and introduce coloration. However thick, low resistance cables would would be a transparent load for an amplifier - so the sonic difference should be IMO - zero. |
I tend towards the skeptical because there have been faulty physics claims in advertising of cables and famous cable designers in ads show no physics or engineering training at the graduate level. Here are three examples of a little knowledge is a dangerous thing. At higher frequencies, skin effect diminishes the cross-sectional area of a speaker cable. But how much difference does it make? for 8-gauge solid wire about 10 feet long, the effective resistance due to skin effect diminishes by a minuscule fraction of a decibel ay 20 kHz vs direct current. If a cable designer does something like litz construction or ribbon shaped cable, that tells me the designer either is unaware of this, having never calculated it, or knows it is bullshit but uses it for marketing purposes. Another manufacturer claimed litz construction solves the problem of the signal taking multipaths through regular wire and smearing the sound. But the signal travels at the speed of light and a difference of less than a millimeter in differences in path lengths between the signal crossing to the other side of a wire and not crossing to the other side at the speed of light is about 1/3 times 10^-11 seconds. Can anybody hear that? Stories about grain structure acting like little semiconductors in cable is not exactly how resistance of conductors generate Johnson-Nyquist thermal noise works. For loudspeakers, if you could hear this thermal noise in speakers, you would hear it when the amplifier is turned off. I am not claiming that poor cable construction is as good as good cable construction. But when a set of speaker cables cost $27,000 and the manufacturer misapplies physics in the marketing of the design, no credibility remains. |
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