Yes, cables do make a difference -- regardless of price...
I thought you may find this interesting…or not. I know, another "cable post". Disclaimer up front — I am a believer that cables can make a difference in the sound that you hear from your system. With my speakers, like most high(er) efficiency speakers, I can hear large and small changes made to the system components — and cables are part of that system.
What I want to share is an exercise that I went through with my better half in setting up her recording equipment that she will be using to record audio books. The hardware part of the system is simple: Audio Technica Cardioid Condenser Microphone AT2035 connected with a XLR cable to the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 preamp.
We started with the XLR cable that came with the microphone and recorded the short introduction of the book she has been contracted to record. Then she recorded the same section using each of the our XLR cables I have on hand: Vovox Excelsus, Mogami 2549, Gotham GAC-3, and Grimm TPR. Each of the cables have the same Neutrik connector and are very good studio cables that I have used in my system at one time.
Listening through headphones via the Scarlett 2i2, it was super easy to hear distinct differences in these cables. The differences were not small and very apparent. In the end, the Mogami cable was the winner — it seemed more open and warmer than the other cables and suited the tone of her voice the best. I have heard similar differences from these cables in my stereo system but not to the significant degree borne out by this exercise.
To keep going, today I replaced the $10 USB C to C cable that I bought as an “upgrade” from the Scarlett 2i2 to a MacBook Air with a $70 Audioquest Forest cable. We were more than surprised that with the AQ cable in the system the drop of the noise floor was very significant and the blackness of background made the sound even more crystal clear.
The purpose of this post is not to promote or compares cables, just a public service posting for those of you who do not believe cables make a difference. They really do affect how your system sounds (positive or negative) and if you cannot hear a difference then maybe looking at the transparency of your system is a place you should examine.
Bybee’s first commercial products emerged from Cold War-era military-industrial research. The stealthy shadow contest of nuclear submarine detection, location and evasion demanded ever-quieter circuits, lower electronic noise and greater signal-to-noise ratios. Practitioners summed up the problem as: “reducing 1/f noise, from DC to 2000hz”.
Bybee’s technology involves exotic blends of rare-earth metals or their isotopes to reduce electronic noise in circuits. In the mid-1990s, Bybee’s AC filtering was among the first of its kind to use exotic doped materials instead of transformers or balanced power, which made it a novel concept at the time.
Jack’s science and physicist background gave him the understanding about negative effects of quantum noise. Link here.
From there, I earned my Electronics Engineering degree at Brescia University, and would later study Computer Science for almost two years at Westinghouse. Then I came to South Texas Nuclear, and studied what they’d call today nuclear physics. Link here.
Caelin Gabriel is a former US military research scientist with a background in research and design of ultra-sensitive data acquisition systems. These systems were designed to detect extremely low-level signals otherwise obscured by random noise, requiring years of intensive research into the sources and effects of signal and power-line noise interference. Link here.
CEO/Designer Jeffrey Smith is a Wyoming native and graduate of the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering. He also earned a Master of Science Degree, With Distinction, in Defense and Strategic Studies. Link here.
MIT Cables – Founded by Bruce Brisson – awarded 20 USPTO engineering patents.
MIT Cables founder Bruce Brisson began purposely designing audio cables in the 1970’s after encountering the sonic problems inherent in cables typical of the day. Link here.
Audioquest – Garth Powell - Sr. Director of Engineering
@jea48
I had a panasonic 3700 but the one made for portable recording, I got into so much trouble with it because it could never hold sync, the way the time code and the sample rate were derived didn’t work. Back then 35 years ago there were a few different TC rates depending on what you needed to sync to if it was a film camera the Panasonic was useless. A few years later HHB and Fostex came out with DAT recorders that derived their sample rate from internal clocks and not dependent on sample rates. Panasonic recorders were never a standard in the film industry after the 3700. Yes the machine was really bad full of jitter and out of sync signals because it was a flawed machine in any test any scale and in every way.
@kirk9
Thanks for the note, but what I was getting at was the idea that only current moves in any circuit voltages and resistances change but current is the only thing that moves because current (I) is the measure of electrons moving by a specific point in a circuit, a coulomb of electrons is 1 amp.
I know this isn't an exact analogy but suppose you have constant pressure water source connected to a garden hose then connected to a fire hose then a 2 inch hose then a straw is the fire hose (the expensive AC cable) going to make any difference in the amount of water coming out the end of the straw, the answer is no the water is limited by the resistance of the hoses in total not the resistance of the fire hose.
I understand AC hits a transformer then rectifiers change the AC into low voltage that works in your equipment, right there is never any music in the AC and this is a very easy circuit to design and it works great if your equipment is of any quality at all you will not need to worry about power. Don't get me wrong I've got probably 30k$ in power for my audio room but for other reasons, I live in Idaho with good power and only a few % distortion on the AC. The arguments with cables are a lot like the arguments with AC power yes, if you have cheep cables any signal will sound different, if you have bad AC it will sound bad because your entire system with be out of the limits the transformer and rectifiers can handle, this is not what the normal audiophile dealing with comparing 1k$ cables and 5k$ power conditioning equipment.
Now that is interesting and something I hadn't seen before. It is, alas, from 2013 when jitter was a more pressing concern than today with contemporary USB transports, but it does raise some interesting questions. I think it needs a retest!
Good for them! I wish them the best! You can disregard my credentials if it makes you uncomfortable. The important question is when are we going to get any good evidence for cables? I would love to learn more from any cable manufacturers or positive-claim cable enthusiasts who have scientific citations or personal micro-experiments that can lead to further investigation!
"rather than asking you to simply believe it because of my credentials." Then why did you find it necessary to post your qualifications. Actually there many who post on this forum who are more qualified than you but do not need to boast of it.
Partially correct, except that I am promoting skepticism about positive claims and specifically suggesting a path towards proving those claims, rather than asking you to simply believe it because of my credentials.
In any case, I have a BSEE and MSEE in information theory and signal processing, as well as PhD work in cognitive science and am very skeptical of the ideas and claims made here concerning cables.
This is a perfect textbook example of an appeal to authority fallacy
I’m not going to settle this debate, but I can tell you this with 100% certainty
If you google this topic you will find hundreds of threads over many years where you get the exact same arguments on both sides and it always ends right where it started... nowhere.
like all the threads before this one and all that will come after they are and always will be a complete and utter waste of time
... record the DAC output or the speaker output (using a calibrated mic), swap cables, and do a null test by comparing the signal spectrums. It should be evident in those measurements as to why you think you hear a difference ... I have a BSEE and MSEE in information theory and signal processing, as well as PhD work in cognitive science and am very skeptical of the ideas and claims made here concerning cables. Positive claims should be backed by Missouri-like resolve: show me!
This is a hobbyist group. We're all free to conduct our own experiments but no one is obligated to produce proofs to meet your satisfaction.
I am always intrigued by these discussions. I keep hoping to learn something new beyond "I'm convinced" and "to those who naysay," etc. Some kind of useful tidbit...but there really is nothing new so far. There are some mildly flawed studies that compare cheap RCAs versus XLRs in AES. There are also broad claims from authority: some smart guy uses special cable woven from yak hair soaked in silver nitrate, blah blah.
But, critically, if you think you hear changes in the tonality that should be measurable and not just by ABX tests, but with a decent ADC that itself measures well. Just record the DAC output or the speaker output (using a calibrated mic), swap cables, and do a null test by comparing the signal spectrums. It should be evident in those measurements as to why you think you hear a difference.
And competent and scientifically sophisticated cable manufacturers (as well as power conditioners, etc.) would be trumpeting their product measurements all day long if they in fact had any clear measurement differences to promote.
I have seen some research work on people being able to detect sounds outside of the typical 20kHz window, though it seems largely irrelevant to music reproduction, so while there might be yet-to-be-understood science out there, the default intellectually honest posture is wait-and-see while instead focusing on what we know impacts audio reproduction.
In any case, I have a BSEE and MSEE in information theory and signal processing, as well as PhD work in cognitive science and am very skeptical of the ideas and claims made here concerning cables.
Positive claims should be backed by Missouri-like resolve: show me!
Cables make a major difference with the effect increasing with your systems ability to resolve but with power cables I think it’s much more physics with build quality and wire gauge than with interconnects. I’ve yet to hear a better resolving $300-500 12ga cable beat a <$40 10ga cable from Amazon on a power amp. Some make it sound “cleaner” but it won’t allow the amp to pull out as much detail and richness. It just makes it sound more analytically clean and sanitized with less detail. Need to step up massively in price (15x+)to get the same or better performance with 10ga+ equivalent cables. This is on a mid-$10k’s system with a $8500 power amp and ~$20k speakers connected by ~$1k speaker cables. Just stupid how much many cable companies charge for their jewelry.
I know that cables make a difference sometimes but the acoustic treatment of the listening area always makes a huge difference way more than any cable . I had a set of transparent audio reference cables for many years and I must say that benchmark media speaker cable did not sound worse or different.
I commonly hear people say that they want their system to sound like the "real thing". But of course that is never going to happen since you do not know what the "real thing" originally sounded like. What you mean, I suspect, is that you want it to sound like your interpretation of what you think the "real thing" should sound like.
@crozboIt helps a lot to use recordings you made yourself, because you were there when it was recorded, huh! 😀
If you even get a chance to try equipment that supports AES48 (which is likely a bit more expensive) I'd be interested to hear if you still hear the same differences.
When the standard isn't supported, the shield of the cable becomes the signal return path, just as it is in an RCA cable. So its more susceptible to noise and the construction of the cable itself. Not only that but you lose immunity to ground loops. Cable immunity and immunity to ground loops are two things that the balanced line system is supposed to eliminate, along with reduced noise (Common Mode rejection of noise; CMRR).
So if the standard isn't supported, you're likely to hear cable differences. I think this is why the single-ended vs balanced thing is an on-going thing in high end audio since so little of high end audio equipment supports the standard.
Why do you think that people looking at cables haven’t already spent many thousands on acoustics? System synergy? Room dimensions? It’s pretty stupid to by a $200k Porsche and put $50 Toyota tires on it. When you spend thousands, tens of thousands or more on a system, why not audition cables to get the most out of your purchase. Every cable has a different sound, can be good, can be bad.
But if you have a cheaper system/cheaper car, cables/tires aren’t going to make a big difference. You can only get so much out of a cheaper system or a cheaper car.
The miles of current to your system don't matter as long as it arrives cleanly - it never carries the music.
The points of contact inside your components don't matter near as much because they are so short. The signal does not degrade near as much as going through 10' or so of cable.
Anyone needing a rationale for experimenting with new cables in their system and/or feeling dissuaded by the Church of Denyin'tology's antiquated electrical doctrines: take heart!
Many new electrical facts have been established in the past 100 years, that support audible differences, between various cables, fuses, etc.
I couldn't find anything like, "Updated Electrical Theory For Idiots", but- did manage to find something resembling a cartoon, that even a child could follow. It neither mentions AC/sinusoidal waves in wires, nor does it go into the photon propagation of electromagnetic waves. It does, however, emphasize/demonstrate how Electrical Theory has progressed, since the 1800s:
These next two presuppose a certain amount of knowledge, in the field of modern Electrical Theory. Click, "continue reading" in the first link's first answer, to get its entirety. Note how it mentions the OLD, "... commonly held misconception that the flow of electricity through a wire resembles a tube filled with ping pong balls...", to which the Denyin'tologists fervently adhere:
It's an established (measured) fact that an electromagnetic wave's propagation and speed, are dependent on the materials, of which the transmission line (cable) are made (ie: Dielectric Constant/permittivity). The better (lower) the Dielectric Constant the better the flow and the longer it takes for that material, to become polarized. One reason anything that comprises an RLC circuit (ie: capacitors, cables, PC boards), takes time to, "form", or, "break/burn-in".*
*Something that makes the Denyin'tologists apoplectic.
Even the most inane (regarding the Sciences) must admit; braiding and twisting wires eliminates/reduces EMI interference.
That must lend credence to various cable geometries.
That better dielectrics enhance the propagation of electromagnetic waves (ie: your music signal), lends the same credence to choosing cables with better materials (ie: Polypropylene, Teflon, air, etc).
Of course: anything the Church of Denyin'tology's popes can't fathom, they'll summarily dismiss.
As simple a device as a fuse is: it still carries a sinusoidal signal/voltage, ALWAYS from source to load.
NOT back and forth!
Also (as mentioned above): any fuse acts as an RLC circuit, the 'C' of which will be determined by properties of its wave guide's/ conductor's surroundings (ie: glass, air, bee's wax, ceramic, end cap materials, etc).
Any commonly drawn wire will exhibit a chevron pattern in its crystal lattice, so: why not "directionality" and why OHNO Continuous Cast, single crystal wire sounds better, to so many?
Stated above are scientifically tested, measured and proven facts.
There is no "contest", or "dispute" involved.
The OP mentions Maxwell, but: obviously they have no understanding of his theory and possible ramifications as regards the above.
Anyone that feels compelled to harp on not hearing any differences, is obviously too obtuse to understand the term "variables" (as frequently mentioned) and worthy of disregard.
My only goal in these threads has ever been to encourage those with a curious, rational, functioning mind to experiment with their systems, based on the latest (20th/21st Century's) findings of ACTUAL Physics/science and ignore the Cargo Cult's incessant runway building (objections, convolutions, deflections and obfuscations).
Cables certainly make a difference. If you're not hearing it, then it is one (or more) of the following issues: 1) Your hearing is just not good enough; 2) Your system does not have the resolution to allow you to hear the difference; 3) Your listening to an unfamiliar system; 4) Your cognitive bias says you cannot hear a difference between cables.
As far as A/B testing, No.3 is often the culprit in not allowing differences to be heard. The differences between cables are often very subtle and it takes a while for the listener to adjust to hearing the intricacies of a new system.
I'm also of the opinion that cost of the cable has very little effect on the final sound, however, I do always feel partial to a silver-coated copper conductor.
Also, here's a 5th issue: different components change cables difference as well. I'm not talking resolution, but the interplay between source/preamp/amp/speakers. The interaction between impedance, sensitivity, etc. also play a role.
Watch it one might think you a flat earther ! Perhaps more learning time to hear is needed, you know rule out the A / B, placebo, or 50-50 results. In the future you will probably see some Yum Yum selling cables with very small ‘audio’ only capacitors installed in their cables. Damn there’s that alternating current problem again…
Have you ever thought of the fact that like AC cables the cable isn't what's important but the connections and the first connection inside the equipment. For some reason people think a crimped connection to a connection that only pressure scrapes to make an electrical connection on the opposite connector, most of the connection on connectors aren't good enough to support 100% field flow of electrons. A soldered connection at least uses a tin and silver mix that makes a good flow but even every soldered connection changes the chemistry. If you spend 10k$ on your cable and then it enters your equipment and flows through a fuse then a trace on a PC board you can't convince anyone that the 2 meters of 10k$ cable is helping, in the case of AC the wall sends the power through 12ga Romex. No one has ever explained how miles of AC power then transformers then wall plug then 10k$ cable then fuse then cheap internal cables will make the 10k$ audiophile cable effective. I asked every cable maker at AXPONA how this could be effective, only 1 maker had an answer that the cable acted as a reservoir of power that conditioned the signal. OK no, nice try. How do such smart people not look at basics?
"Listening through headphones via the Scarlett 2i2, it was super easy to hear distinct differences in these cables. The differences were not small and very apparent."
This does not sound like role playing to me. You actually sound like one of the minions on the ASR site.
@laoman My role play comment was tongue-in-cheek to point out an experimenter effect would be plausible given OP stated he’d already perceived audible variation among cables in his stereo system. In lieu of a minion-hunt or any other expression of “home team vs. visitor” mentality, how ‘bout we continue to heed the OP’s last remark?
"Listening through headphones via the Scarlett 2i2, it was super easy to hear distinct differences in these cables. The differences were not small and very apparent."
This does not sound like role playing to me. You actually sound like one of the minions on the ASR site.
@mahgister+++1. Perfectly stated. People really should accept the fact that other people have different priorities for their music listening experiences. There’s not an absolute “right” or “wrong”. IMO, of course 😉
@crozbo based on your last comment: Was your wife reading the track live for each cable, or were you re-recording the same pre-recorded reading by her for each cable? I know the latter sounds incessantly redundant, but, if you recorded a different live reading for each cable, you were comparing your wife’s live takes, not cables. In that scenario, using different cables was a confounding factor to assessing the quality of your wife’s reading, not the other way around, again - if it was multiple (different) live takes.
I cannot fathom why so much people can deny that some cable may make a change for best or worst...
I cannot fathom why so much people are obsessed by the importance of cable which is secondary and minor most of the times compared to anything that matter: mechanical, electrical and acoustical working controls...
It is like the gear focus on branded name , the costlier the better, instead of acoustics basic and on synergy instead of price tags...
@audphile1"You’re probably one of the very few that kept an open mind. Majority will not.".
On that note, those who already know the difference have no need to debate it further, and usually don’t respond. Some NaySayers enjoy debate, and often times have no record of actually testing some of the better cables themselves. Just talk.Talk is Cheap.
First, thanks to everyone for keeping this discussion civil and keeping the flame throwers at bay. The purpose of this post was to communicate my experience with a direct mic to track example.
I commonly hear people say that they want their system to sound like the "real thing". But of course that is never going to happen since you do not know what the "real thing" originally sounded like. What you mean, I suspect, is that you want it to sound like your interpretation of what you think the "real thing" should sound like.
The purpose of our little experiment was just to get her modest voice recording set-up to sound as good as it could with some advice from the good people at ProAudioLA and Sweetwater. Since I had all these different XLR cables it made sense to try to optimize the sound with resources on hand.
No elaborate A/B/A/A/B/B/B/A testing just her voice, reading the same passage with each cable and running all these segments back to back. So, in playback there was a four segment level matched continuous track where you could determine the differences in recorded voice quality. We liked segment 3 the best, which happened to be the Mogami cable.
In this situation, we were there, knew what live sounded like, and liked how segment 3 best represented her voice. That is all. Nothing more and nothing less.
“flat earther” denotes someone who disregards all scientific evidence for the earth in fact being spherical, while demanding no scientific evidence to support the belief earth is flat.
@benandersIn the audio world “flat earther,” and as it’s used here, refers to people who can only believe what they see and can’t get their heads around that there’s a bigger picture and that not everything can be described by measurements. People here who can actually “hear” that bigger picture realize that the human ear is a pretty darn good measuring device if you have enough experience and know how to use them. For those who can’t (or won’t) get it, good for them and just buy lamp cord and live happily ever after. To each his own.
The hardware part of the system is simple: Audio Technica Cardioid Condenser Microphone AT2035 connected with a XLR cable to the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 preamp.
@crozboI've said this many times on line; if your equipment supports AES48 then the interconnect cables will hardly make any difference. I don't think that mic supports it, so you'll have to audition the cables to find the one that works best for you.
Its pretty amazing to me to see how mics have changed over the decades; that you can buy a large element condenser mic now for only $150.00! I'm sure that's given a lot of people access to making music that were shut out before.
But to make a mic at that price you have to cut some corners somewhere, and I suspect that it does so with the tiny preamp that's built into the mic. If it references ground, then cable immunity is out the window. IOW it might be a balanced output, but it doesn't support AES48, the balanced standard. The Audio Technica site doesn't say, so this is theory on my part.
We use Neumann U67s in my studio, running into custom vacuum tube mic preamps, which drive the recorder directly, bypassing our mixer. You can put whatever cable you want in that setup and you don't hear a difference. But the Neumanns have a proper floating output which is the only way AES48 can be supported. They also have no problem driving 150 Ohms, which is a typical microphone level input impedance (quite different from the 3KOhm input of the Focusrite).
These sort of things have to be taken into account when making statements about cables. When you have the lower impedances of the pro equipment, cable differences vanish.
@kraftwerkturbo
The company I was working for was building a new set of studios from the ground up and money was not a problem custom everything including famous speaker designer who came in and designed the speakers and wall they were mounted it (he didn't care about the speaker cables) so the engineers did lots of tests and ended up using Romex as the speaker cable for whatever reason they said it sounded the best. I've heard of people trying RG59 coax and had the same results you did. These examples are preferences (I like strawberry or vanilla ice cream better) this is what happens when there is so much confusion. Audiophile cables of over a few hundred dollars each should always have unmeasurable differences or else there is a problem with the cable.
OK there are 3 major problems that audiophile people have that no audio engineer who records or mixes music concerning cables has and that is
#1- Of course a cheap cable is not going to sound very good there are many reasons why poor quality cables don't sound good from being to thin to oxidation to having crimped ends. Audiophiles who compare inadequate cables to well built cables are comparing apples and oranges.
#2- I started my sound career 40 years ago live mixing and editing radio shows, the other editors always listened at 2.5x speed it was hard for me to understand the dialogue at first but after my brain "burned in" I was able to edit at fast speed. That to say your brain is variable it compensates for everything in the sound world and when you pay 10k for your AC cable you will hear a difference, there are definitely many emotional reasons but zero technical reasons.
#3- The description of the way cables make a difference include words like warm, airy, tighter low end, and imaging. All these things can be measured and measured very easily and accurately with way more resolution than your ears so those descriptions are proven incorrect. If the description were less technical like "musical", "beautiful", or "pastoral" then you could say there is no measurement for that, and ok who can argue with that, but that is not the case in most of your descriptions in this group.
Good post from @benanders but I really appreciate that the OP recorded voice tracks using different cables so that they could go back and compare the tracks repeatedly. If you are comparing different recorded tracks back to back it removes a lot of the opportunity for bias. My issue with cable enthusiasts is where they disconnect one set of cables, plug in a new much more expensive pair, listen for weeks and claim that once the new cables "broke in" they sounded much better than the original cables.
I had a home recording studio in the 90's and I used this recording technique to compare preamps and microphones (I used a close-miced acoustic guitar which is very revealing). I even used this process to compare the sound of different tubes in a couple of my mic preamps as well as an opamp upgrade on one of my solid state preams. I posted many of these files on a recording forum and invited folks to listen and submit their reactions. Most listeners were surprised that the differences were so obvious. I used Mogami cables exclusively and it never occurred to me to compare XLR cables this way.
FWIW, I've never been able to hear the difference in interconnects. I realize it woulc be a hassle but it would be interesting if @crozbocould post these files so us skeptics could hear for ourselves.
The OP touched on something I have wondered about for years. If cables really make a difference then we should be able to hear the difference between two kinds of cable on the same recorded track. My skeptical nature tells me that if there really were differences in cables audiophiles would have done this and posted the files to prove their point. Sure, cables are "system dependent" but, I'm sorry, that sounds like a cop out to me.
Does anyone know of a well controlled A/B/X test where cable differences were demonstrated? I've never heard of one. I know of dozens of tests where listeners failed to hear a difference but no test in which they were successful.
Lastly, my position is that if audiophiles hear a difference in cables then, for them, the difference exists. Cables seem to give a many of our creed a lot of pleasure and if that's where they want to spend their money then more power to them. I don't know if I'm lucky or cursed that I can't seem to hear the difference.
We are not welding connections together. It is important to make good contact between cable and component. If we look under a microscope we need all the help we can g e t. We clean up our signal at the source. Then noise can be reintroduced at each component and connection. Again, we need all the help we can get.
I have not purchased expensive cables. So I may never know. But I have experienced dramatic improvements by making good connections and buying cables that are insulated properly. I currently have silver coated copper which replaced copper. Clarity and details improved.
My TT source employs different cabling than my CD source. They are different sounds in the first place. They do not interact with each other at all is the second. Why should I use the same cabling?
@crozboThanks for taking the time to write about your experiences. It was well said and for me you accomplished your goal. With the infinite amount of variables in audio systems it’s both an art and a science to achieve better sound. And just like art, we all have different preferences.
Amazes me this cable and wire crap goes on and on. I guess that’s what you get when you use subjection rather than Verifiable fact. Gone are the days of Hang ‘em high. Who says democracy is dead lol. Build it and they will come, whatever the market will bear, to each his own, most of us live in a free world.
Anecdotal evidence/example: 40+ years ago when our small group of young enthusiasts/future engineers/tinkerers dabble heavily in audio (and the first CD came out, yeah!), we soon found ’thicker’ is better (instead of 0.7mm2 lamp cord, we splurged on 4mm2). We built our own active crossovers (found very quiet op amps, one of us was an electrical engineer), bi and tripe amped various speakers.
In our quest for better sound, we tried lots of different cables that were within out ’student budget’. One of our acquaintances family owned an electric supply company. One day, we grabbed a length of phat coax cable they use to wire up multi family and large appartment buildings for cable TV (I think RG59, but need to verify), and used them on our reference system. WE WERE BLOWN AWAY. We unlimited supply at super low price (we paid 10 cents per ft), we started to sell the cables to our network (making the connections was a bit of work).
Years later, we found that cable tested and listed in the top audiophile magazine (Stereoplay) in almost highest category of speaker cables. There was no cable NEAR that category that did not cost at least one hundred times as much (the magazine used 50 cents/ft). I actually still have a (uneven length unfortunately) section here, need to give it some serious ’re listening’. If I can’t hear the difference to my selection of roughly $3-$10/ft cables, it only means I need to get a new set of ears ;-).
"OP can you pass a honest A and B test?" Did you read the op? Is this not exactly
what he did?
No, @laoman, OP did not do a controlled A/B test (based on OP’s wording). He and his better half were probably role playing, and someone might have played the horse: read up on Clever Hans - it’ll be a shortcut to understanding how pervasive and subtle bias can be via the simplest of cues, and has been widely acknowledged for roughly a century. Doesn’t mean the differences assumed (between cables) were necessarily absent, it just means they’re being assumed without verifying something besides bias.
Bias as a word is similar to “theory” - many folks don’t understand what it actually is or how it applies in science, so as a word it often “lands” on ears/eyes differently than it probably should.
@soixfunny aside - “flat earther” denotes someone who disregards all scientific evidence for the earth in fact being spherical, while demanding no scientific evidence to support the belief earth is flat. In the absence of empirical evidence for cables differing audibly (be it either measurements or rigorous preference studies), I think you might not be using that phrasal poke as deftly as you seem to assume? 😅
Studies are easy to do; they’re quite complicated to do correctly without proper understanding of the discipline(s) involved. Conversely, it seems surprisingly natural for folks to state anecdotal perception as broadly applicable fact. It’s a conundrum that extends well beyond unverified perceptions in home audio. Sigh.
The baseline purpose of making comparisons (the cable swapping exercise) that gave rise to this thread was: get good sound for recording audio books. It seems like that end was achieved, so it’s not of consequence that the road travelled was not an experimentally valid one. I’m glad the recordings worked out well and don’t see that as grounds for fussing over anything. 😁
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