DO CABLES REALLY MATTER?

Principal Pseudo Skeptic and Cable Puller 🤨

Do cables makes a difference? Yes they do. I am not an expert, but I have a pretty good system. I have used cables that range in price from merely expensive to ludicrous. I have used networked and non networked cables. They all sound different. For sure example, I had Nordost Heimdall 2 cables, they were good, but I felt that they lacked a full range sound, simply put, I could do better. I moved to pricey MIT cables and the sound was exceptional. The bass was improved, the highs were better namely, the whole experience was vastly improved. When I upgraded my amplifier I had to change cables.... not because of of sound, but because of synergy. I went with cables that were less expensive but I found to be even more revealing. So did cables matter? Yes. Do they have more fidelity, I’m not sure. The mit cables were more detailed and provided more bass. Was the bass more faithful? I do not know. When I changed cables, I had to use a spare pair and Theisen cables had good highs but sounded veiled and lacked bass. The replacement cables did not have as much “bass” but I felt that they were even more revealing and detailed. Better? That is an opinion of one. Do they sound different? Yes! 

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self. 

--Aldous Huxley 

"Usually good engineers would have a technical hypothesis that can be measured.If we are talking about sound engineers (not EEs or whatever) simply selecting new cables because "they sounded better to us" then that’s just the same anecdotal evidence that any other audiophile uses to select cables. And anyone is susceptible to bias effects. " (1) Given that there IS NO metric given, by current science, OR any electrical engineering standard, by which we can MEASURE what exactly results in a wider, deeper sound stage, the natural bloom of instruments, more detailed/realistic/cleaner highs with less stridency(at the same time), allows for more separation between voices(better imaging) and/or whatever else, those of us that hear those improvements appreciate AND (2) given that the owners of the studios that have proven track records, of putting out superior sounding products to my, as well as many other’s ears(judging by their clientele and rewards), obviously agree that better cables matter: I’ll stick with OUR, "biases". (WHEW- How’s that for a run-on sentence?) My ears have served me faithfully(even saved my life in a couple scenarios), as well as made many customers and musicians very happy, over the past few decades and I trust them. ’Nuff said, and I don’t expect all those keystrokes changed anyone’s opinion anyway, so I won’t waste any more on this thread(was that an, "AMEN", I heard?). ps: As mentioned, it doesn’t have to be expensive!