So What Is Real?


There is a newsletter I subscribe to because the guy seems to talk about reality and not what some sales dude wants to sell you. mwaldrep@aixrecords.com   Now the funny thing to me is that all these cable specialists of high dollar remedies for flawed playback are somehow going to magically change what you hear and will then rise above the abilities of the music file limitations and recording engineers. A dumb wire that is used to create the hi-res recordings so sought after is not somehow suitable for the playback of the same. The following is from Waldreps newsletter and I fully agree. I love this guy and he is a light shining through all the smoke and mirror BS of high end audio. I confess I too am a cable denier and incapable of hearing " further uptick in micro-dynamic jump " but love the delicious word salad these guys create to try to describe something that is not there. I can see the cable guy sitting there with his buddy. Wow did you hear that uptick in micro-dynamics!!  You just know that's how he would talk, right?
  As an aside here how does one become a professional listener? What is the criteria for attaining this lofty goal? How do you know when you have arrived and what governing authority sets down the requirements for such a thing so you know  you are not deceiving yourself and others? Is it a nebulous category that is assigned to you when you spend a certain level of money or do you have verifiable and provable abilities above the norm as recognized by a large group of people including recording industry engineers, professional sound installers and high end audio system owners? In other words anyone but cable sellers?

  The following is from "Dr. AIX Post for January 25, 2020"

 " Cable Nonsense

What is it that Art Linkletter used to say? Kids say the darndest things. Well, it seems some FB audio group administrators, audiophiles, high-end audio salespersons, audiophile society officials, and manufacturers also say things that make little or no sense when talking or posting about cables.

I usually steer clear of FB posts or online magazines that promote high-end audio cables. It's just never safe to present with science, established electrical engineering theory and practice, or objectiveness when cables are concerned. A recent exchange on a familiar FB audio group page resulted in a member calling me a "cable denier" because I advocated for science and physics in evaluating power cords.

The thread basically dismissed my comments because I'm a member of the professional audio engineering community. Audio equipment salespeople, FB administrators, high-end audio marketing managers, and the general audio buying public are claimed to be better and more reliable sources of information when it comes to recommending expensive accessories and cables. According to the gentleman below, they are capable of listening in ways that audio professionals can not.

One commenter wrote:

"Mark is a pro and speaks just like one, but he is not a professional LISTENER, like you (Writer's NOTE: the guy offering the ultra expensive power cords), I and so many others in the high-end industry. Interesting is that most so-called experts are also naysayers who work in the recording industry, not in the high-end industry."

What does this statement actually claim? That professional audio engineers and producers do not know how to listen? That spending one's professional life in front of speakers in a control room doesn't require listening?Maybe...just maybe...the engineers responsible for producing the recordings that are played back in these guys high-end systems are correct in their assessment of power cords and expensive USB/Ethernet cables. Image that!

Can you really trust a gentlemen that just launched a new cable company that offers a 6-foot power cord for $3150? Oh and this person also believes that cables are directional! BTW They are not.

Here's a couple of additional comments...

"Cables can make a difference. I’m glad I can hear those differences it truly enhances the experience. I have been a dedicated audiophile and in the industry for over 45 years and have been able to identify those differences since my first experience with Smog Lifters in the 70’s. I search for and usually discover great products that deserve special attention by people looking for the last bit of resolution and coherency. I’m truly sorry for those that wouldn’t hear the difference."

Here's a comment from an individual that swapped a normal Ethernet cable for an expensive one.

"...the Vodka seemed to remove a layer of film for superior textural reveal. There was also a shade more tonal depth and recording space ‘air’. Most noticeable of all was a further uptick in micro-dynamic jump."

I don't know about you but I cringe when I hear people talk about audio in such terms. And this after listening to a commercial album and then stopping, swapping the cable and relistening. It's unbelievable.

I could pull quotes from cable reviews all afternoon but I think you get the point. When anyone starts spewing nonsense about power cords, digital interconnects, or network cables, run away. Keep your wallet in your pocket and unsubscribe from that group or online magazine. Their motivations are suspect. They either want to sell you something (usually at very high cost) or are dependent on advertising dollars from the companies they write about or the individuals they interview.

"
mahlman
Anyone who has read a review of the AudioQuest Hurricane power cord and not (rpt not) come away thinking, well, maybe there really is something to all this power cord stuff - you know, polishing the surface of the conductor and honoring the inherent directionality of wire - yes, gentle readers, even in an obvious case of alternating signal 🔛- must be in some sort of catatonic state. 😳
Back in the day I used to eagerly await the arrival of every issue of Stereo Review magazine. Julian Hirsch was notorious for his dismissal of audiophile nonsense. Not that I always agreed with him. He famously said all CD players sound the same and that all properly designed amplifiers sound the same. But back then he was probably mostly right. 
Not so much today. He asserted that 99% of the sound quality was a product of two components; the phono cartridge and the speakers. Everything in between, he thought, was mostly irrelevant. Of course he wouldn't be tolerated by today's audiophiles, me included. But the argument can be made that he was responsible for the popularization and development of the home audio hobby.
The most esteemed and marketplace successful cable designers turn out to have little or no education in physics or relevant engineering in the way cables or conductors work but they have a smattering of knowledge about some of it. For me it takes only one fraud to discredit them completely. Many cable designers describe skin effect as a grievous source of distortion in speaker cables. They minimize the skin effect by reducing the distance from the surface of the cable to the center by either using a bundle of many insulated thin conductors or ribbon cables. If they really knew their physics and calculated how much the effective cross section of current carrying conductor is diminished by skin effect at 20 kHz for 8 gauge speaker wire that diminution would be a fraction of a percent. There are online calculators which will calculate it for you without having to put together an integral from a graduate school E&M text. the total attenuation of a 20 kHz current for 8 gauge wire in series with a 4 Ohm speaker is only a fraction of a percent, something nobody can hear. The other claims calculate similarly embarrassing results, such as the static electric changes of energy in dipole molecules in the insulation of the cable. While bad connections can make a difference, you don't need to spend hundreds let alone thousands and in one case  $70,000 for the "best" speaker cables. I use 8 gauge speaker cables with black insulation for the - and ruby red insulation for the + because I like the way it looks. Save your money and demand graduate school credentials of any "engineer" who designs cables.
"Some recent developments in cable design..."
People still develop them? Why not work on improving wireless transfer instead?