Too good a post to waste


On a thread that is a running example of the textual equivalent of nonstop cat videos. So here it is again.


I could understand the cables are snake-oil doubters and take them seriously- in 1980. Back then there was no internet, Stereo Review was pretty much it, and Julian Hirsch was the Oracle of all things audio. Stereo Review and Julian Hirsch said if it measures the same it sounds the same. Wire is wire, and that was that. 

Even then though J. Gordon Holt had already started the movement that was to become Stereophile. JGH took the opposing view that our listening experience is what counts. Its nice if you can measure it but if you can’t that’s your problem not ours. 

Stereo Review and the measurers owned the market back then. The market gave us amplifier wars, as manufacturers competed for ever more power with ever lower distortion. For years this went on, until one day "measures great sounds bad" became a thing.

Could be some here besides me lived through and remember this. If you did, and if you were reading JGH back then, I tip my hat to you, sir! I fell prey to Hirsch and his siren song that you can have it all for cheap and don’t really have to learn to listen. Talk about snake-oil! A lot of us bought into it. Sorry to say.

But anyway like I was saying it was easy to believe the lie back then because it was so prevalent and also because what wire there was that sounded better didn’t really sound a whole lot better.

Now though even budget wire sounds so much better than what comes off a reel you’d have to be deaf not to notice. Really good wires sound so good you’d notice even if you ARE deaf! No kidding. My aunt Bessie was deaf as a stone but she could FEEL the sound at a high enough volume, knew it was music. The dynamic punch of my CTS cables is so much greater than ordinary 14 ga wire I would bet my deaf from birth aunt Bessie could "hear" the difference. Certain so-called audiophiles here, I'm not so sure.

Oh and not done beating the dead horse quite yet, according to my calendar its 2020, a solid 40 years past 1980. Stereo Review is dead and buried. Stereophile lives on. A whole multi-billion dollar industry built on wire not being wire thrives. Maybe the measurement people can chalk up and quantify from that just how many years, and billions, they are out of date and in denial. 
128x128millercarbon
Post removed 
roberttdid,

"40 + years, and not one, yup not one that I can find, demonstration by a cable vendor that definitively shows an audible difference, let alone an improvement between good wire (low resistance, reasonably low capacitance/inductance), and their uber-expensive wire.

40+ years, and not one vendor willing to put their money where their mouth is and show, in perfect for them conditions, that they can reliably pick out their uber expensive wire from run of the mill wire.

40+ years, and still no proper blind demonstrations at a trade-show that illustrates the clear, claimed "night and day" difference between their uber expensive cables and good cables (good resistance/capacitance/inductance, and shielding for interconnects)."


Yes, good work.

Can’t really see how it could be spelled out any clearer for those who hoping for cable upgrades.

If only it were that easy to upgrade your sound by swapping a few cables. If only.

Still, many of us tried. Thin wire, thick wire, stranded wire, solid core wire, cheap wire, expensive wire, fancy plugs, bare wire, reversing the wires etc.

I think the only thing I didn’t try was direct soldering onto the connectors, but I do remember someone writing that they had done that with their NAD 3020 integrated...
You realize that in under 100 characters, you just admitted you have reading comprehension issues as I clearly stated that resistance, capacitance, inductive and stability issues could create audible differences in cables .....

You do realize you just admitted that in 40 years you have never been able to hear any difference between any cables.

Oh, I have tried many things as well, including recreating the effects of Pass and Polk (and no doubt many others) on amplifier stability, not to mention having access research grade acoustic lab environments, and trained and untrained biased and unbiased testers. Hence why I made the statement that wire can make an audible difference, and why I differentiate between crap, "good enough", and uber-expensive.
Still, many of us tried. Thin wire, thick wire, stranded wire, solid core wire, cheap wire, expensive wire, fancy plugs, bare wire, reversing the wires etc.

But hey, I seem to have triggered the rath of the Pet Audio Rock dude, so I must be doing something right?
roberttdid
40 + years, and not one, yup not one that I can find, demonstration by a cable vendor that definitively shows an audible difference...
40+ years, and not one vendor willing to put their money where their mouth is ...  40+ years, and still no proper blind demonstrations at a trade-show ...
So what? You are of course free to do your own testing. If you do, please share your results here.