Why Do Cables Matter?


To me, all you need is low L, C, and R. I run Mogami W3104 bi-wire from my McIntosh MAC7200 to my Martin Logan Theos. We all know that a chain is only as strong as its' weakest link - so I am honestly confused by all this cable discussion. 

What kind of wiring goes from the transistor or tube to the amplifier speaker binding post inside the amplifier? It is usually plain old 16 ga or 14 ga copper. Then we are supposed to install 5 - 10' or so of wallet-emptying, pipe-sized pure CU or AG with "special configurations" to the speaker terminals?

What kind of wiring is inside the speaker from the terminals to the crossover, and from the crossover to the drivers? Usually plain old 16 ga or 14 ga copper.

So you have "weak links" inside the amplifier, and inside the speaker, so why bother with mega expensive cabling between the two? It doesn't make logical sense to me. It makes more sense to match the quality of your speaker wires with the existing wires in the signal path [inside the amplifier and inside the speaker].

 

 

kinarow1

Has anybody ever heard a really bad effect from a cable or connector?

Absolutely. Back in the early noughts, we tried a sampling of cables.

One cable sounded like we had a whole new CD collection. Pass.

The missus opined of another "That's the only wire where the clarinet sounds like a clarinet." She has perfect pitch and played clarinet.

And for the 10^10th time, some people can't tell the difference between Petrus and Plonk. Ditto HiFi...

@audphile1 I’ll add as I’d missed in my first post here a critical element - speaker positioning and distance to listening chair. This is something that I continue to be amazed with how a slight change in speaker placement can break it or make it. This of course comes together with room acoustics right after your components and before cables.

A story -

A friend of mine was super particular about this. One time I brought him over to a 55-year audio dealer with the best AudioNote systems playing. This pair of AN speakers were corner positioned, rotated inward and crossed about 1.5 foot in front of the listening position. Something neither of us had ever tried before. We listened to some old Elvis and Beatles tracks. It was quite an engaging and enjoyable listening experience. One of those times you walk away perplexed and never forget.

Naysayers.. stupid childish term, moving wires on a home sound system absolutely stupid. I’ve available 4500 A/B watts at 4 Ohms .003 thd, you can rattle glass and pound your chest but wires don’t move. S..t my 230 volt Lincoln welder at 130 amp and 20 volts won’t move wires !! Hay Maybe after my wires ‘burn in’ things will move… more laughable 💩 

Cheers

 

     I have one word, to express my personal view as regards the Church of Denyin'tology and it's obfuscating, classically (possibly: willfully) obtuse adherents (you know, the NAYSAYERS):

                                        floccinaucinihilipilification

                                              Happy listening!

If you understand the principle that the original recording can't be made any better (you can't add information) to the signal then audiophiles should know that no recording studio uses boutique expensive cable. So cables that are more expensive than the original recording studio or production cables are illogical. Where am I wrong? "

 

@donavabdear

Where are you wrong? You are wrong as follows. You start what would generally be considered as statement of fact i.e. you cannot add information to the original recording. You then follow this with a statement that is a combination of a conjecture and an argument from authority fallacy viz "then audiophiles should know that no recording studio uses boutique or expensive cables. You then attempt to conjoin these two statements to suggest that (the use of) cables more expensive than the cables used for the original recording is illogical. This is a non sequitur fallacy because there is no causal relation between your two statements.

 

The reproduction of recorded music is an entirely different act to the recording of the music. While one may not be able to add information to the original recording one can take many steps to retrieve the information that is there. This is the whole premise of hi fi.

 

Your argument implies that because recordings are made with components of a particular level of quality, then using better quality components to reproduce them is pointless. That argument is specious for the reasons set out above.