Why Do Cables Matter?

Applying for and receiving a US patent requires that the product designer provide some plausible engineering principles to support the patent application

I know... I gots one and was involved in others.

As Reagan opined, "The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away."

Last time I checked, which was a long time back, US examiners started @ $35k and I was paying $125k for engineers.

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”
― W.C. Fields

Why do you have to lift speaker cables off the floor?

Lifting the cable off the floor lowers the cable’s total capacitance, which can make a difference to the sound of your system in either or both of two ways: The first way is by directly affecting the frequency response of your speakers.5 Oct 2020

Bunking Cable Lifters - Positive Feedback

I tested in my system by lifting the speaker cables, and the bass generally got a lot weaker.

Put the cables back on the wooden floor and the bass is back now.

Took some towels and threw them on the cables now the bass is fuller with beautiful extension. Keep he towels where they are :)

I have tried, but cables seem to be the least easily discernible items to listen for in an audio system. Speakers are easy, but if you want to truly hear cables (any chance in hell of hearing differences without knowing exactly which cable you you changed to?) then you'd better have absolute superb speakers and amplification, IMHO.

Amplification changes, if done correctly, can be heard over time, or if you are lucky, almost immediately. Digital stuff gets tougher for me but can be heard. I guess I've not gotten into a huge enough upgrades to feel expensive wire is truly necessary beyond buying quality cabling, but not into the thousands of dollars and more.

I do hear folks point to wiring inside an electronic device in the audio chain and feel like nothing beyond that is necessary. That is more than laughable (at least to me).  Do they want a tiny board trace wire/connection al the way to the loudspeaker. I submit large better wires count for the current/voltage put out by a power amp to the speakers.  I could be wrong but I'm into decent cabling, even if not tossing tons of money into wire I can't hear compare to some acoustic room treatment.  :-)

@yoyoyaya says in response to @donavabdear : “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.” 
 

100%.  But as our systems become more resolving (and the quality of the wires both inside and outside of our boxes contribute significantly to that resolving ability), relative strengths and weaknesses in recording quality and craftsmanship become more and more apparent.  One of the acquired skills of audiophiles is to learn to listen past the warts on some of our previously favorite recordings to still hear and appreciate the musical event captured in time.

Cables matter. Wire, the kind of copper, how its shielded , with what materials. The connectors. Are you using silver or other materials. It all matters. Full disclosure. Calvin Johnson from infigo audio.