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

@kevn Thank you for your thoughtful post. 
Anthony Hopkins is one of my favorite people I've ever worked with, we did a movie in the Czech Republic. Understanding how something should sound like an actors voice is a really hard job, what the boom operator does is he or she listens to the way the actor is projecting and places the microphone just off the frame line all the while listing to the polar pattern and off axis collation of the voice. I used the Sennheiser MKH -50's as my go to microphones for most actors but even then behind the mixer I can't really judge his voice as well as the boom operator. When I spoke to hime directly, I got an idea of how his voice actually sounded. 
The reason why I mentioned him was because I could only evaluate the recording after it went through all my microphones and electronics it is rare that you hear someones voice like that face to face, and most everyone knows what he supposedly sounds like.
Audiophiles give me the impression that they can evaluate the proper mixing goal of the artist, producer and audio engineer by saying things like this or that sounds natural or to the presentation or the image is thus and so. It is impossible to make judgements like that if the image is bigger with a particular component or cable how do you know that's what was originally recorded. you can't.
The best way to evaluate an accurate set of speakers is listen for mistakes, maybe a punch-in that is off time or a reverb setting on the 2nd viola that was brought in late If the studio mixer left those mistakes in he didn't hear them if your revealing speakers did pick up the problems you probably have better speakers than the mixer did.

Your 2nd question - I will test some new cables I have over 70 speakers in my house and 4x dolby atoms systems so new expensive cable would cost a fortune. I'll order some of the cables that @rodman99999 showed me I agree exactly with their philosophy about cables.

I really liked what you said about audiophiles and logic, I may be barking up the wrong tree about technical issues, but these guys on this forum are not dumb they would know that a logical fallacy or a physical law always trumps feelings about electronics. I was wrong. Professional recording and audiophile communities are completely opposite of course there are exceptions.

I also loved what you said about the nuance and beauty of the electronic field around the conductor, true this idea is so misunderstood probably because electronics were not taught like that. 

Last question you asked, Yes some cables sound amazing compared to others, this is a scary thing to say cables are simple compared to the internal electronics in components that put the audio signal through gymnastics all the time.

You have a great attitude, hopefully you didn't think I was trolling or just wanting to fight as many here think of me. Best

 

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I was always wondering if PVC is not a really bad insulator for signal wires: the very large chlorine atoms with three pairs of unpaired electrons in their outer shell are bound to interact with the electro-magnetic field around a wire. But I did not act on my suspicion until I found XLR ICs with silver wire running in a PTFE tube and a shielding mesh of silver-plated copper. They are made in HK and the price was right and thus I bought two pairs from my DAC to my preamp and from my preamp to my power amps, replacing the Mogamis I had for years. I can only say that they did indeed make a significant difference, not ground-shaking but clearly audible and in a very pleasant way: more clarity and headroom, especially with solo voice (Shirley Bessey with "Big Spender", for example, where I can now understand each single word), but also deeper sound stage and dry and punchy bass. Overall money really well spent. Since then I began making my own speaker cables, by running a single 5N silver wire in a PTFE tube filled with Argon gas. The latter has a dielectric constant similar to air, meaning almost unimpeded signal transmission, but has no corrosive effects on the silver conductor. A small tank of Argon can be rented in any hobby brewery-supply shop, and after filling the cable I seal both ends with sticky heat shrink. These speaker wires work very well and are not at all overly bright, as many audiophiles claim it to be a silver drawback: great headroom and extension, clear voicing and again taught and yet powerful bass. So, form my own experimental experience I can attest that wires can indeed make a significant difference in the overall musical experience, but I would never spend more than a couple of $100 on them.

 

@reimarc 

Very interesting and smart.

I am sure your ICs sound good, the intressting question is how good? 

Have you compared the performance of your ICs to known brands in the market, or just to the Mogamis?

 

@thyname  @steakster 

Thanks for your kind words. I’ve occasionally found that what we sense as aggression or arrogance is often a cover for uncertainty and sincere confusion or the frustration of inability to communicate more clearly 😉🙏🏻

 

@donavabdear 

So glad you understood what I’ve tried to communicate 👌🏻 - if you’d like to read a little more of my thoughts regarding how to know when a component or room sounds realistic and accurate to any recording we had not experienced the actual sound engineering of, I just made another post in another thread @dean_palmer started on high fidelity - https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/when-are-speakers-considered-hi-fi-and-not-mid-fi?lastpage=true&page=2#2575397