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

@knownothing @thyname Wow thanks for understanding, honestly I came from physics, engineering, and acoustics in these fields they aren't understanding on audio goals being unverifiable they are antagonistic to it. I had the American rep of a big audio company at my house  yesterday (not name dropping), we hit it off perfectly and I was telling him how I was understanding the immeasurable attributes cables can make in a system because of you guys. He said his company felt the same way all the engineers fought very strongly against psychoacoustic principles so they didn't let in any "magical" effects that real people have in the audiophile world. He told me about a test they did with a CD player being set on 4 different kinds of racks like glass, wood, carbon fiber and such using long cables and everyone could tell the difference, this is a group of engineers that fought against "magical, unquantifiable" ideas, this experiment has a lot to do with changing these German engineers minds. 

I understand the frustration and I have a thick head I always put logic and physical laws above feelings, but it's clear I don't know everything and the magic is why I can't stop listening to music all my life. Thanks and Best!

@cleeds My point about recording an actor making $20M and the amount of money a musician gets paid was not what I was talking about. If you have an actor like Tom Cruse, Anthony Hopkins, Jack Nicholson making $20M there is a boat load of pressure on the entire crew perhaps 150 people to do your job perfectly with no mistakes. Here’s what you have to understand, in an orchestra you set mics as you have for years, violins sound good with this mic at this distance if the trumpets are this far away and so and so. In movies you generally have 2 or 3 actors moving around a set or walking down a hallway through many different lights and with all the noises that the crew and efx people make inevitably. The miking in most cases means that you must remember all the dialogue first of all to get the cues correct then move the microphone based of the projection of the actor and look at his or her body language to guess on how loud they will deliver there lines and move the microphone so there is no shadows on any part of the set that the camera is seeing all the while making the actors sound consistent remembering that you can’t simply mic the actors over their heads you have to give them space considering proximity effect, and listening to the acoustics of that room to mic moving actors closer and farther from the frame line while making them sound the same and all this as you are walking backwards holding a 12 foot boom pole that is so sensitive that you can hear your own heartbeat in it. Orchestras are a walk in the park. Hope that helps.

@donavabdear

I’m convinced by @rodman99999 and his article he pointed me to that cables do make a difference in a measurable way. So you all have convinced me! See I wasn’t a troll after all. Thanks.

​​​​​​​​​​You believe "up till now" based on an article not on experience.

 

I imagine there is a difference between audio engineers and audiophiles when it comes to listening to music.

Audio engineers or audio reviewrs could prefer an amplifier such as the Benchmark AHB2, which is neutral very detailed, but dull and lifeless. It exceeds in accurately playing the source fed into it.

An audiophile prefers musical amplifiers over analytical ones. Many use tubes to induce second harmonics into the music. So for me, if my system could improve on Anthony Hopkins’s voice by introducing some harmonics I would be very happy with that.

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@tjag I agree I like my tube system much better than my professional system that is much more accurate. Again I think the only way you can tell accuracy is to have a system that images razor sharp and reveals mistakes that the mixer didn't hear or he would fix them. Best