Yes, cables do make a difference -- regardless of price...

@kirk9 
Thanks for the note, but what I was getting at was the idea that only current moves in any circuit voltages and resistances change but current is the only thing that moves because current (I) is the measure of electrons moving by a specific point in a circuit, a coulomb of electrons is 1 amp. 

I know this isn't an exact analogy but suppose you have constant pressure water source connected to a garden hose then connected to a fire hose then a 2 inch hose then a straw is the fire hose  (the expensive AC cable) going to make any difference in the amount of water coming out the end of the straw, the answer is no the water is limited by the resistance of the hoses in total not the resistance of the fire hose.

I understand AC hits a transformer then rectifiers change the AC into low voltage that works in your equipment, right there is never any music in the AC and this is a very easy circuit to design and it works great if your equipment is of any quality at all you will not need to worry about power. Don't get me wrong I've got probably 30k$ in power for my audio room but for other reasons, I live in Idaho with good power and only a few % distortion on the AC. The arguments with cables are a lot like the arguments with AC power yes, if you have cheep cables any signal will sound different, if you have bad AC it will sound bad because your entire system with be out of the limits the transformer and rectifiers can handle, this is not what the normal audiophile dealing with comparing 1k$ cables and 5k$ power conditioning equipment. 

@jea48 
I had a panasonic 3700 but the one made for portable recording, I got into so much trouble with it because it could never hold sync, the way the time code and the sample rate were derived didn’t work. Back then 35 years ago there were a few different TC rates depending on what you needed to sync to if it was a film camera the Panasonic was useless. A few years later HHB and Fostex came out with DAT recorders that derived their sample rate from internal clocks and not dependent on sample rates. Panasonic recorders were never a standard in the film industry after the 3700. Yes the machine was really bad full of jitter and out of sync signals because it was a flawed machine in any test any scale and in every way.

@markwd

In any case, I have a BSEE and MSEE in information theory and signal processing, as well as PhD work in cognitive science

 

What a coincidence! These guys also have an engineering background.

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Bybee Technologies – Founded by Jack Bybee – Physicist

Bybee’s first commercial products emerged from Cold War-era military-industrial research. The stealthy shadow contest of nuclear submarine detection, location and evasion demanded ever-quieter circuits, lower electronic noise and greater signal-to-noise ratios. Practitioners summed up the problem as: “reducing 1/f noise, from DC to 2000hz”.  

Bybee’s technology involves exotic blends of rare-earth metals or their isotopes to reduce electronic noise in circuits. In the mid-1990s, Bybee’s AC filtering was among the first of its kind to use exotic doped materials instead of transformers or balanced power, which made it a novel concept at the time.

Jack’s science and physicist background gave him the understanding about negative effects of quantum noise. Link here.

 

Purist Audio Design – Founded by Jim Aud – EE & Physicist

From there, I earned my Electronics Engineering degree at Brescia University, and would later study Computer Science for almost two years at Westinghouse. Then I came to South Texas Nuclear, and studied what they’d call today nuclear physics. Link here.

 

Shunyata Research – Founded by Caelin Gabriel – Research Scientist

Caelin Gabriel is a former US military research scientist with a background in research and design of ultra-sensitive data acquisition systems.  These systems were designed to detect extremely low-level signals otherwise obscured by random noise, requiring years of intensive research into the sources and effects of signal and power-line noise interference.  Link here.

 

Silversmith Audio – Founded by Jeffrey Smith – Engineer

CEO/Designer Jeffrey Smith is a Wyoming native and graduate of the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering. He also earned a Master of Science Degree, With Distinction, in Defense and Strategic Studies. Link here.

 

MIT Cables – Founded by Bruce Brisson – awarded 20 USPTO engineering patents.

MIT Cables founder Bruce Brisson began purposely designing audio cables in the 1970’s after encountering the sonic problems inherent in cables typical of the day. Link here.

 

Audioquest – Garth Powell - Sr. Director of Engineering

Formerly with Furman Power for 12 years.

crozbo

 

Thank You for posting a thoughtful perspective on Cabling. Yes! cables and cords do make a difference.

 

Happy Listening!