a great take on big$ cables

mr russell doesn't say that all interconnects and speaker wire sound the same. he merely points out that there is very little difference between them. this is the point where i say "the audiophile is better off with tone controls on a preamp than exotic cables", and everyone comes out with both guns a-blazin. if there IS a cable company out there, who can change 'copper'and 'silver' into something other than 'copper'and 'silver', i would hope they would be using that knowledge for some greater purpose than practicing alchemy. 'faith' is the 'biggest' difference in wire upgrades.

According to the article there’s been $15,000 challenges that haven’t been taken by these experts. The dumbing-down of audio. Read one unnamed magazine’s recent attempt (not Stereo Review)at describing why they won’t do double blind testing a few months ago– it’s hilarious, and total and complete nonsense.

There's plenty of these experts here, stand by for the typical obfuscation regarding why you can’t and don't want to do blind testing. Even better are the power cord (or chord as some insist on calling them) claims. Some cords are apparently "soundstage champs" - Okey doke, sure. Let’s see a statistically repetitive go at that one.

A fool and his money are easily parted.

If you trust DBT, then let me suggest a simple test to make anyone laugh. Borrow a $99 boombox with a CD player and play it through your main speakers instead of the little plastic pieces that come with it.
Play it and your main system with the levels equalized and make sure the little thing is not clipping, please... I bet you won't be able to identify which is which in a controlled DBT!
Does that mean you should sell your main rig and replace it with a cheap boombox?! Heck no!
You know better and so does Mr. Russel, who still urges you to buy his high-$$$ Mac gear (nothing special to my ears).
Go ahead -try this "test"... You're guaranteed to have fun, that's the only thing I can say...
Do you want a scientific reason for the failure of DBT? There is a mountain high of research paper on the short term memory of humans. Our sound memory is pathetically short, like 5-10 seconds. We are limited physiologically, but let's hope our brain can identify our mental weaknesses and compensate for them. Otherwise, music may only mean tones or sound pressure. Those will make sense as battle bugles, but where is the emotional content?
How does Mr. Russel explain that?
It's easy to show what research has shown again and again but then he does not bother to explain the rest of the dillema. If that was the end of the story, we would be maybe talking, but singing? Playing music? What's that good for?
Listen long term. That is the only way to assess your emotional satisfaction. We can't have extreme pleasure turned on and off under test conditions. Our brain is too dumb for that...
But it does know averaging... It does remember when the music comes out more realistic and more engaging. If you don't trust your own ears and brain, might as well read the music off the printed paper. It's the same content, isn't it? Oh, I love that C-sharp!!!

I don't know whether there's any audiophile-type difference in cables, or not. With age and because of inevitable hearing loss, I am noticing I prefer brighter cables with added resolution, also...brighter speakers to emphasize the high frequencies.

'faith' is the 'biggest' difference in wire upgrades.

Try making that argument fly with my wife. Claims to hear significant differences between cables and cords. What a fool, huh?