What were your own blind cable test results?

Zaikesman, I think using a tape loop is an excellent means of A/B in IC's, far superior than just doing it by aural memory, noted more for fallability than anything else. But, what concerns me is the design/implementation of the tape loop. Are they all neutral, or are they additive themselves. If the latter, how would you break out the differences between the IC under consideration and the additive nature of the tape loop?

Honestly, not to start any further debate, But I have done some A-B testing (Not blind) with some very well known power cords, and speaker cables, and Interconnects, mixed with both brand name and home brews…. Well most of the time it is very difficult to go up against the best interconnects, they seem to be the most benificial when you have a top tier cable against a home brew..

However many times I can come very close or better for the money Via my own Power cables, or Speaker cables. Some are just simply different, and with different systems many of the speakers or components can be slightly better with brand name power cables, or speaker cables.. But in the end the difference of another 400 dollars for that cable over some good home brew does not always justify the cost.. Interconnects are the most effected cable in my opinion in any system however, and the hardest to match with the best sound and best cables.

Now you did it! I barley survived my wife's displeasure with cable testing the last time, now you bring up tape loops and objective methods of testing. This will mean a couple of hours of listening to more music and enjoying a cocktail or two, or three. The sacrifices one makes for this dreaded obsession is some times a heavy burden to carry. But if this will help another poor soul in their search for the holy cables, it's a sacrifice I'm willing to bare. Now if someone can give me a short, big worded, scientific sounding explanation I can tell my wife as to why I'm testing cables again, it would be much appreciated.

I'm aware of Drubin's valid point. But I think this is usually more of a factor with speaker cables (see below). If an interconnect is used in a position where it would see an unusually low ratio between the source and load impedances, then it seems reasonable that testing in a tape loop might not tell everything you need to know. And this would be more relevent the longer the run was. Most systems though don't present that problem, and what an interconnect sounds like inserted in a tape loop should be representative of what it sounds like in its intended location.

Newbee, as far as I can tell from the tape loops I've experimented with, both buffered and unbuffered, there's probably very little to worry about in regard to your question. It is possible to conduct a bypass test in the position an interconnect will be used, without resorting to the tape loop method: you'd need to use as short a run as possible of some constant reference interconect between the two components in question, and then, using a double-female extender plug, manually add and subtract the "extra" runs of the other interconnects under test. (This is also basically the way a speaker cable bypass test must be conducted, but because of the often much lower impedance ratios in that situation, the results might not be as dependable, which is one reason why I don't bother doing bypass tests with speaker cables.)