Stranded vs singal core conductors and skin effect

Trelja, So am I, an engineer, that is and an amateur cook. About tasting, it is easy to get people to think that there is a difference in the taste of different salts and inevitably those people do 'taste' a difference, when, unless the salt has been deliberatly doctored, there is no difference. So careful with analogies.

I have also learned that my ears-mind are also easily fooled and therefore not always reliable for detecting differences even when they are real, nevermind when they aren't real.

I do understand, however, the expression, 'perception is reality' and perhaps that that is what you mean.

Respectfully, Bob P.

Bob, yes, that is what I meant.

But, different salts (or, spices) do taste different in the same way that different cables sound different.

No one really questions subjectivist opinions when it comes to food, wine, wristwatches, clothes, shoes, furniture, etc. When I say I like Coke better than Pepsi, no one has ever really had a big problem with it. I've never had to justify it beyond saying it's that battery acid taste that does it for me, even to those who preferred Pepsi (or RC Cola) - and, even having to say that much is rare. The same acceptance doesn't exist if I say I like high-end audio component A better than component B. Somehow, the latter position MUST be justified empirically. For whatever reason (a lot of which is ego) these matters are such a big deal in audio. Things must be measured; the resulting specs then shoved down people's throats in order to justify or denigrate.

Bud Fried's famous anecdote of the island's clock tower comes to mind in terms of the dangers of depending on specs, and how foolish we are on relying on equipment and their resultant measurements that have not been fully developed at this point in our development as scientists and engineers.

Music is supposed to be fun. Objectifying audio, which is a relatively impossible feat (at least, today) in my opinion, tends to turn things into spitting contests, which for me is the antithesis of fun or what a hobby should be about.

My point, however, Trelja, was that all salt tastes the same, but people do think that they detect different tastes, because someone has convinced them that salt from the sea is different than salt from the inland salt caverns. Theoretically, perhaps, there is a difference, but practically, the level of salinity is so high that one could not taste the difference, if indeed there is one. same with the stranded skin effect on the sound of cables. Yes in theory, but no in practice.

Bob P.

Cables are pure simple physics, no big deal. Thick solid are the optimal solution, but every other configuration also gives a signal, it just ain`t that pure and powerful anylonger.

Skin effect is not an issue for audio freqs = I started out in electronics as a teenager building a Heathkit 101 ham radio, worked as an electronics tech in the US Navy, earned a BSEE after return to civilian life and spent two decades working in the field. Skin effect is a big issue at radio freqs but the effect on low freqs (and audio comprises relatively low freqs) just is not an issue. As with a lot of snake oil, there is always a kernal of truth - the push to sell cables based on ideas like skin effect is a classic in this regard - take some scientific principle and then expand its reach - it is not whether skin effect has affects audio freqs- rather it is the magnitude of the effect that matters. The only thing that really matters as far as speaker wire (assuming that your runs are relatively short (50 ft or less) - is the awg - small awg - big wire - low resistance - less IIR losses. stranded vs solid - the stranded will be more flexible.