what do you know"

Cables like capacitors do make a difference....case closed

Capacitors indeed make a difference. Especialy when used in passive crossovers or coupling capacitors.

There is no doubt that the MIT cable improved the sound

MIT cables appear to use many active elements. This is akin to a custom filter. The active components will work in concert with the voice coil and passive crossover in the speaker resulting in a different sound from ordinary wire. There is no doubt that the MIT cable will change the sound - depending on the speakers and your tastes it could be an improvement or not. Of course, MIT claim that the adjustment must necessarily be an improvement and back it up with basic power engineering. Although speakers are mostly designed to be controlled by a voltage source accurately amplifying a source signal.

The MA Oracle even has an adjustment control.

One must be careful not to get into a heated argument with these type cables versus ordinary cables (wires) as MIT are indeed substantially different and may sound better (depending on your tastes and existing system synergy).

Ah, I had such a LONG and juicy retort to SO many here. But I don't have all the time to argue with everyone. ;)

I will say this: Baroque Lover, it's clear your ego got bruised; no doubt you sound so angry and "on the march". I assert that there exist differences between cables. I also assert that humans are lousy at short term auditory recall, hence they are crappy at blind listening tests - as you found out. I have excellent hearing (no "tin ear" for me, please), but would not want to take a double bind test with my favorite cables for that reason.

I keep hearing demands for science behind cables. Fine. Here's an axample from some cables I reviewed/am reviewing - David Salz's Wire World Cables. He has a fairly concise discussion of the science behind the geometry of his cables. He addresses the issue of "inductive loss", which I find logical and efficacious in listening, as I point out in my review on Dagogo.com. See his website:

http://www.wireworldcable.com/

Click on the "Wireworld Technology" link.

Now, if someone wants to protest that his theory is intact, but, "...how can it affect a lousy three feet of wire...after going through the power company's lines, transformers, etc" I would assert that is not a scientific argument but rather overt skepticism. :)

Shadorne, that is nothing, For 8000 usd you get just one knob to alter the sound. On my 1981 made preamp there are three knobs for the same purpose, and on my active loudspeakers additional seven. With 10 knobs, I think, my system is certainly a world-beater as far as tailoring of sound concerned! If I would be a real audiophile I would be all day adjusting the knobs to get the best possible sound.

Yes, I agree with Shadorne's post. My comment in the second post in this thread applies to cables that are designed to simply make a connection, and that have inductance, capacitance, and resistance that are negligible in relation to the impedances of the components at both ends, at the frequencies involved . Cables that are designed to be non-neutral are a different story altogether.

Regards,
-- Al

David Salz is basically recommending low series resistance and low inductance in speaker cables. This is good advice.
In interconnects you would want low parallel capcitance.

The pitfall with seeking costly incremental percentage improvements in cable properties (for example copper to oxygen free or to silver wire or to special wire geometries) is that one may believe that the percentage improvement will actually translate directly into proportionally large percentage audible improvements. No so. In most cases, wires have such a small effect on the signal that with well designed and matched equipment the differences between one ordinary wire and another will be minute. For sure everything with a different equivalent R, L, and C has got to sound slightly different but the differences are so small as to be what a tin eared person would regard as negligible (no more than mere tenths of a decibel and often much less - unless you get into really strange designs that push the envelope in inductance or capcitance and resulting large phase shifts and attenuation).

Depending on which side of the fence you are on, a possible conclusion is that one might be better served by handing over more money for a better amplifier or a much better speaker (one with a bit more money in driver quality) or room acuostics than investing in incremental improvements in speaker wire.