Which cables go with what?????


I never fails to amaze me, the questions people ask on this forum, always trying to find some synergy between cables and their components/speakers.

The fact is: there are two classes of cables:
1) Those that are neutral
2) Those that impose a sonic signature (tone controls of a sort)

If the average audiophile spent his time trying to weed-out the tone control cables and get some neutral cables, then all that would be left is to determine the right synergy between his or her components. This may mean elimination of an offensive component, as painful as that sounds.

Component synergy is real. Amps and speaker combinations definitely need to be selected carefully. In some cases also preamp-amp synergies are important. If you are using tubes, then there are even more compatibility issues. But cables, forget it. If you are trying to compensate for a poor component or speaker design by using tone control cables, you will probably never be happy and likely compromise the sound of the other components in the process. You will certainly never approach a live or "master-tape" sound. There, that's my editorial. Hopefully some will learn from it.
audioengr
Nrchy, I didn't accuse Audioengr of "pushing his own cables". I'm just questioning whether it's appropriate for a manufacturer (and most of us know about Audioengr's products) to start such a thread. Self-promotion can take more or less subtle forms and Audioengr could easily change his username.
Sean:

I don’t think you are stuck in the Stone Age; in fact you are one of the few people in this forum who understands how far off the mark audio is. Many years ago an audio engineer friend told me, “You must remember audio is approximately 20% music and 80% distortion”. Presently things have improved but we still have a long way to go.
The “blow hole” effect you mentioned in reference to ported speakers is directly related to the problem I keep referring to: power cords. We have been in business for over six years so why am I now posting on this forum? Why do I not talk about our other products? Why do I keep repeating the same issue? Could it be the answer has nothing to do with business? Could it be this product is so revolutionary that all by it self it could change the entire audio situation? If this is fact than how do you convey such advancement to the public? Well you are certainly not going to do it in an arena that is constantly serving up Pablum. Now don’t get me wrong Pablum is a good thing, but the threads in this forum are drowning in it. I really feel for the Audiogon people that stare at that stuff day after day. We think the only way to promote a product this advanced is through direct experience and this is what we have done. One guy hears a demo, contacts a friend and so it goes. Now, what is the relationship between the speaker and the system’s power cords? There are various electromagnetic disruptions that take place all the time within the cord’s structure; these create all forms of distortions which are passed into the system’s circuits. The music is then superimposed over it and sent to the speaker. The effect of this causes the bandwidth to become “clamped” or compressed, limiting frequency, dynamics, resolution etc. The solution we have found establishes a relationship through tuning the mechanical resonance of the cord in reference to the propagation of its field. I know the E.E. manuals claim that no such relationship exists but this is why, until now, no one has been able to solve the problem. How do we know the effectiveness of this tuning? Because it is done while a signal is being sent through the system and the effect is clearly audible. If you believe this to be either fact or fancy, the performance level of the product still remains the same.
Okay Corona, supposing that it were somehow possible to eliminate the modulating effect of vibrational motion on the fields carried on a/c cords (and I'm assuming you're talking about mechanical and not electrical resonance), what percentage of that 80% distortion through the entire record/playback chain do you think is going to be reduced?

Resonance is present at every point in a playback system. If you reduce it in the power cord, where the a/c signal after passing through a transformer, admittedly becomes the base of the audio signal, then how do prevent resonance from being reintroduced in signal cables, within the electronic components including their wiring, and most of all within the speaker environment?
Corona: So, now you are trying to say that "proper" power cords could correct / reverse the physics involved with speaker design ? That is the only way for me to take what you are saying... Sean
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PS... I think that ports with flares on the entrance and exit ( aka "aeroports" ) alleviate much of the problems associated with this type of design. The high impedance peak / poorer transient response / increased ringing / lack of power transfer that is directly related to the electro-mechanical resonances of such an alignment are still something that plague such designs. This is obviously taking this thread WAY off track though....
Audioengr, ALL cables have a sonic signature, just as ALL electronic components have a sonic signature. It's simply a matter of choosing a collection of components that, to YOUR ears, do least damage to the music. I'm all for applying sound scientific principles to cable design but, in its present state, science can only tell us so much, hence the diversity of equally valid approaches. The list of 'respectable' cable manufacturers you posted is completely arbitrary and FAR from complete.