The truth about interconnects - can you handle it?

Oh, one more point. It is critical to know how much of a change in any electrical parameter is required before you can detect a difference in the sound. Of course this will vary from one system to another, and from one pair of ears to the next; but without it you are just pi$$ing into the wind.

It seems that people will deny that wires make a difference for several reasons:
1) They tried them and heard no difference.
2) They will not try it because their "theory" says it won't make a difference.
3) They're open minded, and would like to try, but are scared that they will be ripped off.

To all those in number 3) camp have a look at this thread. You can make interconnects for under $20 that sound fabulous.
http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr.pl?fcabl&1046928936&openflup&1&4#1

Actually, most of people can tell the difference between cables. It just takes more CD and system tweak to make sure what you think better is generally true for most of music and the variation of your system setup. Any component, like source, IC, amp...., should be tested in a natual listening condition in your home and rest of setup, and please give it enough time. "Blind Test" can be dangerous, are you sure those tester have the same taste and ears as yours? Even you do the blind test yourself, are you sure no simple system tweak can reverse your first vote? The only sure way is to play around with it for a while in your daily life.

Bluefin, our audio memory for detailed musical presentation is very short, same as memorising a phone number for 10-20s in order to call someone in our phonebook. Unless yours imediate recall memory is truly exceptional, after 3 mo from listening to a component you'll have just some vague impressions of how the music details were[ are you very sure that the cable you listen 3 mo ago has a slight tighter bass than the one you listed today? Would you be more inclined to detect a difference if you were listening to the same cables half a minute appart?] ...

Obvious,normal listening does not include switching cables like crazy, but we are not talking about normal listening but of some kind of test designed to pick up some differences...

5 minutes is too long! I'll listen to about 25-30s on one cable, than I'll switch to the other one. If the 2nd cdp will start playing 25s after the first, I'll be able to listen to the same slice of music presented through 2 cables, one after on other.

Tired and nervous? Nah, I'll do it when I'll be rested and relaxed. My happines in life is not linked at all with the test's results, I'll do it for fun [ some of my weekends are booring also...] If any audiogoners are around Barnwell, South Carolina, are all invited for a listen-beer on the house!

Cables not broken in? It may be a point. Many vendors do burned them on the cable cooker, someone can also buy used...

Bomarc,the level matching seems like a good point,I did't think about it. OK, maybe we'll not eliminate the placebo, just reduce it a little will be ok...

on other ideea for a test: same CDP, 2 different cables-ICs R/L to my Mg Head OTL tube head amp and than listen through the Sennheiser Hd600, each ear will listen to a different cable!...what do you think?[ does not seem very rigurous, but is very easy to do it!]
cheers.

Dandreescu,

The point is not to remember which cable has tighter bass or high. The point is: do you like the sound/music or not after you listen and tweak for enough time? So you know the best you can get from this cable. Very often, a component impress people at first listening does not keep the excitement long. Especially we don't want to bet our hundreds CD's collection on one or two namely reference CD's. I know many friends regret their purchase realizing later that the particular component is only good for <20% of their CD collections. And actually a so called better high and low componet make 80% of their collection sound worse. It is not uncommon to hear this.
I personally had experience of blaming on wrong components before. Like some cables or CD players were edgy.... and later found the room was the cause. After fixing my room, the edgy cable became better cable. The other example is the bass: after using a better transport, the bass is tighter and reverse my vote on my IC. The other way around, I change my mind on some DAC becasue switching around digital cables.
So, a good component lasts! it responds well for most music and associated gears you throw at it and should last long.
I still remember which CD or LP I enjoy very much tens years later.
Maybe I remember the amp or speaker, but I usually forget which cable I used with them.
Only remember recent cables I have been playing around.
A good cable should not remind you about cables all the time, otherwise there is a bug in your system.

Like man will not know woman on the first date, and definitely should not A/B girl friends in a short time bcz it won't work.
Eventually, we will find it out after marriage after man and woman live together.
Same as music and our gears.

Even some journal put out so call "blind test result", how many of us will trust it? I think many will say "a bunch of lousy listener" to replace "this crappy commercial writer". We still will not have conclusion.