Another Pair of Skeptics Converted

This past weekend I had the pleasure of showing in a straightforward manner two "cable skeptics" who came to hear my system how cables change the sound. In this instance I was unaware that they were so set against the efficacy of cables. During our listening session I simply commented that if they wanted a change to the sound, I would swap a set of interconnects, which took about 1 minute.

I did the swap, and they were amazed. Both started discussing how they would never have believed changing cables could alter the sound. The change was quite evident, and we discussed at length the effect on the sound holistically. I didn't have to prompt them in any of this. I began to educate them that a person can do this with all the cables in a system to tailor the sound.

One of these men spent many years in the studio and both were musicians in bands. One had some hearing damage from playing live music, but still hear the result from switching just one pair of interconnects. They admitted they knew little about home audio and had a lot to learn. They had not heard that many high end systems, yet had formed opinions about cables. They needed a real life demonstration, an education in what's possible, and the result was a changed opinion.

This is a regular occurrence in my room, where people who hold strongly skeptical opinions regarding the ability of cables to alter the sound change their opinion in one day, in one listening session. In fact, the only person who ever remained somewhat skeptical after such a demonstration was a man who admitted he had significant hearing loss due to playing in a rock band for many years. I presume his hearing loss was profound to the point that it was impairing him from enjoying the differences.

I share this in the hopes that if someone has simply formed an opinion about cables and has not attended a demonstration, they would likely find it interesting and perhaps enlightening to do so. Merely being in the orbit of music, sound, pro gear, the studio, etc. does not assure you are correct when it comes to discussion of the efficacy of cables. :)