Comparing Speaker Cables


I have accumulated several pairs of speaker cables that I have never tried to do careful A/B comparisons of because the time it takes to swap them is longer than my audio memory. But my speakers are bi-wired and it occurred to me that I could hook two different cables up and then only swap them at the amp which would be much faster. Is there any sonic downside to having a pair of unconnected cables hanging off one of the sets of inputs while the second set is connected to the amp?

pinwa

Showing 1 response by xcool

I agree with @carlsbad in suggesting listening for a longer period of time than doing only quick A/B testing.

I find cable testing is extremely hard (or comparing any 2 components for that matter), especially when both cables are equally good but different in many ways.  A/B testing sometimes gives you obvious results very quickly, but when comparing 2 equally good cables with different attributes that you like, it does take longer listening sessions to sort it out.   I usually let the cables run continuously with music that I like and just listen casually.  Once in a while, something will catch my attention and I would take note of that.   This approach allows me to feel the musically of the cable and determines which cable draws my attention more and makes me want to listen more.

I'm actually going thru some listening tests myself for different interconnects.  Anyway, good luck with your testing.