Music is transient in nature. It is not so much a bunch of sine waves layered as it is a multitude of transients crammed together. And cables, as much as any other piece of equipment, can blur the transient nature of music.
There are many ways that this can take place in reality, but I'll use just one as an example.
Even though a kick drum is tuned very low on the frequency spectrum of what we hear, there is a very sharp leading transient spike that is found at the beginning of each smack of the drum head. Cables, and all other components, can very easily mask this spike. This happens as specific distortion mechanisms within a cable design impact the signal. When this leading edge spike is either diminished or completely masked we end up hearing only the harmonic aftermath of the drum strike.
This has the effect of delaying what we hear from the drum very slightly.
Since the kick drum is typically whats sets the pace for the entire piece of music, having it sound delayed in time causes it to be behind the rest of the music. When a drummer is consistently late in his timing they call that "chasing the beat". The real world effect of this is that is causes the music to sound "slower" and more disjointed.
This is the main reason why cables that are known for high frequency clarity are also often known as being "faster". These types of designs convey the transient nature of the music differently than others, many times better.
Can we actually hear this micro second delay caused by the missing transient leading edge? Actually, we absolutely can.
Consider the fact that tests done on Ray Charles showed that the consistency in the timing of his finger snaps were on the order of milliseconds. Given what's known about the physiology of the human body, which is to say the actual physics and biology of snapping your fingers in time, we know that one must be able to "hear" changes in time at least an order of magnitude greater than what we can actually create.
In the end, cables that are most accurate in the time domain are the ones that get the transient nature of the entire musical spectrum correct. They are the ones known as being "fast". They are also the ones that tend to get your foot tapping as well. Cables (and other equipment) known for being "slow" mask much of the transient nature of music, causing it to sound more "smooth" as well as typically less detailed.
There are many ways that this can take place in reality, but I'll use just one as an example.
Even though a kick drum is tuned very low on the frequency spectrum of what we hear, there is a very sharp leading transient spike that is found at the beginning of each smack of the drum head. Cables, and all other components, can very easily mask this spike. This happens as specific distortion mechanisms within a cable design impact the signal. When this leading edge spike is either diminished or completely masked we end up hearing only the harmonic aftermath of the drum strike.
This has the effect of delaying what we hear from the drum very slightly.
Since the kick drum is typically whats sets the pace for the entire piece of music, having it sound delayed in time causes it to be behind the rest of the music. When a drummer is consistently late in his timing they call that "chasing the beat". The real world effect of this is that is causes the music to sound "slower" and more disjointed.
This is the main reason why cables that are known for high frequency clarity are also often known as being "faster". These types of designs convey the transient nature of the music differently than others, many times better.
Can we actually hear this micro second delay caused by the missing transient leading edge? Actually, we absolutely can.
Consider the fact that tests done on Ray Charles showed that the consistency in the timing of his finger snaps were on the order of milliseconds. Given what's known about the physiology of the human body, which is to say the actual physics and biology of snapping your fingers in time, we know that one must be able to "hear" changes in time at least an order of magnitude greater than what we can actually create.
In the end, cables that are most accurate in the time domain are the ones that get the transient nature of the entire musical spectrum correct. They are the ones known as being "fast". They are also the ones that tend to get your foot tapping as well. Cables (and other equipment) known for being "slow" mask much of the transient nature of music, causing it to sound more "smooth" as well as typically less detailed.