The Science of Cables


It seems to me that there is too little scientific, objective evidence for why cables sound the way they do. When I see discussions on cables, physical attributes are discussed; things like shielding, gauge, material, geometry, etc. and rarely are things like resistance, impedance, inductance, capacitance, etc. Why is this? Why aren’t cables discussed in terms of physical measurements very often?

Seems to me like that would increase the customer base. I know several “objectivist” that won’t accept any of your claims unless you have measurements and blind tests. If there were measurements that correlated to what you hear, I think more people would be interested in cables. 

I know cables are often system dependent but there are still many generalizations that can be made.
128x128mkgus
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Oh, no @elizabeth is losing all audiophile cred.

If things are too bright or too dull, you need a whole new speaker and amp combination. That’s how you do it. << giggle >>

She’s right. This is why I push people to

  • Invest in good room acoustics
  • Use tone controls,
  • DIY your own speakers so you can get a feel for how you can alter the sound directly,
The use of cables to make basic changes in frequency response is the most expensive and least effective method we use.
Even though not all tone controls are created equal, the audiophile purists is really a financial masochist.

Best,
E


erik,

I sometimes use my old Eico HF-81 integrated tube amp and I quite enjoy using the tone controls.  I don't go adjusting them for every recording of course as that level of fiddling would for me suck the joy out of music listening.   But it's nice to have them to tweak the sound a bit.

Of course, agreed about your thoughts on cables.

As I've mentioned often on the subject:  I have auditioned many of the latest, greatest speakers in the under 20K range, all of them hooked up via highly lauded audiophile interconnects, speaker cables, attached to sources with high end AC cabling...all of that.  And yet I find I get essentially just as stellar sound quality at home, with all the detail and naturalness, and a "shock guests" quality of realism.  How in the world could this be possible using bog-standard cables so dismissed by the cable-elitists?

As you say: paying attention to the things that matter most; good speakers, careful speaker positioning, good room acoustics, etc.I find it much more rewarding, not to mention financially satisfying, than spending thousands of dollars trying to find wires to act as tone controls.
Except for the fact that you contradict yourself by consciously choosing specific cables for the given system in hand ---to act as tone controls. You made a conscious sonic choice.

Those cables in that given simple system. that was a conscious sound aspect choice.

You made a choice of order of operations. Although it is one I would use first.... and those that chose more expensive cables.... have also made choices in the same order of operations. (what is important to pursue first)

Except being that they are now at the point where they look at various cables to deal with even more nuances within the issues -- than you are.

You go on ad nauseam on the same line like a big armed crab with exactly one hammer with one blow available. Repetition of your take and line, in no way makes you correct in the face of the overall minimum of many hundreds of thousands who disagree with you..

(Eg, that audioquest cables sales alone over the past 30 years exceeds that number by far, never mind the rest over the past 30 years)


@cleeds 
No, I'm not saying that Nordost cause clipping.

Clipping has a distinct sonic signature and one does not need to compare amps to determine it is happening.

Interwoven vs parallel cables also have distinct sonic signatures. I would have been shocked if the Nordost had sounded like interwoven, with which I am well familiar and prefer.