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.
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But when you judge most products in audio, it becomes clear how much they differ from the truth. There is a reason why so less audio brands and products can reveal all the aspects of sound.

Give some examples of these aspects of sound that are missing.
Almost all products are 2-dimensional. In over 20 years of time, I could test so many audio products. Besides the products we sold, I did lend a lot of stuff as well. It took me thousands of hours to extract the DNA of each individual product. In the first years, when I started to work in audio is was busy with it for over 80 hours every single week. I was and I am still addicted to sound and testing

We humans can perceive sound in a 3-dimensional stage. But....when you judge most audio products the stage depth is in almost all situations 0, all voices and instruments stand on the same line till 1 meter of stage depth maximum.

Our Tru-Fi systems can easily create a stage depth of far over 3 meters. And in width, you have the same differences. It let you hear instruments play till 1.5 meters beside the loudspeakers.

When we visited the Munich High-End show there was only one system that could create diversity in height. All other systems played both voices and instruments on the same height. When you visit small shows you will never audition this. Because most audio products and this counts even for most high-end products cannot create diversity in height.

This is an aspect of sound what you hear not that often. But it makes a huge difference in realism and also in emotion. When a system can reveal diversity in height the harmonics become more clear of the recording.

When you judge audio products on the most important aspect/property of sound what is diversity (layering) in sound, it becomes clear how limited most products are in this particular aspect of sound. This is the main reason why most people describe so many systems as dead or without emotion. Most products have what we call; a sound.

Manufacturers focus on/emphasis a certain freq. range. This does not give you the layers (differences in the harmonics) in sound what is needed to get involved with the music. But even on other aspects of sound, most audio systems are rather poor in it.

When you would listen a lot to live acoustic music as I did you get a totally different perspective about audio and realism in sound. For me, it is 100% unacceptable when voices and instruments are out of proportion. But the other limitation is the fact that both voices and instruments are not played in what we call: a 3D image.

When you audition to live music a piano, cello, violin or even a voice. When you close your eyes and you use your fingers to imagine the size, it becomes clear how small it is. When we are at audio shows it becomes clear that most people have no idea how big it should be played. When you hear an instrument live they also own a form within space it is being played.

Most audio systems cannot create it, but those who can make it so much more exciting and thrilling. I am addicted to music since I was 6 years old. For an extreme perfectionist, you want it as real as possible. This is why I spend so much effort to do research. I am improving sound all the time over and over again. This never stops, normal people, cannot even imagine the time and effort I put in it. They would describe it as insane.

For me, it is the most normal thing in life. It is the thing I love the most. That makes it easy to spend thousands of hours on it. When you do this for a living what I do, you have all the time to spend so much time on it. For me, music and sound are very addictive. It never saw it as work or even a hobby. It goes that much further. It is a part of me since I was 6 years old.

I met hundreds of unique people in audio in over 20 years of time. But when I speak about the hours and time In spend on sound&vision, people look at you and think are kidding. It is the truth, I understand that it is difficult to imagine when you go this far into details. When you love music as I do. It makes sense why you go that far. It is inside my head and system. It does not cost a lot of energy, it goes all automatically.

I don’t F. care about the reactions of some people over here. They make me laugh all the time. I always think; they are just little children and they just don’t F. understand what I do. I don’t blame them, and that is fine with me.
Exactly

A small addition.
There is no clear soundstage at a live concert.

What the whole “audio world” is looking for in his house


mkug, then all these people would have nothing to talk about. I'm with you. You pick the cable for the job at hand paying attention to those properties you mentioned. Constructing your own is the best because you have more control over cable length. 

Excuse Me Schmelzerbrend, I was at an OZ Noy, Dave Weckyl consert in a small jazz bar last week and there was a wonderful sound stage. Not every concert is a stadium concert. Every classical concert I ever went to also displayed its sound stage.
schmelzerbrend1 posts

There is no clear soundstage at a live concert.

That depends on the venue, where in the venue the listener sits and - to some extent - the presentation and orchestration of the music itself.  It is hardly a universal truth that there is no soundstage at a live concert.