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
I have to say there's nothing more confidence inspiring than lack of brevity.
Kudos to ErikSquires for his comment re “a verbose knitting together of irrelevant subject matter”. British refer to what Erik commented on as “blather”. I much prefer Erik’s description. FWIW; I think Bruce Brisson of MIT Cables and George Cardas are repositories of the knowledge needed to build cables :)
@elizabeth.. Like your ref to Foghorn Leghorn. But I don’t think “old bo” will get it :)
We only work for our clients and we listen to what they want. Instead of selling boxes they don’t want and need. Only those who envy us will always attack us without any kind of foundation. The only thing they can say; are just assumptions. You all may judge; just hear it for yourself and then you judge.

I got a lot of different questions each week of many different people. When people ask me things about products I don’t know, I will never tell them lies. You cannot know everything, just tell the truth. I am going to tell you a story about how easy it is to be wrong about the fact that you thought you were right.

I have a friend who is responsible for some brands you all know. And he reads a lot of user reviews. Sometimes he sends some to me as well. Even from Audioquest Europe, I get user reviews sometimes.

So the question is: What is the real truth?

We also do picture screens (we sell Oled screens by far the most) and vision by Tru-Fi. This means we judge and adjust all picture screens by all the aspects of vision. And again we just do it by facts. Vision is a lot more complex than sound. Most aspects of vision humans cannot even adjust themselves. This is why we use the most advanced calibration software in the world.

Like audio manufacturers make choices. They use cheap parts which we replace by superior ones. This brings it to a new standard in quality. Limited human beings can only sell a screen out of a box.

We have sold all Audioquest HDMI cables a lot since 2010. Due to research and testing, we know the differences between all of them. This makes it for us a lot more easy to explain all differences between these cables to our clients. But more important which one to advise and use.

In the last years, we saw and noticed during calibration of screens that many surround receivers use rather cheap video scalers. This makes the end result for us unacceptable. We cannot reach the level which we see as standard and what we demand.

Both my friend and AudioQuest Europe did send me users reviews of AudioQuest HDMI cables. There were different people who called them a scam and snake oil.

So the question is; are they right?

As always I will not write down any brands. Because it is not my responsibility that these brands and products are good products. But to be honest; if I should sell this quality, I would directly stop with my work and look for another job. These products will never make any person happy for a longer period of time.

People wrote in user reviews: that the HDMI cables of AudioQuest do not make any difference compared to cheap ones. So we took a few AudioQuest HDMI cables with us.

These surround receivers are of brands you all know. When we compared different brands and even different AudioQuest HDMI cables we were stunned. It didn’t make sense and they were not able to make a big difference at all. It was the opposite in result compared to all our own tests and findings with the same HDMI cables.

So we understood the thoughts of users regarding the fact that HDMI cables did not make a big difference. They were right but only for a part. Most reviews these days are paid. That makes it very difficult to get an objective idea about any product. People will often believe a review and what people write.

They all pointed out to AudioQuest. The fact is that the most video scalers they use these days are rather cheap. But you will not find this fact in any review. The products we use and sell regarding surround each AudioQuest HDMI cable makes a huge difference in both sound&vision. Even the cheapest one shows better results than most more expensive HDMI cables of other brands.

This proves how easy it is to blame the cables. These days people are looking for cables who fit their components and systems the best way. This is also trail&error level. When you will never be able extract the full DNA (name all different aspects of each individual part in your systems owns and misses) of all parts in your system you do audio by trial&error.

When you use products who are able to reveal all the aspects of sound, cables like AudioQuest will make a much bigger influence on the end result. This is why Tru-Fi owners have a totally different thought and even truth about AudioQuest cables compared to all owners of trial&error created systems. Sound will always prove these facts over and over again.