The Science of Cables
An interesting review by Wes Phillips of the Transparent Music Link Reference interconnect & Music Wave Reference speaker cable. https://www.stereophile.com/content/transparent-music-link-reference-interconnect-music-wave-referen... |
All I can say is some people get hung up on measurement and are too quick to say don't waste your money because all wire sounds the same...snake oil. I agree with those that say trust your ears...all I really care about (with-in reason) is what I hear.Often, after spending a load on some esoteric tweak, component or cable, you shouldn't trust your ears...because your ears are connected to your brain. And the brain's expectation after such a purchase will provide you with, not what you hear, but what you want to hear. |
A Semiotician, Roland Barthes characterized the distinction between listening and hearing."Hearing is a physiological phenomenon; listening is a psychological act." We are always hearing, most of the time subconsciously. Listening is done by choice. It is the interpretative action taken by someone in order to understand and potentially make meaning of something they hear. Along with speaking, reading, and writing, listening is one of the "four skills" of language learning A distinction is often made between "intensive listening", in which learners attempt to listen with maximum accuracy to a relatively brief sequence of speech, and "extensive listening", in which learners listen to lengthy passages for general comprehension. While intensive listening may be more effective in terms of developing specific aspects of listening ability, extensive listening is more effective in building fluency and maintaining learner motivation. At issue is how to decide what a cable, or any other component for that matter, brings to the table. Science, and the instrumentation it uses, can do a passable job describing the hearing end of things, but when it comes to the more critical end of things, listening, it hits a bit of a brick wall because listening involves the brain, and the understanding of the brain is still a bit of mystery. And then there is the problem of folding motivation into the mix because the brain has an extraordinary ability to actively edit auditory input. |
