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What do you mean by "better" when it comes to cabl

I have read a number of posts here and on other sites regarding cables being good or better or great or whatever. Once you use a pure copper or silver conductor, wrap it in a decent, effective insulator and terminate with quality RCA connectors, then what is it that an audiophile is looking for the cable to do? In other words, how does it become "better". Is it a matter of adding colorations. Or are people suggesting that there is some signal loss over 1 meter which degrades the sound and can be restored through better cable. and how does that restoration occur, or is it simply a matter of reducing loss. Is the cable being used as a tone control? an equalizer? Are we trying to achieve something more than what a preamp or component is putting out in the first place.
I am not in the camp that claims that cables dont make a difference, because I have heard a change in my system with a different cable, but it wasnt something strong enough for me to even articulate the change accurately. It sounded "better" but I dont know how or why. what is it that the better cable is supposed to do?
manitunc

Showing 1 response by jameswei

jameswei
883 posts
 
As the first post stated, "better" is a subjective term.

My feeling is that a cable should not change the signal in any way. With that, the implication is that lesser cable has some impact on the signal and that "better" cable has less impact.

I too have heard differences in cables. Perhaps the differences I hear are due to different changes made to the signal by the different cables, or perhaps the difference is due to one cable having an impact and the other having no impact or less impact.

I don't know the science behind how cables impact the signal. Vaguely, I am aware that very long cabling can cause signal loss. Also, the inductance kind of impedance in a cable can result in high frequency losses. But I am willing to believe there can be a lot more involved. That's where I have to start believing in cable designers' ad claims. Like Cardas with his spiral cable configuration and materials selection, and AudioQuest when they used to make silver conductor cabling. (I know these two sound different.)

What is "better"? If I can hear a difference, I try to figure out which cable has done a better job transmitting without impacting the signal.
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