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What is it what we hear when we swap cables?

I swapped a lot of cables in my 40 years of audiophile journey to get better sound. Sometimes it was better, sometimes worse. I always wondered what technical attribute contributed to the change off sound. 

These are the things I noticed. Shielding can close the sound. Noise reduction in general leads to blacker backgrounds. Shielding on (digital) cables tilts the sound (to a darker signature) and you gain a bigger and rounder bottom end. Twisting or starquad reduces noise and magnetic pickup, but can sound choked. Ferrites gives a hard top end to the sound. More conductors instead of 1 big one results in more "speed". PVC sounds muddy and slow. Teflon on silver gives a splash sound and takes forever to settle in. Silver dig's up more details, but can sound soft on the leading edges. Cotton gives more sustain. Copper sounds "warmer". Air dielectrics outlines individual elements in a mix better. Connector plating can shift the tonal balance. Tellurium copper reduces RFI and gives blacker backgrounds. Induction from bad cable management can ruin your sound. I could go on for a long time.

Like to hear the descriptions and experiences of others. What have you learned about all the cable swapping in general in your audiophile journey? 

p.s. please skip the "room is more important, buy better equipment first, cables don't matter posts". I like to hear a more personal description of the change in sound.
tantejuut
petg60
1,486 posts
 
Hi,
cabling takes a lot of effort and time to get synergy. Example, two years ago i would reject Acoustic Revive solid core for sounding little warm, today i want to try again the same set believing that it would offer a little extra in effortless presentation, size and detail. Mad world. Two different things and descriptions of the same cables. We learn and it costs.
Do one at a time or maximum 2, let them settle and let gravity work. Cable management, no stretching no bending no overtightening the rca’s, no moving around. Running in time especially for the power ones. Components have the tedency to learn the cable they are connected with (cannot prove it though). Cleaning speaker/amp posts and spades more often than I/O rca’s or xlr’s. Dust them off. No ferrites.
edcyn
1,876 posts
 
Clarity.
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
"Components have the tendency to learn the cable they are connected with" - LOL!
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

roberjerman
”Components have the tendency to learn the cable they are connected with" - LOL!

>>>>>>Don’t laugh. It’s true. They do have a tendency to learn, unlike some people. 😬
tantejuut OP
125 posts
 
Do you mean that, for example, a power cable with a silver plating can make the components in your equipment (trafo, diode, transistors, capacitors) adapt to this sound signature because they have been fed with a silver plated sound, and that you get more of this sound?

Very interesting observation. Thank you, and don't mind the naysayers who don't have anything interesting to share. I surely believe that any component on the grid can influence each other. It happened to me that when I changed my power cable for my tv, the sound of my power amp got better because of reduced noise pickup.  

I have the observation that solid core gives a more defined and detailed sound in general for low level cabling. For power cords solid core needs to be at least 16 awg per wire and combined with multiple runs to get some bottom end. Flexible power cords on the other hand can sound a bit vague like there is some kind of phase distortion happening and transient smearing. 


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