Dang it… cables do matter (at least in my system)

@bruce19 

But I can think of EMF as something that cables can add I think microphonic‘s are also possible in some instances too.

Okay, I do see your point, but my point is a cable that picks up emf or rf due to a lack of shielding, or transmits resonances due to a lack of vibration control, results in the purity of the signal being reduced.

Cables matter, unfortunately.  The more resolving your system, the more u can detect subtle differences in cables and other equipment.  I will say the earth looks flat to me until I see a photo of earth from outer space.  Just saying...

I recently picked up a higher-end phono cable

Not “night and day,”

Well, it’s just one cable, of many cables in a system. wait till you upgrade your speaker cables. WOAH!

Do not think of it as "damn it now I have to spend more money". Think of it as "I can upgrade the sound even more!".

For future referrence, if you’re gonna do something like this, let people vote silently. Don’t reveal individual choices until the very end. 

LOL @ the phrase "no one has ever passed ABX testing".

I remember the 1 story AVS/ASR people love to tell. It's my turn to tell the story.

There was an owner of an audio store that could no longer sell audio cables because he grew a conscience. The end. 

What a story. 

@brighamdoc - My experience has been over a much longer period of time - approximately 12 years.

I have developed cables for about 15 years -

• started with the ususal solder better connectors onto quality  cable type of thing
• I then had the opportumity to try KLE Innovatiopns cables
• This was an eye opener because in my emails with KLE, he provided some reasonings as to his own cable design that got me thinking and so the Helix DIY cable was created
  • One thing that blew my mind was that the neutral wire was not the "return path" as sometimes quoted, but simply put - it just connected the neutral sides of the components it was conncted too
    • Since the neutral side of a circuit is at zero volts (or should be) there is no need to have the neutral made from the same quality of wire as the signal wire
    • For a long time I found that a silver plated copper wire for the neutral provided very good performance
    • There was also no need for the heutral wire to be the same length as the signal wire
      • this was a key development because on the DIY Helix cable, the neutral is a coil that wraps around the signal wire
      • this prevents any noise from being induced into the neutral from the signal wire
      • any noise on the neutral wire actually impacts the eprofrmance of the connected components and results in distortion
    • Also, components work better if the neutral is a thicker gauge than the signal wire
  • I also started experimenting with different wire types for the signal wire (e.g. OFC & OCC copper and OCC silver)
    • it was very apparent that silver wire provided the best dynamics and clarity
    • the improvements were very noticeable going from OFC to OCC copper, but the improvements when using silver did not come to light until later (AIR) design changes were implemented
  • The next area of investigation was the insulation properties
    • pvc is perhaps the worst insulation, teflon much better, foamed teflon even better and cotton is perhaps the best
    • what improvements does this make - CLARITY
    • Insulation around a wire acts a bit like a capacitor - it charges up in one cycle of the audio signal and reverses charge in the oppsite cycle. This flip-flopping creates noise within the signal
    • so if I could get rid of the insulation I would have "Air Insulation" which is about the best type of insulation we can hope for on planet earth
    • So I exeprimented by removing the insulation and inserting the bare wire inside a larger teflon tube.
      • The premise being that the wire sould only ever touch the inside of the tube in one very small  place and reduce the amount of charging/discharging distortion that would take place to next to nothing
      • And so the DIY Helix AIR cable came into being 

As each new development was tried and proven, the improvements between each design were noticeable to varying degrees.

However comparing a standard OFC Cable to the final DIY Helix AIR was jaw dropping

So the point of this long winded story was to provide just a few of the elements of good cable design in the hope that people will actually look at the design of a cable before buying some high priced cables that are really not worth it

Take a read of this thread - it explains in more details

• What I have found - Makes a good Cable !

Cables can make or break a system. Even te most entry level system can sound fantastic with good cables - I have a $350 mini system that amazes people

Regards - Steve