audiophile folklore - cables and claims from manufacturers

I personally am a cable guy. 
The difference is in transparency or lack of

cables are actually some of the most Colored things you add to your system.  They are flawed.  These flaws allow cable manufacturers to have numerous ways to “voice” their cables. Then you have brands like iconolast that have literature teaching you about it, then their cables supposedly fix the issue. They have all the numbers that prove their cables are the best. But they’re not. Their cables still fit a category of colored. The other category and best category is absolute transparency. Because iconolast doesn’t fit in this category, you still hear the cable.  But because the cable is “technically correct” it is very bland and far from the resolution other companies achieve.  
Some of the companies that reach transparency category are Zenwave silver, Furutech nanoflux and higher and albedo.  They still have their own sound because a cable can’t be perfect but they’re have a dynamic contrast and lack of constraint that puts them in high end category.  I’ve not tried all the best cables but I’ve tried many. 
I’ve recently tried veritas cables because of a thread where people are preaching them.  I got the aperta se and my buddy got their new flagship. Definitely not anywhere near the level of transparency. They pass current effortlessly, have decent detail but they sound very silvery and their dynamic range is horrible. Too much compression. Allison krauss sounds like a mouse because theres not enough variation in pitch

@bthrb4

Wow, what a wonderful post. We have a very similar way of thinking about cables.

I think the electronics should make the sound, not the cables. but that's just me. @jr1000 

You are free to believe what you want. it's a free country. However, there is some logic to be found in my original post about cables.

The manufacturers have no first hand or even second hand knowledge of your system. 

They claim improvements in x, y, and z. 

There's no way for them to determine what you have. 

So it becomes a big guessing game rather than anything provable. 

the best signal passes the signal through cleanly. 

if someone wants to pay more for very well shielded cables that are immune to wi-fi signals and radio frequencies in the house, especially in an office set up where many other electronics are plugged in, i think that's fine. but when it becomes about owning something just because its expensive and becomes audio jewelry, that's when i think some audiophiles have it backwards.

Just go to Home Depot use awg 12 as your speaker cable ,and just put good connectors on it , same copper wire as on a awg12 on a 20 amp circuit  

then then a awg 18 for interconnects  see how they sound after 100 hours breakin ,

one step above is blue jeans cables not too expensive you can experiment 

and see if it’s good enough , maybe in your system it is good enough when you buy a amplifier it comes with a $10 power cord , ,it works , on a entry level setup it maybe good enough , you decide  .

@audioman58 

I’m not a believer in cable break in. However, cables absolutely can and do make a difference in a system. Thin cheap wire like those found in Hosa/Rean Silver/standard dollar store cables is pure garbage... internally, ultra thin low purity copper mixed with lousy dielectrics and poor shielding. Bad in any environment.

However...

The electrical properties of wire, whether inside audio equipment or interconnects/power cables do not change.

I think we all know who talks about...

Quantum Tunneling process to enhance audio performance by altering the molecular structure of cables and components, improving signal flow and reducing noise.

But the molecular structure was DEFINED when the cable was built in the factory, or when it was custom-built by hand.

For example, 7N copper, PCOCC copper, LC-OFC copper, and even pure silver wire do not change their state like capacitors, resistors, and other passive components inside audio equipment, which are complex machines. 

In addition, there is no documented proof that cable burn in even exists. It is a speculatory reaction rooted in cognitive bias. Hours have past... you’re enjoying your system, and even more now after days, weeks, or even 30 minutes following a cable swap. So of course you will hear a difference. Truth is, the cables didn’t change at the quantum level or the molecular level. Else they wouldn’t have been operable to begin with if to reach their "optimal" state they needed time. You’d be getting partial audio output, not clear and consistent audio output.

Audio dealers and cable manufacturers have you believe in the cable burn in fantasy, so you pass the warranty timeline and can’t return the cables for a refund.

And herein lies another problem... Let’s suppose an audiophile goes on a long vacation. The system is left for a month in the house, nobody is even powering the system on. 

Then upon return, does the audiophile need to spend hundreds of hours burning in the cables again?

The dielectric Teflon or otherwise is what really takes the longest to breakin,

if you go on vacation , the system and cables will take time to stabilize , capacitors charge dac chips especially can take hours to get up to optimum temperature , that has been proven , I have gone to many audio clubs and every optic has been pretty much addressed, even cables, vibration , raising speaker cables off the floor 

to lessen magnetic fields , Everything counts , the amount of resolution you have in your Audio system determine how much little things matter,  yes $$ can matter,

even in room damping isolation ,I have friends that spent over $50k to have their dedicated audio room designed ,and it made a profound improvement even recordings taken before and after  meaning everythung can ge improved on if you have the resources. I don’t have $150 k to spend on just electronics  but I can hear the difference in resolution just by a loudspeakers going from $20k to $50k with ease.