audiophile folklore - cables and claims from manufacturers

@frank009   perhaps you have never heard of Astoria studio, it's David Gilmour's houseboat studio that uses 14 miles of audiophile cables. They also burned the cables in. They did blind listening tests to determine what sounded best.

Cables can make a difference, but good cables should be transparent. It is up to the audiophile to properly design their system so that the desired end sound is achieved before cables are brought into the equation.

Cables that "sound better" do so by correcting an existing imbalance or shortcoming. Cables are passive components that cannot add anything that isn’t there, but they can very well mitigate undesired characteristics. For instance, a speaker cable with the right capacitance and impedance values might tame overly bright tweeters, because it acts as a simple low-pass filter.

But at the end of the day, a person shouldn’t have bought bright speakers if they didn’t like a bright sound.

That very same cable might have a negative effect when used with bass-heavy speakers.

A competent audiophile achieves the desired end sound via thoughtful system building. They do not need to leverage cables as tone controls or after-the-fact sonic crutches.

Wow... So many believers of audio folklore.

Really so the Nordost cables you all are talking about may look nice, but they do not change the sound to "offensive" or bad. Then only after many hours do they burn in and sound normal? 

No way. Something was fundamentally wrong with your system or the recordings were bad and your system is really that transparent, that it "sounds like a recording" rather than like pure music. 

Sadly, I think it’s the first one. That your system is just that bad. How can a cable costing so much money initially make the sound worse, then improve itself later? You are not thinking in reality, but in your own imagination. It is called expectation bias, and it happens when audiophiles spend too much money on a product that shouldn’t cost so much, like cables.

As if the cable has its own consciousness. Even a tree is more real than a cable, a tree is a LIVING thing. 

If there was something WRONG with the cable, it would only be ELECTRICALLY bad, and that would be OBVIOUS and NOT CHANGE overtime.

The laws of nature and the laws of electricity do not permit wire from sounding different, unless it is is damaged or defective. I am not suggesting you use coat-hanger or lamp cord, but use some good quality cables with proper terminations. And if using bare wire, use high purity copper for better long term reliability.

If such were the case and they did make a difference, then for the sake of sound quality every high end audio component you own would buy their wire from Nordost for the best sound quality.

Then do burn in testing for hundreds of hours.

They do not. You are believing half truths and lies. 

They may do a stress test for hours or over a span of days, then measure the amplifier or audio component to make sure it meets spec before being shipped out, but they do not burn in wire. 

Only the cable guys and those profiting from such a practice are the ones to preach. Audiophiles gobble it up like thanksgiving day stuffing.

And anyone who makes you pay for such a service is fooling you. Hilariously so.

Let me ask one of you guys this -- 

When you say cables burn in, are you listening to exactly the same song, at exactly the same volume etc. ? 

Because it means nothing if you're switching between tracks. 

frank009 

The laws of nature and the laws of electricity do not permit wire from sounding different, unless it is is damaged or defective.

What exactly are these "laws" that you reference? Maybe you should get together with that "writer" Doug who created "Laws of HiFi." Perhaps you can get those laws cast in stone for the benefit of those who wish to follow your unshakable faith.

@cleeds 

mister cleeds! 

You again, the ultimate pontificator! 

Read my most recent discussion post. 

You will find a lot of good information in there. The trouble is, if you are not open to accepting new information, you will believe the lies of the past. If you are - then a world of possibilities becomes available. For example, building your system around observable psychoacoustics, applied science, and human hearing. 

No matter how good you may think your system is, is it LIMITED by your BIOLOGY. If you were a dolphin then perhaps what you are using may sound better.