A fresh approach to cable analysis

@cdtd   Many people say silver is harsh unless done right.

Using two silver-laden or silver-plated cables—especially between a digital source and DAC or a DAC and preamplifier—often introduces, or amplifies "digital glare".

Digital glare exacerbates some of the clarity and articulation you may have gained by introducing a silver cable to your chain. But by adding a second silver cable, the consequence ends up overly analytical with harsh sibilants in the high frequencies which is clearly fatiguing to the listener. 

Audiophiles, and the audio industry itself, widely recognize that copper and silver offer subtly distinct sound characteristics; largely due to their specific electrical properties and how they interact with audio frequencies. It's metallurgy, but that is only one part of the cable equation which is more nuanced and detailed than you may think. If you do. Think, that is.

This makes as much sense as inspecting various lasagna’s to determine how they taste and which one you like best. Sure some of the lesser quality ones would be easy to determine, but many may appear to be very similar and yet taste very different. Make sure you don’t smell them as you cut them open, that smell would be subjective, might cause bias, and of course smell could not be related to how it tastes, right? Flat earthers might say all lasagna’s are the same. For the rest of us, why not just taste them, it is easier. After cooking or "break in" of course. 

Secondly, many manufacturers leave no secrets as to how they are made, and with what "ingredients" so why buy then butcher them for no reason? If the construction details makes someone feel better about which cable they buy, great, but all that matters to me is how it sounds in my system, based on my budget. 

https://www.in-akustik.com/air-technology/

https://www.zavfino1877.com/occ-silver-dart

Wireworld

@toddfan I recently opened up a cable I had purchase……When I raised this with the manufacturer,….

Statistics require an ample sample size to determine properties of the population as a whole. Seems you are only using a sample of 1 to make global conclusions

@toddfan ….military, medicine, aerospace (NASA),…

Maybe look at Masterbuilt Cables - designed as a side job by US government superconductor scientists (no it’s not a supercomputer, it’s the knowledge base). Many WBF scientists and engineers intensively debated on their website claims, until one of the superconductor scientists explained what it meant - the discussion was way over my head. I concluded scientists and engineering general knowledge is minimal compared to professionals working directly is a specific field.

I don’t get negatively get caught up in cable price or marketing hype - no control so waste of time in resentment. I don’t look at absolutes either. I look for relative performance aka comparing one brand/model to another.

If many reviews get a certain result, chances are I will also - but nothing is guaranteed AND I may not subjectively like the change. 

@mclinnguy I couldn't have said it any better.

I choose my cables based on color.