A fresh approach to cable analysis

@gs5556 

Something like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5kU5SeaSQs

Missing from that video is a listening test.

Those home-made cables might sound good.  But his opening assertion: "The best cable or wire for audio might be hiding right underneath your nose..."

The best?

And some people eat it up.  He has lots of fancy equipment behind him, so naturally he has to be right.  Right?

Where is his stereo?

Where are the Audioquest Sky interconnects to conduct an actual listening session between his home-made cables an the Sky interconnects.

Nothing wrong with going the "do it yourself" route.  But you will not be getting the results that Shunyata Alpha-X interconnects will give you.

I doubt that you will get the results that my once-owned Quicksilver interconnects gave me.

Watching and being fascinated by the equipment and the testing gear and the hands-on tutorial is compelling -- especially to people that do not have revealing stereos and have never demoed top-tier, quality signal cables.

Without hearing the final product, then what is the point?

The stereo is the lab.  The entire point of better signal cables is to have better sound quality.  And that core purpose is absent from that video.

It is like someone building a car in a video, and he looks competent, and has a fancy garage with all kinds of equipment, and the car looks great.  But he never takes it for a drive.

Would you buy a TV from someone that showed you how to build them yourself, but never showed you it playing a movie?  Never showed you the picture quality?

@total111 

No well-controlled double blind test has ever produced statistically reliable results showing listeners could consistently distinguish between speaker cables of comparable gauge and impedance. Why not? If its SO CLEAR? .... 

The notion that a double blind test is needed is a fallacy.

When you compare two sets of speakers, do you need a double blind test?

For any double blind cable testing sessions that have been performed, I have never seen them list the lab equipment (also known as the stereo).

Reputable reviews, such as from Stereophile and The Absolute Sound, always list every component in the review system.

They also list room treatments.

They also list the specific source content (which digital files and which streaming service and which vinyl pressing, etc).

I have never seen any cable blind testing list the above.  And we do not know who set up the stereo.  How did they chose the speaker's location?  How did they choose the songs?

For the stereo that they used, did the speakers disappear?

A blind listening test is pointless when the stereo is not up to the job; when the stereo is not revealing, and when compressed, sub-par quality songs are played (and that accounts for over 80% of all songs).

If I turned your speakers to face the wrong way, would you need a double blind test to hear the difference?  Well, you do not need a double blind test to hear the difference between mass produced cables and Audioquest WEL Signature cables.

Of course, turning speakers in the wrong direction will be more noticeable than cable changes.  I was illustrating a point.

People that claim that you need double blind testing for cables have never heard a revealing stereo.  That is what is revealing -- their absence of any such experience.

A person deaf in one ear can hear the difference between mass produced cables vs quality, high end cables -- on a revealing stereo -- with proper speaker placement, in a room not full of echoes.

There will be no "I think I hear a difference".  The difference will be stark.  The difference will be immediate.  No supposed fooling ourselves, or imagining that we hear a difference.  It will be akin to a system upgrade (because it is).

Folks that claim that there will not be such a difference, or that you would have to struggle to hear a difference, or that others imagine and hear what they want to her, are revealing their own lack of ever having listened to a revealing stereo.

The double blind, cable listening tests are flawed.  Nothing else explains how something so obvious and so easy to hear is not heard.  Clearly the stereo used was not up to the job, and neither were the people who set up the testing.

I would like to see a breakdown of such a double blind test that lays out everything about the stereo used, and who set it up, and how they chose to do so, and the recordings that they used (and why).  Playing crap recordings on a low-end system is no way to do double blind listening tests.

@seymour-krelborn 

When you compare two sets of speakers, do you need a double blind test?

Excellent point. Did every cable denier perform their supposed required double-blind test when they upgraded their speakers? I am going to go out on a limb and guess no, they simply gushed over the reviews and fancy marketing fluff and hype, or just bought them because they look fancier. Or could it be possible they found the difference was so blatantly obvious such a test would be unnecessary? Hypocrites.

@seymour-krelborn 

Missing from that video is a listening test. Those home-made cables might sound good.  But his opening assertion: "The best cable or wire for audio might be hiding right underneath your nose..."

I think he gives us his opinion in the title of the video. He also presents a lot more in the form of a logical argument, telling us how this wire is able to take a very weak video signal and shield it from outside interference over very long distances. A listening test would simply be more of this one man’s opinion. Just as the bulk of your message is one man’s opinion.

My opinion is that I have listened to some extremely good and expensive 100k type systems and thoroughly enjoyed the music. Then I have returned home and listened to a much more modest system and thoroughly enjoyed the music. I have also purchased moderately expensive cables, such as mid-level audio quest and DH labs stuff and compared it with no name, lamp cord and Amazon‘s best types of cables and noticed differences so small that they made me doubt my judgment as to whether they were doing anything at all. In the end, I have opted for solid pro level type brands, such as cannare and Belken And feel they do not get in the way of my enjoyment of the music. I am always open to being convinced that I was in error if someone can present a strong, rational argument, and or some associated data. But when it comes down to opinions, one person‘s opinion is simply just that.

@bruce19 

I have also purchased moderately expensive cables, such as mid-level audio quest and DH labs stuff and compared it with no name, lamp cord and Amazon‘s best types of cables and noticed differences so small that they made me doubt my judgment as to whether they were doing anything at all.

Expensive does not always mean quality or a good match for your gear.

My local high-end store owner handed me a box with a half-dozen cables, all from reputable cable companies.  All were expensive to wire up an entire system of separates.  They were complete sets (enough to wire up my entire stereo with each brand -- so lots of cables in that box).  I tried them all, and returned them all.  They either did so little that I had to strain to hear it, and a couple of them made the sound worse.

At the time, I did not know one brand from another.  To me, it was just a box of cables.

The store’s owner then handed me one more set of cables to try.  And those were the ones that I purchased.

I asked him why he did not include them in the first box.  He said that they were more expensive than the others.  But when I demoed them, I neither knew the brand nor the price.  I just heard what I heard, and made a purchase.  They were expensive, but I did not know that when I fell in love with them.

The first round of cables that he lent me were all copper (if I remember correctly).  The ones that I purchased were silver.  That is what drove up the cost.