A fresh approach to cable analysis

Most reputable cable makers already show what is inside, so there is little advantage to pull them apart unless you suspect there is a conspiracy in the industry to float bogus cables. There are a few questionable brands, but most are reputable. 

I have written a great deal concerning cables and their proper use in my book, The Audiophile Laws. I discuss break in or settling, geometry and length of cables, and some novel configurations that associated with electronics yield superior performance to traditional setups. 

I conducted double blind testing in my room with my components, speakers, and cables. The results were interesting, and I include the outcome in my book. I believe it would be most helpful for those who have questions about the benefit of such comparisons. 

There is only one way to work with cables properly, comparison of them in complete sets. Ad hoc collections of cables are playing at system advancement. There is no directing of a system toward a desired outcome when flipping cables and placing them in mixed sets from different manufacturers. Most hobbyists and many industry members simply work with cables using poor methods. 

Where can you buy affordable shielded power cables? There's a lot of EMI behind my power conditioners, outlets, and near every power cable.

@total111 

there isn’t a single well-controlled double blind test that reliably confirms audible differences between cables.

That is true for pre-amps, tone-arms, cartridges, DACs, transports, tubes, amps, phono-amps, turntables, CDs, vinyl pressings, record clamps, room treatments, 44,100 Hz flac files vs 88,200 Hz flac files, etc.

In every category, there will be equipment that sounds the same (or really close).

How would you do double blind testing on room treatments?

How about two vinyl pressings from the same shelf in a record store?  No two pressings sound exactly the same.  But countless pressings sound so close that only highly revealing stereos and people with good listening skills could notice.  But there are also pressings that sound far different from each other.  So how can there be repeatable tests for any of the above?

You can go to a diner two days in a row, and your burger might taste the same, or might not taste the same.  Who prepared it?  How did they prepare it?

So of course many sets of cables will sound the same -- or nearly the same.  But there are cables that clearly sound better than others -- miles apart, even with reputable brands.

But all of the naysayers are obsessed with cables, because they never heard them sound different.  And that is because they never heard a revealing stereo, and they never had really good cables.  So because the cable deniers never heard a difference, then everyone who has clearly heard differences are wrong?

The people who actually have such quality cables in their revealing stereos are wrong?

People who never used a product should not be insisting that they are correct.  It is an absurd position.  Like never having visited a vacation spot and they know all about it.

That’s the question nobody on the other side seems eager to answer.

Answered.

Don’t weave your hands and insist it’s not necessary in such a contested situation.

Waving hands is an attempt to belittle someone's position.

Blind testing cables is a waste of time.  Either the cables will sound similar, or they will not.  When you install a set that clearly improves your stereo's sound quality, then you know that those cables are better.  Your ears clearly, and unmistakably, confirm it.  So blind testing for cables is a waste of time.

Get a set of Audioquest Wild Blue Yonder cables, and then see if you need blind testing.

The reason for cables being in a contested position is, as I wrote, due to people not conducting proper listening test, and not using a revealing stereo, and perhaps using cables that happen to sound similar.

And I would still like to see the documentation on any double blind testing, because I am confident that it will be full of holes, and with unqualified stereo gear, set-up by unqualified people.

Without knowing who did what, and with what, in blind listening tests, this will go round and round.  And isn't that convenient for cable deniers to not share what was used in the blind testing?

Minimal incentive to pay for expensive cables to dissect then becoming worthless

The above line says it all about how ridiculous is this "fresh idea".

IMO interconnects have ZERO affect on sound quality!

Haven't you already told everyone here this at least one hundred times?

99% of audiophiles fall for the advertising hype

I am not one of those 99%.  Whether I seek a new audio cable, cordless drill or the latest flavor of M&M's, I let the product speak for itself.  If the outcome does not speak for itself, it is dismissed......IMMEDIATELY; I don't let manufacturer marketing influence the  purchase.

In the old days everybody used used Radio Shack gray  Switchcraft cables and nobody complained.

Did they?  And nobody complained about waiting for the ice man, having to hang their clothes outside, dealing with no A/C every weekend when visiting grandma out in the desert every weekend.  Do you want to return to those days?  I certainly do not, anymore than I want to return to my radio shack cables from 1962.

Just a comment on the veracity of the much vaunted double blind tests. It takes at least two days for any cable to settle after I swap it into my system. I am not talking about break in, I am talking just swapping cables. This is pretty consistent in my experience. Performing a/b switching is pretty pointless, cable comparisons happen over days and weeks, not minutes or hours. Double blind tests fail by design.

My experience does not match this at all.  I read all the hype about a new power cable and finally decided to give a pair a try in my system.  Into Soundlab A1 speakers, I could swap power cables instantly without the need to power down/up anything.  The difference was immediate and huge between either the Dream State Dream Catcher or CH Acoustic X20 power cords I use vs. this new arrival power cord pair.  Dynamic contrasts and harmonic structures were severely reduced with the arrival.  This was true throughout my system, but the test at the speakers was the easiest to implement.

I honored the manufacturer's request to leave his cables in for 48 hours, listened two nights 3-4 hours each.  Then dropped the CHA X20 pair back into the speakers.  It was GAME OVER!  The dynamics, harmonics, low resolution all returned instantly.  The CHA cables had been removed, shuffled around the room, and then re-inserted......and needed no re-settling time or burn-in to show their superiority.  And no, it's not synergy.  Oh and this was with 600 hours total burn-in of the arrival by that last week.  If a cable is severely subtractive, no amount of burn-in or settling is going to do anything.

These latest responses confirm one thing clearly: people who believe in cables, believe in cables. Full stop. And honestly, that belief is self-reinforcing — it manifests as a genuinely heightened listening experience and real enjoyment. I’m not here to take that away from anyone. Enjoy every minute of it.
But please don’t conflate a subjective experience with scientific objectivity. They are not the same thing, and insisting otherwise doesn’t make it so. And while we’re at it — let’s drop the “my system is so revealing I can hear everything” angle. That’s not an argument, it’s a credential flex. For what it’s worth, I’m not listening on a clock radio either.