A fresh approach to cable analysis

@bruce19 

So Seymour I asked Claude AI to provide the links to the tests you have been asking for. It was easy, you could have done this too if you were really interested.

I do not go on treasure hunts for other people's claims.  The person that makes the claim needs to provide the links.

For test #1:

Flawed.  Having some box do automatic switching is introducing that box's cables, distortions, and coloration.

Also, using Monster Cable as the quality cable is flawed.

#2:

Monster cable.

I will read up on each of the links that you provided.  For now, I only read your comment.  I want to verify if each test was done properly.  That will take some time for me to go though each one that you listed.  But I will go through them.

Thank you for the listing.

By the way, using an AI service for such information entails risk.  AI engines hallucinate.  There are several cases where AI services fabricated case law that was presented in court.  The lawyers involved had their backsides handed to them by the judge.

I hope that the items you listed are real.  In any event, I will go through them.

Thanks, again, for the list.

@total111 

If expensive cables produce identifiable, reliable, repeatable audible improvements, why hasn’t the cable industry funded and publicized proper independent testing?

That is the second time that you deceptively used "expensive".

I own a 2003 Nissan Sentra.  Buy it from me for $80,000.  That price makes it reliable and quality.  Why?  Because it is expensive.

A clean, well-run, preregistered blind test showing that trained listeners could reliably distinguish a high-end cable from a competent ordinary cable would be marketing gold.

Again with the deception.  This time, claiming that trained listeners need to take the test.  That sends the message that dog ears are needed.  That is dishonest.  Someone who is deaf in one ear, and never owned a stereo, could easily hear the difference between mass produced cables and quality, high-end cables, on a revealing stereo.

It would be cited endlessly. It would appear in ads, white papers, dealer literature, show demos, interviews, and manufacturer websites.

The world is not obsessed with cables.  My sister-in-law owns a modest stereo (she would own nothing, if not for my brother).  If I told her I could wire up her stereo with Shunyata Research's Omega-X cables, for a total cost of $50, she would laugh at me.

That absence strikes me as meaningful.

As does your absence of listening for yourself.

I have never driven a Ford Taurus, but I insist that it is just as good as any other car on the road.  People that spend $1,000,000 on a car are nuts, when the Ford Taurus is just as good.  I know that without having ever driven a Ford Taurus.

@total111 That is what you are doing with your cable pronouncements, on cables you never experienced.

Cables are easy to ship, easy to demonstrate, easy to describe in poetic language, easy to swap, easy to photograph.

You have never seen the shipping involved with high-end cables.

You have never seen the difficulty in swapping cables, especially with high-end cables that are not too flexible.

Are you going to pay hundreds of dollars for postal insurance on such cables?

Are you prepared to fight with the postal service when they refuse to honor your lost shipment, because they have someone clueless, like you reviewing the claim, thinking "$5,000 for a cable?  That's ridiculous".  And multiply that by the cost of outfitting any entire stereo.

I think that makes the absence of decisive testing even more interesting.

You are taking an opposing position to @bruce19's list of decisive testing.

And you go one and on with excuses to not do your own listening test.  Once you do so, then you can come back and answer your own questions and your own logic and your own assertions as to why it was all wrong.  You can tell us why the industry is what it is, after your own ears hear the difference that quality cables make in a revealing system.

But you will refuse to do a listening test, because then you have no excuse to keep spreading propaganda.  You would lose your source of crack (in a manner of speaking).

And the most important test of all, listening for yourself, is your Kryptonite.  You insist on every test under the sun, except testing your own ears.

Remind us of you being open-minded and offering a concession:

I want to offer something that may surprise some people in this thread: a genuine concession.

You tried to hide your cable denying stance, and tried to play yourself as being reasonable and measured.  It was all an act.  It was all deception.

Do a listening test.  Stop refusing.

@total111 

Otherwise any unsubstantiated claim becomes insulated by apathy. A person could claim that a fuse, cable riser, demagnetizer, stone, sticker, or magic dot improves sound, and then say: “Well, the burden is on skeptics because they are the ones who want proof.” That can't be right. The claim does not become evidentially neutral just because the claimant does not care to prove it.

No one needs to take anyone else's word on an claims.

That is why I have repeatedly written to listen for yourself.  You refuse to do so, and then post excuses for not doing so.  And you do not present your excuses directly.  Instead, you give a sermon on who should prove what to whom.

That is all smoke because you refuse to listen for yourself.

Listening is free.  And you refuse to do so.

When I purchased my stereo, I took no one's word on anything.  I took advice on manufacturers and stores.  But I had to hear it for myself.  So I spent days traveling through the tri-state area, visiting dozens of stores.  And when I made my purchase, it was 100% based on my ears.  0% based on anything anyone told me.

And when my stereo was delivered and set-up by the store's personnel, including the store's owner, I heard lesser quality than what was in his store, for the exact same equipment (or so I thought).

I discovered that he gave me mass produced cables.  Once I swapped them out with quality Quicksilver cables, I heard what I heard in the store.

So cables matter, and what people tell me will not influence my purchasing decisions.

@total111 Why are you refusing to listen for yourself?

It would prove that like many audio products, cables costing five figures included, that could not be made of parts to justify the price; they could only cost less than $100 to manufacture. They rely on psychology to sell. They are marketed with pseudo-science that does not calculate when subjected to graduate school level physics. For instance, speaker cables that use litz construction to correct skin effect resistance could only be on the order of one hundredth of a decibel difference at 20 kHz.

@seymour-krelborn Since you keep asking — happy to answer.

I came as a young kid to audio through my uncle, who had Maggies and Mogami cables, a Denon turntable with a $500 cartridge which was exessive money in the late 70s, early 80s. We both are gearheads but we love music. And its all about music in this case. As a teenager I listened through a Fisher valve amp with Wharfedales, then a Marantz receiver with Bose. In my twenties I assembled my first serious, but modest system around Epos speakers and a Creek amp — and that’s when I started attending exhibitions regularly. My last was Dallas Audiofest, where I heard a great deal — nothing I would buy, but good to calibrate my ears. I am also regularly going to the Dallas Symphonie and love any live music, again to calibrate my ears what real music really sounds like. I’m 55 now, so this isn’t a short story.

In my thirties I bought my first genuinely high-end system — built around a single full-range speaker driven by a 2×18W solid state amp. Exotic, fast, and very revealing — and deliberately not the boomy bass presentation I’ve always avoided. When I looked to replace it about six years ago with a budget around $15k, I listened extensively to DeVore, Fyne, MartinLogan, and Wilson. I walked away deciding I wouldn’t spend even $100 on what I heard – seriously. I am baffled how people can spend money on Wilsons, but that’s the beauty of this hobby, it’s a personal taste, same as music itself. If you’re curious, I’ve described both my current systems somewhere on this forum — one around $25k, one north of $100k. They won’t please everyone; they’re niche. But everyone who hears them comments on the dynamics, resolution, and speed — micro and macro. I love it!

So yes, I have listened for myself — for decades. And that experience is precisely what shaped my skepticism, not the other way around.

What actually shifted my thinking most recently wasn’t a cable swap — it was a simple AIFF vs FLAC test on my own system. Identical. Fast switches under 2sec. That kind of firsthand null result with my own ears on my own system carries more weight to me than any number of sighted impressions. And when I experiment with digital filters in HQPlayer — yes, there are differences, but they’re modest in contrast how stark the measurements are.

And here’s a current real-world data point: I recently got a new audio rack for my big system, which required longer cable runs. While I work on finding the right solution — I’ve been documenting the DIY angle elsewhere in this thread — I’m running 16AWG OFC zip cord at $35 per 100 feet. On a $100k+ system. And honestly? The system plays music so well I could live with it indefinitely. It sings, it dances, it rocks, it vibes.

Some people say "blessed are the stupid, for they don't realize what they're missing." Personally I've always found that a rather condescending saying. But I'll offer my own version: blessed are those who can't hear the difference between cables — their systems sound just as good, and their wallets are considerably happier