Speaker wire is it science or psychology

Jostler - I keep asking for science. If you know of some physical laws that say cables of the same size should sound different, apply the laws and show some numbers. I am all ears.

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Dirty pool, Steve, you've changed the question. Go back and read your original post. You asked for evidence that "speaker wires sound different." Now you've added the "same size" qualifier. That makes all the difference, and you know it, you troll.

I am an audioenthusiast and also in the field of medicine. There is a lot bad science out there and as far as I know there are NO Double Blinded, Placebo-Controlled studies comparing different cables. I am certainly not aware of any studies ( I do not mean scientific lab measurements; I mean studies involving a good sample size of listeners/audio enthusiasts). Ultimately what matters in the REAL world is how clables sound to the human ear and not what it's inductance or gauge size is. So If there are any Placebo-Controlled, Double-Blind Studies out there, I would love to know. Having said that, I use Cardas Golden Cross Interconnects. But I once had my wife help me decide on whether the Tara Labs Air 3 sounds different than the Radio Shack Gold Series ICs. She would switch the cables without me seeing or hearing what she was doing (I would go to another room)and then she would play me the same music....We did this over and over for about 1.5 hours, listening to Recent 20-bit CD recordings from Dave Brubeck and the Magnolia Soundtrack(not 20 bit if it matters to you). I would take notes each time I listened. But you know what at the end my notes proved that i liked the Radio Shack brand about 55% of the time and the Tara Labs 45% of the time. I had initially done the A/B comparison between these two cables myself (the worst possible study design: Study size=1 with Investigator Bias=Enormous). During my own A/Bing I had decided that the Tara Labs was FAR superior to the Radio Shack brand until me and my wife decided to make the design better if not ideal. So why did I choose the Cardas?.....It sounded better (whether I wanted it to sound better is another story, I probably did) I was never able to do a comparison between the Taras and the Cardas GC in this Single Blinded fashion....In order to really find out one needs at least a few hundred subjects of different ages from both sexes with different hearing abilities using the same revealing audio set up and then make the study at least a single blind study run by examiners who have no financial stake in the audio or cable industry. No one will fund it!

Interesting you mention the Radio Shack cables. I have tried and used the thicker RS gold series a/v cables (yellow and white rings on the ends instead of red and white) because of a dimmer switch problem and I think they're fine. No frequency anomalies, good three dimensional palpable images. Depth, spread, isolation. No problems. Now, if anything, I have a bias in favor of the underdog, so I dont want the more expensive stuff to sound better. But Im also honest with myself. I actually prefer the Radio Shack cables to some cables, and cannot say for sure that I can detect a difference between the RS cables and, for example, Kimber PBJ. (I love the looks of the PBJ and want to like them more than anything.) In addition to the RS GOld A/V cable, I use Kimber Silver Streak and I think its more open and lets some more detail through, and I also use some $40/pair silver plated copper center coax with locking RCA's made by a local pro gear maker that I like the best. Now I know silver plated copper is not suppose to be good, but Nordost is doing it (didnt know that til later).

As suggested by another thread around here, and the designer of my favorite speakers, I'd rather leave well enough alone and enjoy the music through the equipment I have. I know it isnt state of the art, but its enjoyable. If you aren't unhappy with the wires you have then who cares if they sound different from other wires? If you have no wires at all, buy something inexpensive and dont obsess.