No, what people say is that the accuracy is in doubt.science is weird thing.
people say, what cant be precisely measured, is just personal opinions,fallacies,prejudices....
how so many firmly believe that electrons,protons.. are made from superstrings or god-knows-what-matter ?
i guess nobody seen them yet
Measurements and experiments are used to minimize that doubt.
Purposed refusal of measurement and experiment makes it opinion, fallacy, prejudice.
I suspect a difference could be heard between different cable with respect to EMI/RFI pickup.
I expect that zip cord would be more susceptible than twisted pair or braided cable of the same gauge.
The induced noise could be feed back to the input via a feedback loop and injected in with the incoming signal.
I experienced AM demodulation with a cheap stereo many years ago that was caused by speaker wire pickup. In that case it was obvious.
At a lower level the pickup could result in differentiation without the injected noise being loud enough to tell what it was.
So there may be something to people being able to discern a difference with different speaker cables.
I expect that zip cord would be more susceptible than twisted pair or braided cable of the same gauge.
The induced noise could be feed back to the input via a feedback loop and injected in with the incoming signal.
I experienced AM demodulation with a cheap stereo many years ago that was caused by speaker wire pickup. In that case it was obvious.
At a lower level the pickup could result in differentiation without the injected noise being loud enough to tell what it was.
So there may be something to people being able to discern a difference with different speaker cables.
I remember moving my speakers around in my old bedroom back in the mid 1980s, the best sounding position I found left me with the wires running straight across the floor where I could trip over them, so I doubled the length with the same thin bell wire type stuff I used previously. I noticed straight away the drop in sound quality. I thought it must be because of the length going from 4 to 8 metres so I tried some thicker stuff, 42 strand type meant for hifi at £1 per meter. The difference was not subtle, an increase in bass weight was the first thing I noticed but it was definitely better all round, way better than even with the shorter bell wire.
I decided then that cables do matter in hifi, I still think that today but I would never pay large sums of money for what is lengths of wire at the end of the day.
I decided then that cables do matter in hifi, I still think that today but I would never pay large sums of money for what is lengths of wire at the end of the day.
Its only futile if the only evidence brought is "I can hear the difference"
Its telling to note that price is the lead consideration (and only metric...) in your description of these cables, while the construction, materials and implementation are completely unmentioned...
I didn't mention which company made the cables, nor have I taken them apart to see how they are made, so I can't describe them easily. MY metric is what works. If Radio Shack worked consistently, I would use it. I am lucky to be in the audio business, so that really well made cables sometimes come my way, and mostly the really well made ones sound pretty good, but not always the same as another well made cable.
Look everybody, I have been comparing cables for the last 1/3 century, it isn't the most important factor, but it is important.
Look everybody, I have been comparing cables for the last 1/3 century, it isn't the most important factor, but it is important.
The way I look at it, everything is potentially a weakness. Including the cables and connectors. So the process of improving a system becomes one of eliminating the 'worst' weakness; it's an iterative process. Once the cables, etc, become 'invisible' - fiddling with them makes no difference - then they can be forgotten about, and you move on to other friable fish, 
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You are in a special position due to your reputation, it is easy for anyone to sample you their cables since the cost is virtually nothing in any case.
Maybe if we called them what they are (WIRES) instead of the more consequential sounding (CABLES) people would maintain some perspective instead of waxing romantic over metallic content, braiding geometry, termination exotica and insulation esoterics. It is instructive that in the more demanding field of multi-gigahertz digital interconnects physics rules while at the mundane speeds of 0.00000002 to 0.000020 gHz magic is required.
I just looked up the FCC ground wave plots for the AM band, and a map of the area showing where the transmitter tower farm is on Buffelo mountain (4.4KM from my house).
According to the graphs, I am seeing about 22mV/M ground wave field strength. No wonder I see RF in everything I look at with a scope.
According to the graphs, I am seeing about 22mV/M ground wave field strength. No wonder I see RF in everything I look at with a scope.
Yes, fish does tend to easily break into small pieces after cooking.fas42 said:
Regarding triboelectric problems in cables, this tends to be a problem in sensitive situations such as with microphones. My guess (to put it no stronger than that) is that the extra stuff put in mike cables to reduce handling noise might cause small amounts of distortion if the same cable was used for line level signals - fortunately short cables driven from low impedance can't affect sound. I also recall SY telling us somewhere that teflon and silver - the audiophile favourites - are particularly bad for triboelectricity.
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