It isn't wasting money if the stories add value for the customer and they are happy with their purchase. Because of how our hearing works many people hear differences between exotic cables. For some these differences are also present when listening blind (although they won't be able to identify which cable is in use unless the differences are large enough to be above audibility limits). Since they won't be listening blind at home with their hi-fis the value added by the stories remains.
This is an example of a salesman correctly doing the job they are employed to do. Accessories like cables have high margins compared to the main products and so it is the job of the salesman to maximise the amount spent on cables. If the customer is following advice from a salesman with interests directly in conflict with their own then that is the fault of the customer not the salesman. Did he buy the insurance and extended warranties as well? If you don't want exotic cables then tell the salesman and they won't suggest them. If you need cables or other high margin accessories then use that to your advantage by getting them thrown in for free as part of negotiating the total price down.
Although your tests showed measurable differences between cables, as expected, they do not show how the sound is impacted by that. You can measure resistance and capacitance and inductance and build a hypothesis about sound quality around those values. You recognise that cables can impact sound, that is no miracle indeed. But how a specific cable sounds to a person is not quantifiable, it can only be described in language, with the help of listening experience and it can be different, person to person.
Regarding being unfair to recommend new expensive cables, it depends. For a Bose system, yes that is not fair. But for a high end system it makes a difference and is justified (but not always).
If a cable has a audible and measureable sound, it is no cable but a tone controll. You can as well throw such an expensive sound shaping cable in the trash and use a capacitor on the amps input with a simple quality cable. Some goes for resistive cables.
There are even cables around that make some exotic amps oscillate. A decend cable doesn't have such an effect.
If you like the look of a cable and its high price tag, that is fine for you, but don't insist it has a better sound just because you spent more money.
PS if you measure a cable and it shows values a cable shouldn't have, you can precisely say what the effect on the response will be. You have to know the impedance data of the gear you connect. We live in the year 2025 not 1625.
There are even cables around that make some exotic amps oscillate. A decend cable doesn't have such an effect.
If you like the look of a cable and its high price tag, that is fine for you, but don't insist it has a better sound just because you spent more money.
PS if you measure a cable and it shows values a cable shouldn't have, you can precisely say what the effect on the response will be. You have to know the impedance data of the gear you connect. We live in the year 2025 not 1625.
Thanks for your comment 🙂 I don't buy cables by the looks and high price tags and I don't insist it has a better sound if it is more expensive. F.E. I like and use 47Labs OTA solid core copper with teflon isolation cables a lot for interlinks and/or speaker cable and it is not expensive. I did invest in some interlinks and digital cables with a medium pricetag once (for the rest of my life) and they contain a solid silver core with an air diëlectric (co-axial) and proper connectors and I am happy with the way they perform in my system. But I would not buy another set of interlinks, just because some marketing department is succesful in hyping their product. Some do and they keep swapping... whatever float their boats and the audio shops are happy with such customers. Who am I to condemn such behavior.
But you are right that cables are used by many audiophiles as a way of subtly shaping the overall sound (wherever that "shape" comes from) and that is fine with me. You call it a tone control, that is totally fine, you are right. A lot of people do not want to mess with the insides of their gear. Live and let live 😉
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Why not ? If you get the right sound at the end.
I like a lot this german brand, lot of work on cable with some tuning : HMS elektronik
Take a look to the grand finale 😉
I don't have any financial interest but when I see a very good job, I say it.
