Dispelling audio myths, the cable lie

[deacongreg]

Then Jerry, that sounds pretty risky to me. Once you make your investment, you want to know that your cables and whatever other accessories you have, are okay.

[JerryDelColliano]

Its high risk - high reward.

If you are good with the old iron - then you could make some REALLY nice cables on the cheap. If not - buy something professionally made and tested.

j

[deacongreg]

Makes good sense.

[wes]

Originally Posted by JerryDelColliano

My concern with these DIY type deals is that you don't always get a clean connection and with top performing cables like the Transparent stuff I use - you know its tested and up to spec.

These are not DIY cables, I ordered mine custom made from Markertek.com the largest distributor for Canare cables and suppliers to the broadcast industry.

For example I ordered Balanced Audio Cable Canare L-4E6S Star-Quad with very high end Neutrik NC3FXX-EMC EMI Protected connectors XLR Silver/Goldfor $25!

These are tested and done professionally!!

[rex]

From: http://www.audioholics.com/education...-cable-science

The controversy surrounding the claim to audible improvements due to cabling are widely known and the effects of wire are generally reported as insignificant by many sources outside of subjectivist audiophile circles. Numerous engineering experts in various fields of electrical, audio, and loudspeaker engineering have also stated this opinion. Such experts include Dr. Howard Johnson of Signal Consulting Inc., John Dunlavy most recently of Dunlay Audio Labs, and Roger Russell formerly Director of Acoustic Research for McIntosh Laboratory. Each of these gentlemen has spoken out against exaggerated claims of cable effects on audio reproduction in various venues; Mr. Russell, the man behind the McIntosh Loudspeaker Division from its inception in 1967 until 1992, goes as far as actively criticize exotic cable performance claims on the web site he maintains.

Several important questions must be answered when evaluating marketing claims for scientific validity about the effects of cable design on audio performance:

What established scientific knowledge supports the purported design issues?
How is established science applied to provide an engineering solution to these issues?
Do these issues produce significant audible effects that warrant design effort and cost?

We will take an extensive look into just these questions.

I will start by referring readers to Audioholics’ extensive library of documentation debunking nonsense cable design based on published research, mathematical calculations, and well known engineering principles that are supported with opinions from academics, practitioners, and other cable manufacturers who do not push over priced, high profit margin exotic cables. Several overview articles are linked here and many others are linked with specific topics:

Audioholics: Top Ten Signs an Audio Cable Vendor is selling you Snake Oil
Audioholics: The Truth About Interconnects and Cables
Audioholics: Audio Cables Science or Religion?
Audioholics: Calculating Cable Inductance of Zip Cord
Audioholics: Interview with Dr Howard Johnson about Skin Effect

We will find that every topic claimed important to cable design has been debunked as nonexistent, inaudible, or insignificant at audio frequencies. Coupled with the fact that exotic cable designs are not used by the professional broadcast and recording studios that produce the recordings in the first place, this non-issue of cables is further diminished in significance.

[bgreinke]

I agree with some of the posts above, good cables can make a noticeable difference. As support, I'd like add an analogy. I work for a chemical company which operates, among other things, a flavors and fragrances business. Talking with one of our chemists who has visited that site, he told me that the plant has a purfumist on staff for final quality checks. The reason...the product has to smell right (not better or worse, the same). They don't rely on measurements of how much of chemical x and how much of chemical y are in the final product (though I'm sure they do measure these things) as the final say on whether the product is on spec. No, they have someone subjectively smell the product and make sure it smells the same as it always has.

The same principle applies to cables. You can take all the measurements of resistance and capacitance that you want, but in the end, they're numbers only. If you have two cables with all the same numbers and they sound different, well, something about the cables is different; possibly something neither manufacturer is aware of but that one manufacturing process does better than the other. Bottom line, I think there are simply too many variables that can impact the precision of a transmitted electrical signal (I'm talking interference from other E&M fields, different crystalline atomic structures of shielding as a result of different production methods, etc) that to say that because a few measurements match two cables must therefore be equal is naive. Just my 2 cents.

Braden