[Audio Empire]

On Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:15:42 -0700, Kele wrote
(in article ):

On Jun 13, 1:05=A0pm, Audio Empire wrote:
... Interestingly enough, most audio writers actually BELIEVE that
wire makes a
difference, So, of course, when they review a cable, they go on at length
about how much better this cable is than what's in their system now. And,
just as naturally, the cable under test is never worse than what they are
currently using, and just as naturally, they never use a carefully set-up=
DBT
to ascertain whether or not their "observations" are the product of =A0th=
eir
ears or their eyes.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Surprised to hear you say "most audio writers actually BELIEVE that
wire makes a difference". That sounds like you think a wire is a
wire.

And since when is a wire NOT a wire?


I was fortunate to have someone gift me an assortment of his
stereo wire rejects. Looking all phat mesh colorful and sexy, I
swapped out my old days cable and no difference really. Then another
and bam, what! That obviously sounds different; we both looked at
eachother so I knew he heard it too.

No disrespect meant, but anecdotal "evidence" of this type is,
scientifically, speaking, essentially, useless.

This cable was mello, layed
back, and I had the perfect place for it. My center channel speaker
is not like the others; it's bright sounding with a high sensitivity
rating. That mello cable was just what was needed! But there's
more... I tried a Silver (snake brand) cable for video and wow, that
was another eureka momont. I tried a low end Kimber speaker wire swap
and that sounded like crap compared to my M-series; the sound lacked
body like AM radio. So far I'm trippin'; cables do have a sound. Now
for the clincher... My home boy also brought over three power cables
- the insane garden hose variety. I only had one component that
allowed for power cable swapping - my amp. I took off the OEM and put
one of these pythons. Too much base!!! Holy smokes, power cables can
matter just like I read about... whot!? Then another and wow the
sound stage became huge. Then the last one and it reminded me of the
OEM. I put in the OEM and yes the last phat power cable and it were
nearly identical sounding. I opted to retain the huge sound stage
cable in that position. If you mean wire is wire, that may be I don't
know, but the pairing of equipment to certain wire and all the physics
that can be going on does make a very noticeable difference
sometimes. I don't have the most resolving stereo so I presume that
those who do may hear differences even more easily.

Like most humans, Those with a more "resolving stereo" hear what the expect
to hear. Those who want to hear differences will hear them. Those who do NOT
wish to hear differences won't hear them. In a correctly set-up Double-Blind
Test (DBT) NEITHER group will hear any differences because there are none.

I had a little discussion about this with a British fello who had his
own tube amp company. He quickly told me that wire is predictable
(I'm summarizing). He basically said that solid wire will have a high
"slam" factor but rolled off highs, stranded will sound more nuetral,
and silver wire will be highly detailed.

Next time you speak to your British "fello", tell him "Poppycock and
balderdash!" He should understand that!

I could almost visualize
what must be under the sheath of the assorted wires I tried based on
the sound they impart. Now having seen ads in mags with wire innards
shown, there must be combinations of solid, stranded, and even silver
in use. This would complicate the British bloke's simple description,
but I can see how a wire can be "tuned" in this way.

Except that there no way that wire, in the lengths used in home stereo and at
audio frequencies can do ANY of those things. That's just fact, my friend. At
the low frequencies that ecompass the audio bandwidth, true conductors don't
have any characteristics that could in any way change the sound. Now a
"cable" manufacturer can build "cables" with little boxes built into them
with external components (like resistors, inductors, and capacitors) of
sufficient values to actually act as fixed audio filters, but those are
merely fixed "tone controls" that you can't alter. They merely attenuate some
portion of the audio band. But these aren't really conductors, any more. They
will likely sound different from one another. But the amount of resistance,
capacitance, and inductance inherent in any wire, in and of ITSELF, cannot
have enough of these characteristics to affect an audio signal in any audible
way.

I am using the
gifted wires in cetain places of my stereo where their particular
charachter will offset something I don't like.

You are deluding yourself. It's just not possible and a DBT would prove it to
you.

Only because I had a
bunch of different wires on hand to try one right after the next could
I clearly detect all this wire can make a difference buisiness. In
some cases, if I had purchased a wire it may not sound different than
the stock and then I wouldn't be a believer. If I had purchased the
mello wire and inserted it into a system that didn't need mellowing,
it would sound like crap. Frankly, shopping for the right "sounding"
wire in a particular application would be a hit-and-miss nighmare.
You almost need an assortment at the ready to try. I scored wire from
my man who didn't like these wires in his system, yet some of them for
me worked out great. The wires he has look sweet, I mean damn sweet.
But looks and phatness apparently don't always work out to be
necesarily the best choice. Bottom line IMO, cables do sometimes make
a for better or worse difference.

Religions come in all shapes and sizes. This is a technological religion, and
like all religions, it's a myth.

But, if it makes you happy to believe this myth (or any other), be my guest.
It's a free country, as they say.