Poll: How many believe cables can sound different? (1 Viewer)

[Jack Briggs]

Guys, debating this issue is perfectly fine. But let's don't let it get personal. Please. Thanks.

 

[Joe Casey]

Chalk one up for the deluded: I can hear differences in I/C's and speaker cable.

 

[RicP]

Quote:

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

[Frank_S]

Well said Ric, These analogies are getting way out of line with the topic of this thread. BTW, my plumbing tastes fine and my cables, well they're spectacular!

 

[Lee Scoggins]

Ric,
Good quote.
Lee

 

[Jim A. Banville]

Can it? What instrument would you propose we use to measure taste?

If copper is putting a taste in the water (just humoring you- as if the copper pipes in your house would add more "taste" than the MILES of pipes leading to your abode already have), the substance causing the taste, or the chemical reaction causing the taste, could both be seen in a chemical analysis of the water before it enters your house against a sample coming out of your tap.
Hey RicP, since copper pipes are such an offender to the palet, perhaps you could make a line of "fresh tasting" high-end plumbing pipes! You could be a multi-millionaire!
Oh well. I'm off to get a glass of copper... I mean water.
If it weren't so late, I might even go listen to some interconnects...I mean music
"I have a dream..." that one day the cable-believers will quit the talking and get to proving their claims in a controlled blind test
Can you believe I got through this thread without my backwoods, redneck, in-bred, southern slang hindering me? Yee Haw! Now, you's guy's have a good night now, ah-ight.

 

[Scott H]

How many of you believe that either different interconnects or speaker cables can sound different in a stereo system, all else being equal?

I do.

 

[Earl Simpson]

I put both wires in my ear and could not hear a thing. What did I do wrong????

 

[AjayM]

If copper is putting a taste in the water (just humoring you- as if the copper pipes in your house would add more "taste" than the MILES of pipes leading to your abode already have), the substance causing the taste, or the chemical reaction causing the taste, could both be seen in a chemical analysis of the water before it enters your house against a sample coming out of your tap.

Jim, if the last 1ft of pipe in your house say wasn't made out of copper, but just plain old steel. Now let's say that pipe is all rusty and grungy and such.

Will that piece of the pipe effect the taste of the water?

Andrew

 

[Jim A. Banville]

Jim, if the last 1ft of pipe in your house say wasn't made out of copper, but just plain old steel. Now let's say that pipe is all rusty and grungy and such. Will that piece of the pipe effect the taste of the water?

If you poured a cup of water from the tap as soon as you turned it on, yes. If you let the water run for a few miuntes, then no. I actually used to have a house with old rusted galvanized plumbing, so I speak from experience. Point is, that I'd equate that small piece of rusted out pipe that contaminates the water with a perfectly functioning Radio Shack interconnect that my dog chewed in one spot, damaging the integrity of the conductor, dilectric and shield

 

[Chu Gai]

Gentlemen: while the plumbing analogy can be useful for us in understanding certain electrical concepts (voltage/pressure), to use it in the context of wire debates is rather foolish. The flavor of the water will be influenced by the length of time it is in contact with the plumbing, temperature, solubility factors, and rates of dissolution to name but a few parameters. For our purposes on cables, the effect of the cable upon the signal passing through it is largely instantaneous and essentially constant. The debate rests not on whether wires have different characteristics, it is within those characteristics, can a difference in sound be reliably detected such that it is cannot be looked upon as random.

 

[Jeffrey_S]

Jim,

I do respect your strict adherence to the scientific method. I too am more comfortable when I can see a direct cause and effect relationship between things.

Having said that, I still believe that in some instances, cables or connections do influence sound. I also believe that we humans do not understand everything about the world around us. I feel that at those times when our perceptions don't jive with what we intellectually "know" should be the case, that there is a tendency to just deny the possibility that our perceptions are infact correct and that our intellect may be wrong. Since we are subjective and fallable creatures, our scientific laws, theories and theorems, which we developed, are fallable as well. Part of the scientific method allows for the possibility that we were wrong in basing an earlier theory upon an inadequet or incomplete observation.

I guess all I'm saying is that I believe it is important to keep an open mind. Just as it might be inaccurate to base a conclusion on the perceptions of one person observing one system, it might be just as inaccurate to believe that we are smart enough to rule out the possibility that something is going on that we just don't as yet understand.

In conclusion, I think it's great that you are giving us this food for thought!

Thanks for the mental exercise.

Jeff

 

[Rob Peloski]

If you are talking about replacing some poorly constructed cables with properly constructed ones (i.e. noisy video cable to properly shielded video cable, or 18 gauge speaker wire to 12 gauge speaker wire in a system thats large enough for it to make a physical difference) then yes cables will make a difference (especially in the video section).

But if you are talking about replacing a properly and sufficiently shielded video cable with another properly shielded video cable (or 12 gauge speaker wire with 12 gauge speaker wire of another brand) then no I do NOT believe you will notice a difference (this is assuming that the cable you are replacing wasn't physically damaged somehow).

Regarding the pipe analogy, despite the obvious physical differences between water and electricity, I feel it is still valid. If you have ultra high quality copper piping in your house and it's being hooked up to miles of dirty corroded water mains, your high quality piping isn't going to make the water better. Now, if the miles of water mains are constructed of high quality copper piping and your house has old corroded crap, your corroded piping is going to taint the water. This holds true with things like speaker cables. If the internal wiring in your speakers is of inferior build to your external wires, installing better external wiring is going to make no difference.

 

[Mike Knapp]

The skeptics have already begun challenging the basic methodology of this poll because the results were not what suited them. This is always the way....always. If the skeptics cannot agree on a methodology among themselves (they cannot), what chance would a believer have to devise a test where the results would be accepted?
By the way, I dont like the title "believer"...I much prefer VISIONARY if you please!
I have some quotes as well....
All of these from Albert Einstein:
"I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed."
"Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts."
And this one from William Occam:
"One should not increase, beyond what is necessary, the number of entities required to explain anything"
Now stand back....I have a Schrodinger and Im not afraid to use it!
Mike

 

[Charles J P]

I believe that cables can make a difference, however at this point I dont think I am willing to spend the amount of money that it would take to realized that difference, so I stick with the mid level well-constructed stuff.

 

[Kevin. W]

Differnent recievers sound different

Different amps sound different

Different tv's look different

Different speakers sound different

So then why wouldn't interconnects sound different? Moving from Monster 16G to Home Depot 12G made a big difference in the detail I could hear from my speakers.

Kevin

 

[Tor S]

Meanwhile, the more cynical among cable manufacturers continue to make money by the bucketloads, because some of us believe - or tend to trick ourselves into believing - that the more expensive the cable, the better the sound. This, I think - although there may be certain slight differences in sound characteristics - is merely hype, a marketing stroke of genious, more than anything else.
I'd love to perform a blind test one day...

 

[James Edward]

Yes, I think cables can sound different. But better? Worse? Just different.

I bought and used Kimber PBJ interconnects, and on a whim, replaced them with StraightWire Chorus II after about 6 months. To me, the Chorus II's have more bass, and less strident treble, contributing to a smoother sound. But are they accurate? I have no idea. But I like them better.

Someone with a bass-heavy system or room, or a system lacking detail, might like the PBJ's better.

Yes, I think they can sound different, but maybe the more expensive ones add a euphonic coloring that make one perceive them as 'better.'

After almost 30 years of interest in audio, I'm not ashamed to say I'll take and build a system around what I like, rather than slavishly try to have an 'accurate' system.

I'll go lowbrow with a Peter Gabriel quote: "I know what I like, and I like what I know..."

 

[AjayM]

Meanwhile, the more cynical among cable manufacturers continue to make money by the bucketloads, because some of us believe - or tend to trick ourselves into believing - that the more expensive the cable, the better the sound. This, I think - although there may be certain slight differences in sound characteristics - is merely hype, a marketing stroke of genious, more than anything else.

Well, the Forbes list just came out and I have yet to see a single cable company on the list, must not be that much money in it (none of them are in the private business Forbes list either).

And why does every non-believer say that us believers think a cable that is more expensive that it will be better? I have tested out only a few cables (compared to what's out there) and I've found that probably less than half the time do I prefer the sound of the more expensive cable. In fact I replaced a bunch of cable in my system that were half the cost of their originals...so much for placebo effect and that desire to justify the cost (when I have box full of expensive cables sitting in my closet).

Andrew

 

[Jim A. Banville]

Differnent recievers sound different
Different amps sound different
Different tv's look different
Different speakers sound different
So then why would interconnects sound different?

I've NEVER seen any of these things made from a single wire