Yes, there are LOTS of industries "out there" to sell you anything you want to buy. It doesn't necessarily mean that what they have to sell has legitimate claims. Maybe go over what *IS* snake oil in the speaker cable market versus what isn't?

LOL! I kept yelling, "Re-bar, re-bar" at the screen while you were doing that vid. When it comes to "senior moments", I'm the KING! And I'm only 60!

Circular logic warning: there being a whole industry out there does not equal proof that RF interference impacts audible sound quality. Please show evidence and do not just quote others who say that it does.

"There is an entire industry" Yes and an entire way of life built upon ignorance. It's doing well these days.

the question is, how do these Industries develop the cables, if not with science, with what else ? because if it was developed with science it must be a technical way to proof it

Will cables make a difference, yes, in the extreme cases (lamp cord vs actual speaker cables). But building an argument on anecdotal evidence and calling those who wants relevant empirical evidence for flat earthers... Well, I guess science isn't for everyone.

If you plug a unterminated speaker wire directly into a Mic Preamp you might see a few dB of noise above the absolute floor from RF/Emf. That's in a Mic Pre, that is sensitive to millivolts. Speaker level is so much higher than that, that the same RF/Emf will literally be in the values of 100,00ths of the signal level being pushed from an amplifier. You are more likely to pick up RF/Emf from less than optimal grounding on the chassis of the amplifier than the speaker cables. The Speaker Cables are the VERY LEAST sensitive component of an audio signal chain. It's the last place I would spend extra money. Just my Opinion, do whatever makes you happy.

Amir from AudioScienceReview (highly educated) tested a $2500 set of Audioquest cables that did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING and had no provided measurements from the manufacturer just pretentious marketing, total waste of money. Same with The Audioquest Jitterbug, does nothing when tested seven ways from Sunday. I've always read home audio speaker cables really don't need shielding unless maybe its long runs or passing over lots of electrical equipment... may have to do some testing of my own. I have 2 family members that are also electrical engineers, I'll have to see what they say about all this.

This is a hard watch... And yes, the Earth is very, very round.

I don't know why people have to argue, if you don't believe don't buy cables, use home depot speaker wire.

One part of me is screaming "snakeoil!!BS!!" and the other part of me is sitting here and wondering how I could try to prove myself cables matter. In my opinion so far they matter in regards to aesthetics and impedance but everythig else has to prove to my ears

The beauty of this hobby is that you can make your own decision about cables. No matter what anybody says, electrical engineer or enthusiast, try the subject cables in your own system. If you like what they do, keep them. If not, return them. Seems much simpler than these never ending circular arguments.

1. The fact that a company sells a product doesn't show that it works. 2. Do a null test. 3. Do an ABX test.

Love your video Danny. I repair and refurbish speakers here in the UK but not to the level you do 🙂. That word you were struggling with is pronounced 'Disco tech'. Keep up the good work. We all learn a great deal for your insights. Cheers. Matt

Amir @ Audio Science Research = BRINGING THE HEAT

I am with you Danny!!!! Keep the video's going....Let's kick it up another notch...Since my hobby is to Recap/Upgrade my own gear..How about a video on Recapping Crossovers with better Film caps?

Still waiting for that double blind test...

There'is only one way to finish this discussion. You have gears to mesures speakers. So you take mesurements for the same speakers, same gears, but with different cable.

So the argument that the "cable industry" is not bullshit is that there are companies working in the cable industry. Ok.

Keep going. I know cables don't make a difference at my level of equipment. I realized that when I watched the first video you did. Fly fishing is the same, people only know by the level or how well their experience is. Theories run rampant, doing proves everything. You helped me realize that sound equipment is the same thing. It's what level you have, got it, makes sense. I was learning how to cast a fly line 90 feet. A friend said everyone else says you don't need to cast beyond 30 feet. I said they say that because they can't cast further then 30 feet. My equipment isn't at a level yet to hear the difference, thank you, it cleared up a lot of what is being said. You know because of your experience. I'm the only guy I know that can cast 90 feet, I try to get others to learn but they don't get why it would make a difference, it does dramatically. I hope I get the same out of what audio gear I have. Peace

I found enormous amounts of switching noise radiating from LED light tape, the drivers being housed in a metal, grounded box....also I've found some LED lamps that make digital radios cut out when the light is switched on. It's clear that high frequencies can run around analogue and digital audio circuits and create inter-modulation and other effects and now that we have so many switching power supplies and microwave coms, the issues are bigger than ever before.

Another little-known fact - you can't hear much with your head burried in the sand.

"There is a whole industry behind this, trust me, it is real"

I completely 100 percent agree! Love your videos!

Just because there is an industry doesnt provide any proof. Guess what else had an industry....snake oil. Now I'm trying to keep my mind open. I'm looking forward to the double blind testing. Although I'm skeptical on this subject I do enjoy your work. So thank-you. Have a good one.

Audioholics want a word with you!!! 😮

This is called "Creating a solution, to a problem that does not exist" Someone will always buy something, if they can be convinced it solves a problem, even if they have no problem. Marketing 101.

I would say that AudioQuest deserves a place at the table. Love your channel!

I agree completely. I got into making cables because I can solder above normal ability. The place most of my soldering was learned was Intel production and prototyping. A friend had a friend who needed a solderer who could do both heavy and ultra fine soldering. The owner had me build a 7 meter set of XLR interconnects that takes about 8 hours. He then had me add them in a running system in series with the cables in use. My only expectation was they met his standards so I could contract more work. I was very surprised that the music improved by getting clearer. That went against what I had been taught since High School. Since then I have had to re evaluate some of what I was taught because it does not hold up to reality. The biggest bunch of nay sayers I have talked with has been engineers. I find their "if you can't measure it, it don't exist amusing." Keep up the good work and Thanks. I seriously need a CLIO tutorial. I started this in my 50's. So much to learn and comprehend.

This goes along with the video you made about crossovers and the tiny gauge wire manufactures use inside a speaker. I emailed you about my RTi150's and I think I am going to rebuild the crossovers myself. Your videos are so informative and helpful. Thank you .

For f sake, why don't you actually show the noise that's being picked up by the speaker from "bad" cables. Measure the output of the speaker itself and compare that using different cables. Is that so hard? That would debunk ANY argument.

Cables definitely make a difference... But it's not necessarily a clear science either. The same cables will sound different with different electronics. The easiest proof of the differences cables make in my opinion is car audio. I do quite a bit of car audio work and can tell you without a doubt that what you may consider "high end" in home audio will not make the cut in a car audio install. Car audio environments are incredibly noisy with bad cables. I'm looking at you AudioQuest!

I thought we were talking about speaker cables? 100% copper is 100% copper. Either it works right or it doesn’t. Again, you need to do the coat hanger vs expensive speaker cable.

It is strange that people in the radio, music recording and media production industries don't use basic bell wire and or cheap interconnects...they do often use cables like van damme ofc or belden or morgami and similar and upwards, but still in hifi people argue over cables. The point is nobody is forcing people to buy high end stuff, but there is a base quality of cables that will definitely improve performance and reduce noise and interference. But once you have got a general cable... the rest is more about the subtle changes and flavours that may or may not suit the users hearing and needs. But hey if people are happy with there bell wire and basic interconnects that's great too! But if things all sounded the same...we would not need or have so many different source amp and speakers options (even copper wound transformers can sound very different)... after all they all do the same job,- of picking up amplifying and reproducing signal through an electrical process. Yet can sound very different, which we can understand and accept. I think the main problem for cables for most is understanding and justifying how and why a cable costs $1000's while others a few bucks...as they both are seen as just strands or cores of copper, silver or ?, Sheathed in insulation and protection materials. So find it difficult to accept the value in it. But will perhaps be happy to spend thousands on a new amp because it has loads of components in a sturdy looking box and there is a sense that more work, skill and value goes into it. But equally while there are good sources, amps and speakers there are also pretty bad ones too. (mind you most are pretty good these days). But the real truth is... there is no such thing as perfect sound reproduction system...and even if there was... some wouldn't like it...as it's a personal taste thing. So if you can't hear any difference between cables then please be happy... but also be respectful that others can and do ..and if it sounds better and the price is right they will upgrade. I can't personally say I'm convinced they are getting value for money with expensive cables...but I did demo loads which have different flavours but prefered van damme (ofc) and belden tinned ...which are good enough for me and cheap, which I the make to custom lengths as I hate un-needed spaghetti.

The negative feedback path of a amplifier does not discriminate between returning signal and RF. The RF enters the feedback loop and the amplifier applies “corrections” to eliminate distortion however, since RF was not in the original signal, RF creates spurious feedback corrections that add distortion to the amplifier’s output. If you can reject or filter out the RF, the amplifier loses the random distorting input from RF noise in its environment.

popular opinion: there is no cable on this round planet that is worth $72000 as listed on Transparent Cables website.

The word "interconnects" Established because people won't spend mega bucks for cables. "Hey, look at my interconnects, I don't use cables as I am elite"

There’s an entire industry around cables because you get something worth a few dollars and sell it for thousands… why would they do that if it didn’t help the sound quality? I wonder? us pesky electronics Engineers with of facts and measurements!

Im so happy to be one of those people who enjoy the sound of a good cable. And just for the record, A "Good" cable is a cable that makes the audio system perform at its best! Love your videos Danny :-)

Kimber has been around for ever. I heard my first 4c cables at my friends house, when we were 16. (40 years ago) What a difference from the 16ga cable he was using originally. I'm not an engineer, but there is a reason data cable, and other cables are using helical pairs, or other twisting methods. Less noise, less RFI, etc.. These types of cables do make a difference. Whether or not you believe it, is entirely your prerogative.

These things are "well known in the industry". Yes, the audiophile cable industry, the only industry where this "science" applies.

It would be interesting to have you and the Audioholics guys have a discussion. I think the ultimate test is to listen after all the measurements are done. I have yet to see measurements coorelated with listening quality.

All amps have negative feedback. Some use global, some local to the amplification stage. An amp without feedback is an oscillator. Speakers cable are connect to low impedance loads from even lower impedance amplifiers. You would need miles of cable to pickup noise. The low impedance load and output of the amp will act as a drain to this noise you are so concerned with.

I watched the video out of curiosity because my 61 year old ears do not absolutely catch any noise or hiss in my rig so the issue doesn't regard to me.I am not sure that happens because my hearing is a bit tired or because my rig is perfect even though it is a budget one hooked together with amazon cables.I'd loved to hook it with some expensive cables and have some A and B test and tell any difference.

I had a pair of speakers with a bass reflex vent and when l tapped the woofer it boomed for a half second after. I converted them to passive radiator and now the tapped woofer stops instantly. Lucky strike and the bass is way improved.

in the 70s police radio came over my stereo when they were about to come to my door, hide the bong,all good.thanks to cheap gear.

No hate, honest question. What role do you think double blind testing should have? Do you think it could/should show a statistically significant effect?

There seems to be a high positive correlation between those who are deaf and those who have anger issues ...

It would be better to do a blind A/B test with Danny to see if he can hear the differences. I find it odd that he calls people that use science to disprove him flat earthers when it’s he rejecting science.

If there's audible noise being added to the signal, since cables can act as antenna's, wouldn't the simplest test just be to hook up your system and listen to it whilst not sending a signal? I mean, if you're not sending a signal, there should still be a signal from the cable acting as an antenna according to your explanation, or am I getting that wrong?

... and you are just quoting another speaker cable manufacturer's "sales pitch" as "data". So no proof there.

The braiding and counter rotating geometry may be described as a "faraday cage." I make all my own cables which use a double helix geometry, which is an effective, and efficient way to shield cables, and minimize noise in your system.

I just learned a new word today, here in my old country where we still use horses, witches & garlic for banning Covid & other stuff... Industry ! Oh my gush, what is that ? Seems great. Are u sure ?

Plug in your 1200 W microwave next to your stereo and see how it sounds when you're cooking a hot pocket

If we could hear the interference you are talking about, we would not need radios. We would just be able to hear radio stations all the time.

I have to say that I am very happy with Canare star quad when it comes to cost and performance. I use the starquad on my interconnects and speakers. I've compared it with other cables and there is always a difference. Even my USB cable is from wireworld...it made a difference. They actually show the cross section for each cable. Geometry does matter. If you can't hear the difference then you either have too much wax in your ears or you don't know what you are listening for. As for audioquest I am not a fan because they are solely a marketing company

**cough** Snake Oil **cough**

I agree that well-made cables make a difference. I made my own RCAs years ago and we could hear the difference as I completed each pair. Where I draw the line is at these jewelry cables that cost tens of thousands of dollars. Sorry but audible improvement is one thing, fashion is another!

It doesn't cost up to 30 grand a pair for shielded speaker cable. It's special alloys and extrusion techniques as well.

"I'm not trying to sell anything." He says one big roll of speaker cable in each hand. Coincidentally speaker cable that is linked right below. The more people believe this stuff, the more you sell. The same as the other companies you are mentioning. These videos has nothing to do with teaching or science. It's a commercial.

While I believe you about the noise, The Price for these cables is in outer space. Signed, Flat Earther,

It could be interesting if you would do measurements on your braided cables vs. similar gauge traditional speaker cables, same length and amplifier into either a speaker load or resistor dummy load. FFT plot, 20Hz-20kHz. Three values should define any speaker cable; resistance, inductance and capacitance per unit length. Wondering if you have these numbers for your braided cable?

This makes me want to test TP cables like cat 6 to use for some tests but 5p be honest I used lamp cables to speakers for a long time and can't hear anything different, but as I work with Computer networks I have some sense of interference ain Coax but even old TP cables. I even know of a Coax network close to an airport that had failed shielding and acted as an antenna caused the radar and all other traffic on the coax cable to get interference, I think there is sense and logic to what he explains on this video. But if I can hear this difference I don't think my kids already damaged my hearing, but I will try to braid some descent cable and see, have new speakers and amplifier coming soon so testing needs to be done :)

Danny You are right. I live in RF Central Heathrow one side Northolt (air ports) on another + local town centre with communication aerials then multiple phone masts if you take a capacitor insert it in a wire from my switched off amplifier case to earth the cap charges. Since I plaited my all valve system mains cables and attached ferrites. When I was a lad Dad worked for the BBC so like the studios I visited all star earthed. The final task was making cross connected co -ax speaker cable for my Quad 57's low inductance & rejects interference so no buzzes, clicks, hum or mains transformer noise, sounding as quiet as broadcast quality in the1950's

I was hoping this video would clear up or correct some of the issues with the old clip, but it was actually worse. Mr. Richie simply doubles down on his claims from the old video, and asks us to go to speaker cable company websites and drink their Kool Aid. Disappointing. Mr. Richie, I asked you to do this video in my last comment, but I will repeat it here: Connect the different speaker cables into your audio system, and show us, with an audio analyzer, how the audiophile cables provide lower noise than the twisted pairs or zip cords. It is a simple and convincing test. If your claims are demonstrable, you should have no problem showing them.

Clearly digital transmissions can be heard on audio cable. My speaker cable used to pick up my old cell phone. It was a staticky shuffle beat whenever my phone was pinging the network. I have super high efficiency horns, so that's a big reason, but the noise certainly gets on the line. When I used to record with a classical ensemble we all had to keep our phones off of the stage for the same reason, the mics would pick up the static. It wasn't enough to have them on silent. I don't think Danny's points here are very persuasive here, but my conclusion is that cables matter. But I have cheap cable because it doesn't matter as much as some other stuff and I'm not made of money.

It remains comical to me that you call people who disagree with you flat-earthers as an insult, claiming that they demand proof. In truth, flat-earthers don’t want scientific proof, only to further prove their own feedback loop and strengthen their belief system. I don’t disagree with you fundamentally, just the way that you treat this conversation, also resorting to calling pseudoscience “science”, constantly referring to human hearing and testimonials among solid arguments. At the end of the day, it’s up to each person to decide. I realize that you’re trying to educate, and I appreciate that. What I don’t like is the pointing of fingers and demeaning some folks, who, while they may not be doing the most practical tests, still have the right to argue their point and to not be considered “less than” any given status or title, simply due to dissonance between your different operating methodologies. 🙃

In my younger days still living with my parents. I used to have a good audio system setup in my room. Sounded great until my father turned to his HF radio's he's stil a radio amateur back then builded big amps with 1000 watts on 80meter radio band. As soon as he get his voice into that radio from hell I couldn't listen to my audio set anymore. The antenna was 35 meters up to the roof of the flat building. It even came over the power 220v and over the loadspeakers cables it distorted the signal. Even my mom couldn't watch the TV set. Now this maybe a extreem case but now I'm 40 years later living on my own nice house etc etc and a much beter sound system. But still if I use regular speaker wire and change it back to a good quality twisted audio cable. It's like an on and off switch with the sound stages. I know your right. Keep up the nice video's I'll watch them.

The earth looks kind of square from here

Actually you never want to ad an inductions or impedance filter in your signal path. Especially not before the amplifier. This will restrict the dynamic range. Some of the few that has done research on this issue is Ansuz cables. What they have done is they have developed an active noise suppression board included outside the cable. It works by sampling the noise transients and generating the counter transients actively. Almost like noise cancellation except this is active. So it's not directly a part signal path. Therefore they can work on reducing the inductance and impedance to almost zero. And that allows the dynamics to come through and opens everything up

My big issue is at what point do these things start to make a difference? Could a $1,500 system (amp, speakers, source, DAC) be improved with these high-end cables or do the differences only show up in a $15,000+ system? Thanks!

When Danny says " MIT CABLES" he's not referring to the college MIT. He's talking about Music Interference Technology. It's a company built on getting frequencies out of audio cables.

Disc-o-tek Danny. Disc-o-tek. French origin. Global recognition. Yes its an old fashioned word today but for those of a certain age it conjures up flares, wide collars and - god help me - platform shoes.

The claimed attributes of RF shielded speaker cables are not supstantiated by physics or blind testing. Some gullable listeners with deep pocketbooks have one helluva imagination. It's a shame there are no certification standards for audio cable. Cable manufacturing has become a highly profitable cottage industry. Money spent on expensive cable would be better spent on upgrading other audio components

See article below, RF immunity and testing Any unshielded semiconductor (e.g. an integrated circuit) will tend to act as a detector for those radio signals commonly found in the domestic environment (e.g. mobile phones).[16] Such a detector can demodulate the high frequency mobile phone carrier (e.g., GSM850 and GSM1900, GSM900 and GSM1800) and produce low-frequency (e.g., 217 Hz) demodulated signals.[17] This demodulation manifests itself as unwanted audible buzz in audio appliances such as microphone amplifier, speaker amplifier, car radio, telephones etc. Adding onboard EMI filters or special layout techniques can help in bypassing EMI or improving RF immunity.[18] Some ICs are designed (e.g., LMV831-LMV834,[19] MAX9724[20]) to have integrated RF filters or a special design that helps reduce any demodulation of high-frequency carrier. Designers often need to carry out special tests for RF immunity of parts to be used in a system. These tests are often done in an anechoic chamber with a controlled RF environment where the test vectors produce a RF field similar to that produced in an actual environment.[17

Well I looked up the prices and some are absolutely ridiculous. Tens of thousands of dollars for a pair of speaker cable? Even $500 for a pair of 1 meter RCAs is pretty expensive. I dont contend that it doesnt help. I contend that the snake oil is the cost.

I appreciate your video learning series... thank you for working to educate the masses... Thank you Danny. The deniers "those people" have NO CLUE about what they are talking about... any [RFI or EMF] signal on the speaker cable gets into amplifier through the feedback loop and DIRECTLY influences the [amplifiers performance] overall sound of the amplifier... "All cables sound the same" "all capacitors and passive components sound the same" to some engineering types, are simply often unwilling to invest in areas of their playback system...

The human body acts as an RF antenna. The only way to make sure it doesn't interfere with your audio equipment (ears) is to cover yourself with a space blanket and to twist your legs and arms (counter-rotating if you're flexible enough).

Some guy on a video said he used a coat hanger in a listening test with $5000 speaker wires and people can't tell the difference I'm so confused on this subject I agree with Danny it makes perfect sense but people still don't agree. When I build my speakers I use ofc braided like he does in people on diy groups tell me it's a waste it's dimensioning returns blah blah blah but I have one chance to design my speakers right and I would rather spend a little extra money than have any problems. He made sense to me ..

An excerpt from a recent REL Acoustics Blog Article: Revisiting Bassline Blue "Something clearly had to be done, you see we’re not one of those head-in-the-sand audio companies that doesn’t believe that cables make no difference. We’ve known for almost 40 years that for speaker cables, interconnects, HDMI and digital-not to mention a/c-we can hear the benefits when they get it right and the downside when it’s poorly executed. Like it or not, cables matter and the flat earth audio types can complain all they want but they’re simply in denial. But connecting to our impedance environment is unique and this is where conventional cable companies get it wrong."

Amir at Audio Science Research posted a measurement response refuting this video. This might be interesting.

Are Ferrite Core Choke Clips not good anymore to reduce/eliminate/filter noise?

Cables only matter within reason.... look inside your amplifier look at the track going to the speaker outlet the trace is at absolute most 1.5mm x 0.5mm. The only thing you need to consider is copper and getting meatier wire for longer runs

Illuminating

7:50 I could agree with you about differences in analog signal going through different materials and cables and that they could change highly sensitive (read - high end) sounding characterics but transfering digital audio through quality 'usb cable' vs 100x the cost 'audio grade usb cable' as long as it is in digital format it will still be the same ones and zerros to the last bit! Now, how these ones and zerros are processed and converted to analog format and amplified is where high end equipment can step in and make things different. But not the cable tranfering digital signal. Let there be interference! IT DOESN'T MATTER! Imagine transfering through 'usb cable' a program. It HAS to be exact till last bits or ones and zerros or program will not work! Imagine transfering text file! Now, do you really want to say, that 'gold cable' vs 'regular cable' can change a single character in a transfered text file? Because it is EXACTLY how ones and zerros are transfered. If anything, in digital world there is something called "error correction" (don't compare with audio cd read error correction - it is different subject) - what it does is making sure that even over VERY NOISY cables and long distances (e.g. internet network) the received bits are exactly the same as original - if necessary the faulty data packet is requested again until received exact bits to bits to original or the error will be displayed and the data transfer stopped... So to sum it up - usb cable intself CAN'T add or remove ones and zerros of a transfared digital signal under normal circumstances and ones and zerros are the only things that DAC expects to receive from a data cable, recognizes and proceeds :)

If noise is being picked up, it should show up on a spectrum analyzer between 20 Hz and 20 KHz. That's a very simple test... why do none of the sites you link to use this test? A good spectrum analyzer is much more sensitive than our ability to hear. Can't help but feel like this is dodged a lot. It would be nice if you jumped in with technical details. I think everyone is tired of "well I'm gonna skip the technical mumbo jumbo and talk about it like this".

I like how all the comments are about how audio companies that do research and development into audio technologies can’t actually be correct on how the audio signal path can be interfered with. It’s like these are all communists with a desire to hate and demonize privately owned companies and research firms. Its like this with MQA also. A company developed a method to compress and and decompress audio with out losing much data. Its proprietary technology so it must be demonized compared to normal FLAC codec. I’m going to be honest, MQA does sound better to my taste. It’s not a very noticeable difference but if you listen the music does sound more open ended, instruments don’t meld together and it just sounds cleaner. It also isn’t a problem for streaming also as MQA is smaller file sizes streams sound excellent without killing data plans. I’d love for Spotify to add a MQA tier doesn’t have to be a hifi tier with everything being FLAC, but I’d like to see MQA for songs when available.

Cables and NASA stand for same meaning ... never a straight answer...

Ignore the muppets...On YT everybody is a fooking Engineer...lolol

Looks to me that we can DIY a simple Counter-Twist cable in a braided nylon tube pretty easy. Don't they sell a wire twister for that? (Not that we would need one.) Whereas the many "SHIELDED CABLE" vendors - those are going to attenuate the audio signal entirely. So we can't do worse!

I remember when Paul McGowan was building the new PS audio building they installed all the LED lights and they had an issue with that as well because they were causing so much noise. They had to go change out all of their lighting because it was affecting in a negative way.

Where can I get that T -shirt?

Cables are cables huh? No sound difference Huh? OK.. Real story.. My story.. I worked @ Circuit City.. We started carrying Monster Cable, and yes I still like monster cable and always will, for this reason. I had a nice system at the house.. HK avr, Carver seperate amp, Polk spkers and a Velodyne FSR sub.. but with the cables that came with it or the red and white regular cables.. no biggie right.. I went to a class taught by Noel Lee himself in Dallas.. I sort of bought into it and figured I would start with the 200 line of cable.. if it makes a difference cool.. if not I did not spend much money.. so I hooked it up and was listening to it.. My girlfriend at the time (who could give two shits about audio), came in the room.. sat for a bit.. and got up looking at the speakers and equipment.. I asked "what are you doing?"... she then accused me of buying new equipment.. now at that moment I was sold.. Many of us can hear differences and live for great sound.. but for someone who did not give one iota of damn about it.. to hear it.. acknowledge it and go looking for it to acuse me of "New" ... SOLD! JS.. I got the same speech when I upgraded to the 400mk II cables.. JS.. if you want to see results.. play for someone who is not vested.. Just a thought

The glowing facts are the speakers a) do not have the frequency response to even respond to RF signals, b) even if they did the signals don't have enough energy to drive a speaker, c) the human ear cannot hear RF no matter what. The worst possible outcome from Speakers Cables picking up RF is damage to the amplifier by causing high power oscillations...however, I'm assuming you have good quality power amplifiers that filter out RF at the output (any amplifier worth its salt already has an RF filter at the speaker outputs, and power supply, and input stage). Nevertheless, showing that a Speaker Cable can act as an antenna does not in any way prove it can 'sound better' than one that doesn't. See above. Also, the LENGTH of the cable is what determines whether it is a good antenna or not (unless said cable has an RF filter of course). The reason the receiver is responding is because the RF signal is being AMPLIFIED inside the receiver. A strong broadcast FM signal is 1mV/m (-60dBu). That's about 1,000,000 times LESS energy than it takes a speaker to make the faintest of sounds. If it isn't amplified by specialized high gain RF amplifier, audio equipment has NO HOPE of responding to it. Moreover, even if you're convinced such a test proves anything, all you need is a $2 RF choke to clip on your cable. Done.

My next band is gonna be called Discotheque Rebar!

I'm one of those people who has a EE degree. If the tests you were part of were fair and blind, then I suppose that's some data. You may have a point that some amplifiers are more sensitive than others. But here's what I don't understand. You can very easily listen to an emply signal on a system. That's essentially your noise floor, right? I feel like if you have an setup sensitive to present EMI/RFI then that simple test would prove that out. You could even ramp up the gain to listen to the noise floor. If it's nothing audible, I feel like any of these effects are moot for that system.

Disk-o-tech

I kinda feel like there'd be audible effects of this, even muted or with very little volume...

Good video, Danny. And all true. I have older but good system components and after we moved to our new house I was very disappointed with the sound. Initially I was suspecting the aging components, but decided to spend some free time tweaking the system. I noticed that only a few feet from the electronics (CD, preamp & power amp, tuner) I have a DECT cordless phone, and two wifi routers. Then it struck me: three RF transmitters! I re-wired the supply to my power block with 16 feet of Belden *shielded* mains cable and could finally plug it into the *shielded mains circuit* I had put in when the house was built. Transformation #1! Sound more dynamic, better bass, more space round instruments, more energy in the highs. I have good power cords (Kimber) but they needed some help in this harsh environment: I forgot that I used to have ferrite cores around them at the point of entry into the equipment. Replaced: another improvement of the same kind. And then I added an iFi Purifier to help with a clean earth and spike suppression. This is less noticeable but it certainly doesn't hurt. The other two improvements had to do with *physical isolation* : all electronics now on sorbothane or silicone rubber damping feet: more neutrality; then the loudspeakers are now on silicone damping feet: this is major transformation #2 : no more excitation of my CONCRETE floor (yes, really) MUCH freer mid and highs and deeper bass. Now my system sings! It never sounded so good in the 34 years I have had the amplifier, 20 years the speakers and ~4-5 years the CD player. Primare CD32-->Audioquest Lapis-->Exposure XII (+Exposure XI PSU)--->Audioquest Lapis--->Exposure VIIS-->Kimber 'Crystal 24' (2x 12TC)-->KEF Reference Three Fours. I should maybe now reevaluate the two pairs of Kimber KCAG that other equipment is using. They were originally swapped out because they were not revealing enough, bass light and highs too rolled off. I hope your viewers can relate to my experience. Now I learned (after 50 years in the hobby!) power must be very clean and abundant (no restriction/constriction) and equipment MUST be physically isolated. FYI Max Townshend does a great video on this topic. All the best, Rob in Switzerland

If I hear a difference between two components in my system, but somebody else does not hear a difference between those same components in their system which one of us is right? If I like Pizza Hut best but someone else thinks Papa Johns is best while a third person says it's Dominos, who's right? If something can't be quantified does that mean it doesn't exist? What about things we don't how to measure. Do they not exist just because we aren't smart enough at this point in time to know what to measure or how to measure it? Does my Easyracers titanium frame bicycle ride better than a steel frame bike from a big box store? What attribute(s) of the bikes can be measured to tell which one rides better? If you put together some objective, measurable criteria and, if those measurements were the same, would that mean there was no difference between the the two bikes and I only think there is? Even if that's the case, so what? When it comes to me choosing which bike to ride, my perceptions are the only thing that matters. How does all that relate to cables? Over the years I've compared different cables more than once. Seven years ago I could hear differences between cables up to a point but not beyond. The system I have today is much more revealing and as such, the cables that represented the point where I could no longer hear any differences can no longer make that claim. One thing that happened as my system became more revealing was that I started to hear radio broadcasts in the background from my speakers and I don't have a radio tuner in my system. Changing to cables that better filtered out the RFI reduced the volume of the broadcast. Moving up to balanced components and cables greatly improved the problem. As far as value goes how much is too much depends on the individual. When somebody would tell me I was an idiot for spending that kind of money on a bicycle, I would ask them how much their bass boat cost.