Let’s stop for a moment and appreciate how Amir does all these videos unedited.

Brilliant and thorough breakdown and explanation of the report Amir. No doubt this takes a lot of your time to review and present back and I'm sure it gets painfully repetitive so a huge thank-you and appreciation for what you do!

As a fellow scientist it's depressing that a paper like that can get published in a peer-reviewed journal.

Amir - saving level headed objective audiophiles a fortune all over the world - absolute HERO

I just realized that I have a problem with Amir’s video reviews. When I read his reviews on ASR, I pictured Amir as a dude in his 20s, with a cool haircut and maybe a goatee. Che with Dan Clarke headphones. Maybe it was the pink panther, maybe it was the impish sense of humor that would bubble up here and there, maybe it was the sense of iconoclastic slaying of an older generation’s audio myths, storming the ivory tower of audiophile elites and liberating the hobby for the masses. Now I watch this dude who is my age , or thereabouts, and man, all those qualities of the “young rebel Amir” are still there but in the nicest, least snarky and most articulate package.

I really admire your passion and patience Amir. We all know that these "expert youtubers" are only influencers trying to make easy money speaking BS for naive people. Nowadays this is not only seen in consumer electronics but all market areas, pitifully. Thanks for another great, educational video. Keep it up!

I can not imagine how much work had to go into debunking that report. You have my admiration. The report reminds of something I heard a while ago: "If you can not convince them, confuse them." ;)

I just LOVE this channel! The first thing they hammered into my head in engineering college was; 1) Make dang sure you are measuring something relevant to the application, and 2) account for measurement errors induced by your imperfect setup before drawing any conclusion.

A classic Amir deconstruction. I enjoy these so much. The the highest resolution oscilloscope I’ve used was a LeCroy 12 bit, HDO6104-MS. This was used to attempt to measure ripple of a 2-10kV DC pulse for x-ray gridding. Being retired I sure do miss those challenges.

The most credible reviewer I've seen so far on KZfaq, excellent work!

Sir you are an absolute treasure, thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Jay is completely untrustworthy. He told me a few days ago he doesn't take payments for reviews, but before, he's stated that he doesn't take payment "upfront", but if the company likes the review, then he will take payment afterwards. To me, that is taking payments for reviews. And it's his shady way of trying to get around YT's payment disclosure policies, by stating that he wasn't paid "upfront" for the review, but he may be paid some time after the review, so why would he disclose it in the review if he hadn't been paid yet? Shady AF.

Thank you Amir for being such an awesome human being, relentlessly bringing knowledge to audio community

I just couldn't wait for your take on this one (and it didn't disappoint, mildly said) 😄 This felt like an autopsy on insane claims and also reminds of the Mofi incident, where 'golden ears' claimed they could here any digital step (except they couldn't). Thumbs up for your humoristic and non-offensive take-down of a 'scientific' document.

It's good to enjoy our "low-fi" audio with the info that Amir provides. Great job mate!

The sad thing is that there seems to be more people believing the snake oil on Jays channel (which I just unsubscribed to). Placebo is real. It effects all of us. Just get a wire that's the proper gauge and call it a day. I love this channel and the Audioholics channel. You two are where I go to debunk the myths. Thank you!

I have no issue with audiophiles who dismiss measurements and science. You want to spend thousands on cables, go for it, love them and enjoy then and I hope they bring you joy. What bothers me is when these people try to cross over to the world of objectivity and science to justify their beliefs. Who do they think they need to answer to? This paper was written backwards: the conclusion came first and the data followed. Why bother? I saw this on Jay's channel and thought Amir's going to tear this to shreds! Thanks again for another awesome video!!

Amir, thank you. When the first you tuber came out with this “proof” from a college professor my question was, “who funded his research?” I tried to explain that college professors would generally find grants in order to do research as no college or university wants their professors working in unfounded projects. The old saying “publish or perish” refers to publish things you get paid for and bring money into your college. Of course people took offense just like in anything cable related. My thoughts, there are three important things when it comes to speaker cables: gage, quality of copper, connectors. Anything else is jewelry and things like little batteries and tinker toys are pure snake venom! Did I say Audioquest?

Amir, you forgot to sprinkle the magic fairy dust on the connectors. That is why you don't hear the difference between the cables. Thanks for the detailed analysis. Your videos are a breath of fresh air in the dim, squalid world of hi fi audio.

Jay's WTF moment was when he took Danny's advice and compared the GR Research XLS to the Sonus Fabers instead of the Polk. It was a no-lose situation for Danny when comparing his kit to the much more expensive Italian

Thank you for doing such a detailed analysis on this and thank you even more for you fantastic knowledgeable treatment of all things audio. I am not an audio engineer but I have a good background in electronics so I have long been sceptical of the performance advantages attributed to expensive cables (not to mention expensive digital cables for audio) but I have never had the opportunity to test their claims myself. Your dedicated work has restored my confidence in science. The world is indeed a sphere and not flat. There are several good reasons to buy high quality cables (standards compliance, reliability, robustness, aesthetics or just pride of ownership) but imagining that a $500 ethernet cable is going to improve your audio quality is just foolish.

Thanks Amir. From my experience, if something is written on formal paper, by an expert, it doesn’t mean it’s 100% true. I always tell people to follow the money if you want understanding of the truth. How many times have we encountered “scientific research” which was paid or sponsored by a corporate or political agency?

Nice work addressing this paper, Amir! Seems to really call into question AES and the reviewers on why the paper was accepted for publication. With those types of issues I don’t think it would have been accepted into other journals for publication. An easy google search quickly pulls up the professors webpage and CV. Looks like he mostly focuses on superconducting nanowires and thin films but then uses concepts from high frequency analysis in those areas to then apply them in psychoacoustics and high end audio. Interesting pairing. His webpage also states that he expects to publish an entire book in 2023 on topics in audio, will be interesting to see how that is received in the field!

Another great de-bunking video. Jay I is another channel that keeps getting pushed into my view through algorithms even though I keep telling KZfaq to quit recommending channel. I would be very interested to see your measurements on capacitors. Electrolytic vs Polypropylene especially when used in speaker crossovers.

By the way, you can "withdraw" a peer review publication by proving such things as wrong methodology, wrong claims and so on. You just need to write a paper :) If you need help with that, I am quite efficient writer who is also strongly interested in this topic

28:30 I busted out laughing here! 😂🤣 I love your method of busting these ridiculous myths. As someone who grew up being taught electronics engineering by a lead RCA engineer (my grandfather), went on to develop microphones and speakers based on the hardest science we have on the subjects... just to say one thing - a mic with character, warmth, body, and other non-scientific terms people use - the sexiest mics have a good bit of self noise and distortion created by the “exotic” parts, such as discrete circuits with high end transformers, vacuum tubes, etc. There are mics today that minimize these effects, but the most sought after mics often have some rough measurements that do not turn us off. I appreciate that you measure what matters on the playback end and discuss what is useful vs useless information. 💚

Thank you for this tireless work. Scammers and grifters suck. Anyone peddling these cables is EXTREMELY suspect. There is ample proof from you and Audioholics that you don't have to pay much for high quality, well engineered audio interconnects. We are in you debt sir!

Jay is a passionate guy that tries to be honest. Sadly, he lacks scientific temper.

The error in the testing methodology in Paper 1 reminds me of the arguments people have regarding Bluetooth codecs. There are people who SWEAR they are hearing a difference in sound when switching between LDAC, aptX, AAC or what have you. What they often don't realize that the differences rarely come from the codecs themselves but the way the way the receiving device is processing the audio, which can sometimes be different between various codecs, leading to a perception that the codec is making a difference when it's usually just poorly inconsistent audio processing.

Got a Big respect for your work Amir!

Fantastic, watched and listened to every second. This channel and ASR forum is the supreme Audio information source!

Thank you for that clear analysis of the paper. Dissapointing that a paper as poorly researched as this is allowed to see the light of day.

So there is one guy in the world who can measure the difference they hear in different cables? Can’t wait. Also no way for others to reproduce his tests? Solid science… Edit: Oops. Edited out some typos and apparently KZfaq removes the heart thing given by the channel owner after the message has been changed. I guess I can see why that is.

I work in medical science, if a researcher does a paper promoting a specific brand, data should be not only irrefutable but corroborated by other researchers, otherwise you loss your credibility, your money and sometimes your freedom

To pay my deeepest respects to Amir's dedication to truth : " Work as though everything depended on you ! ", Saint Augustin.

There are no grades of cables but there are 2 grades of consumers: * suckers, and * everyone else.

This kept getting funnier the more it went on. I expected some minor mistakes in methodology due to a lack of knowledge in the field, but wow, this was beyond terrible! I'm glad you spent your time on this Amir, it was not just educational, but also quite hilarious. I appreciate your work a lot!

appreciate the work you do, you and audioholics are the only KZfaqrs that make any sense to me .

fortunately, for me and my pocketbook, old ears & damaged hearing (ie don't have 'golden ears')negates differences in audio even between speakers, amplifiers, DACs, parts, wiring, etc, etc. Saves me a lot of time seeking the latest & greatest marginal improvements.

I was calmly enjoying this video, but the "Subjective Frequency Response" had me howling at my desk. That is a hilarious joke for someone who isn't kidding at all.

I have to express my deeply gratitude to all those people who believes in expensive cables, without you there would not be a reason for Amir to put these masterful lectures, than you!!

That's the reason why peer review is very important in Academia.

Legend has it that Prof Kunchur has sold his soul *not*for rock and roll (dough) !! And still reeling under the clinical dissection Amir has ever so exquisitely rendered.

Mr. Amir I really appreciate your self confidence which is coming from your knowledge. And many thanks for your all videos that shared with us. I learned many things from your videos as an audiophile. Thank you.

Finally !! I was waiting for you to make a video for this topic. From my own investigation, there is no measurable difference between cables when measured directly (the cable in question as DUT), but there is when I put it on a mic, then I can see TINY TINY difference in phase (few degrees in 10KHz+) and frequency response (less than 0.5dB), and that's it...

hello thank you for what you are doing keep going and hello once again from MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA

A year down the road ... than this is still a discussion? Lets talk about what really makes the difference these people are hearing. Here's a simple experiment anyone can try... and audiophiles should. 1) Sit in a quiet room. No music. No TV... just you in a quiet room. Now relax, sit back, and just hear the room for a couple of minutes ... get used to what it sounds like. 2) Now gently, with your thumb and forefinger pull your ears back and up, just a little bit. Notice how the sound of the room changed? It got more open, airy and lively sounding... the sound probably also shifted slightly up in frequency. 3) Now add a mechanical clock or a quiet metronome ... tick tick tick tick. 4) Relax again and take in the room sounds. 5) Now focus your attention on the clock (metronome). Notice how the sound of the room changes when you focus in... You might describe it as being more open, airy and lively sounding... just like step 2, above. What you have just noticed is an actual human reflex. "Cocking one's ears"... and we do it automatically, without even realizing when we are focused on a specific sound. We use it to pick out conversations in noisy rooms, to hear a specific instrument at a concert... and... when listening to new cables in our systems. It is the difference between "hearing" and "listening". So now lets imagine we are testing a new cable... first we play a familiar piece of music, then we swap in our new cable. We focus in on the sound... we subconsciously "cock our ears' ... and lo and behold we hear a difference. This is also used to advantage during sales demonstrations... You're at the audio show, there is a cable maker's demo, so you go in and settle into a chair, with music playing as you wait for the sales pitch. Now the salesmaker comes out gives you the pitch about his miracle wire, made of single crystal, oxygen-free, cryo-harmonized, copper jacketed in unobtainium and polished to a fine finish by the virgins of valhalla. "Now lets hook up this cable... listen carefully, and see if you can hear the difference". So now he plays the same music again and son of a gun, everyone hears the difference! Why? Because the second time around they were paying attention, ears cocked, and searching for even the slightest difference... Yeah it's really that easy to fool huge numbers of people...

While I wholeheartedly understand your reluctance to waste time on this "science", I must recommend you for doing so

Absolutely brilliant!

You peaked my interest. Figuring that lump sum parameters are all that are really important here, I found three old RCA cables and wondered what the capacitance was for them. I was surprised to find that the junk cable that came with a cassette recorder over 45 yrs ago measured the best at ~75pf. And a high end video cable from Monster measured at ~85pf. Then a Radio Shack AV cable measured ~175pf for the audio and strangely ~110pf for the composite (Y). All cables were about the same resistance. So even the worst cable if driven with a 600 ohm source won't hit the 3dB down point until over 1.4MHz.

Keep up the awesome work. Love watching these.

If humility is the willingness to publicly display one's ignorance, the author of this paper appears to be quite humble.

Thanks Amir. It is very sav that there is so much nonsense like this in our hobby. The truth is that audio frequencies are barely above DC and most budget cables are perfectly fine. Coat hanger wire to connect speakers may not look pretty but will have no audible effect on sound quality. It is only at Radio Frequencies that cables and connectors become important. At very high frequencies it becomes more like plumbing, but this does not apply in any way to audio.

The "professor" might have been sponsored by a cable manufacturer. Let's see who is going to refer to this "research" and market it as proof.

Excellent work, Amir. Thanks for being the voice of reason.

Amir, One of the things I appreciate most about your videos is how you make your points without being disrespectful or confrontational. Just plenty of facts, proof and science. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

Lol of course they are considering frequency loss above 100khz. They can't show cables matter if they consider human hearing range. The funny thing is that a lot of high end cable performs worst than regular stranded wire. Aren't they lucky that we can't actually hear a difference.

Hilarious mistakes! I'm in tears from laughing. Yet another brilliant video Amir.

Techno-Babble is what this is called. Thank you for the honest review of the review.

What do I enjoy more than your knowledge? You’re self confidence… its amazing! Keep up the great work sir.

Thank you for breaking down that paper. I saw Jay’s video and one other … very disappointing to see people who don’t understand testing & engineering latch on to this paper and hold it up as fact … as you mentioned up front, when the paper doesn’t get into the specificity of the cables, etc., preventing anyone from replicating the measurements, it should immediately put up a “red” flag as to the paper itself. My take away from reading the paper was that it’s a justification paper for high end cables that not even the manufacturers can back up with measurements. Thanks again Amir!!

Amir, great respect for your analytical and objective approach towards reviews and in my opinion that's the correct way. I'm still laughing after watching Jay's video where he is so happy that finally he discovered a scientific paper that proves something, at least he thinks. Hilarious and sad in a same time.

It's nice to see someone with the knowledge to debunk these wild claims. Personally I have noticed changes in sound quality from one RCA to the next but that was simply down to poor fitment and oxidation creeping in after 15yrs of use.

Lol that's a 10/10 thumbnail, made me laugh out loud in train

I am so glad I have not fallen into the serious audiophile rathole. Thank you for validating my ability to enjoy my $600 speakers, $600 receiver (Yamaha R-N602 with built-in DAC), my generic interconnects and 16 GA Zip-cord speaker wire (from that famous American audiophile store called "The Home Depot"), strung willy-nilly without "lifters". Even though your typical audio setup exceeds my car budget, I still enjoy these science based debunking videos, even though I would never have the patience to sit through some random KZfaqr like Kuncher trying to convince me I need $500 audio cables.

Honestly, audiophiles couldn’t care less whether it measures differently. If they sound different, that’s what does matter to them and that’s why people choose different speaker cables because different cables can accentuate certain specific characteristics. Audiophiles choose the characteristics they wish to accentuate for their system by what cables they they select.

What a solid piece of work! Well done.

Jay then says measurements aren't important, sorry but we really want to know if we are missing out because some of us take time to upgrade so this work really helps us cheap audiophiles get a better idea of where to take our money. I've always wondered if I'm missing out on anything with these expensive cables. But after learning how electricity and these electronics work, the information i get from Amir correlates with my personal experiences at home. This is honest work, again, thank you.

Peer review is critically important. Unfortunately, it's not always critically done. I've come across multiple peer-reviewed papers over the years that were simply wrong and the generous people who chose to review those papers did not notice the mistakes, whether through lack of competency on the subject or mere oversight. This professor should have asked an EE colleague for help; it could have avoided this entire charade.

I really can't tell you how much I appreciate what you do.

when I saw Jay's video, I heard your voice in my head questioning those assertions :) then this video came out! :D

chasing ever increasing audio gear refinements real or not is like driving on a week long trip , trading in your current vehicle for a beloved better one daily and when having arrived at the destination , forgetting to get out of the car and enjoy the result .

Sadly most people lack the necessary basic education to even understand why the cable differences don't matter (edit: Outside of noise and EMI, of course). Even if you can explain it to them, they wont have the needed knowledge to evaluate your argument vs. the subjectivist one. I have had that similar arguments with, shall we say, certain other "people" on this platform who are also purveyors of audiophile cables and its pretty much hopeless since the necessary concepts are outside of their mental purview. Its not that they are unintelligent. Most are simply ignorant when it comes to technological topics like this.

I spent a year in engineering school studying electrical measurements. It is a discipline that laymen usually find baffling. That is because to measure something accurately and usefully, you must understand it very well. This fellow seems to have replaced that understanding with prejudice. And the the most common error in making measurements is prejudice. This fellow might well have started out in his project definition by saying, "The purpose of this effort is to prove that expensive audio cables are better (in some way) than cheap cables. In this effort, I will work with generalized, readily available asserts to prove that postulate." ..... As an aside, years ago I muted the KZfaqr, Jay, from my accessible group of pundits when I heard him describe the relative position of the volume controls as describing the power output capability of two amplifiers being compared. That demonstrates a 4th grade level of technical understanding. That level of knowledge is fertile fodder for the carnival cable touts. ..... Reluctantly I say, "Lottery tickets are probably a better audiophile investment than expensive interconnect cables."

There's was a story circulating among Russian audiophiles from the 90s about a party held by a wealthy dude who wanted his guests to marvel over his stereo system costing a fortune and while he was not watching one of the guests swapped his graden-hose RSA cable for a throwaway one. Then the host presented his system, played some of his most audiophiliac records and went on about how tough a job this was for him to put all the components together to achieve the fantastic synergy and how every little piece was crucial to the success, including the cables, and then he noticed the throwaway cable and went berzerk.

When you buy or upgrade components in your audio system, you tend to focus a lot more in your listening so you hear things that you've never (think you've never) noticed before when listening under normal circumstances! Placebo is a powerful thing so if buying an expensive cable triggers this effect and you're happy to spend money, then why not!

The differences between cables is most certainly auditable. Note the spelling.

Learned that peer review and replication is just as important as coning up with a scientific paper. Cant't just accept whatever paper is published.

It’s been 3 months since this video had been posted. No videos since. Are you ok?

Amir, One of the craziest papers I have ever heard. Talking about SWR in an Audio Cable (Standing Wave Ratio(s)) !

Someone on the internet is going to be massively annoyed that you've used science, facts & experience to show that most "audiophile" stuff is snake oil. Great video!

Oh Amir, great video. When I saw Jay's I was firstly disappointed in Jay for taking comfort in that nonsense and secondly, I was hoping you or Gene might do a rebuttal video and here it is and not just a short 10min one stating how the paper is tripe but instead a real detailed analysis as to why. Lol I don't know why we would have expected less from you though!! Anyway again, great video, I hope the KZfaq algorithm sends watchers of Jay's here next as this deserves many hits.

As an integrated circuit designer who dealt with GHz digital transmission, I signing on what Amir said here ! Thank you for exposing stupid audiophiles!

Hey Amir I dont know if you read comments this late but i think ive found the reason for the buzzing sound in the Focal Elex/Clear. With EQ applied listening to low bass in music has sometimes created a buzz but i literally just realised that when i tilt my head to the left it doesnt do it. I was confused by this but then i found out basically when the driver moves a lot it touches the small hairs from your head and they poke through just enough the touch the driver which causes this buzzing sound. This is my cause however perhaps yours was truly the driver limit becuase i listen at very low volume (-6db pre amp on APO and 34% - 36% volume on my THX Onyx.

Jay is one of those reviewers who would say anything as long as it gets him paid or a piece of free gear. Don’t believe a word he says.

I love when amir roast audiophools.

You are so right about everything as usual! Thank you!

It,s great being 76 years old,everything sounds ok, people should just sit down and listen to the music !!!

Amir, you are awesome and brings me hope that humanity has not lost its mind completely. I don't know what motivates professor Kunchur to do such an utterly flawed report and it puts a great deal of shame on him. Let's see if any cable company is using this nonsense in their marketing.

Well done again, this audio thing is just full of bullshit trying to extract more money out of us. Thank you for another great breakdown.

Excellent job as usual, thank you Amir

Amir's really doing god's work here

So funny how audio works these days. Musicians record with really expensive microphones, producers make is sound really shitty trying to make the record as loud as possible using crappy plugins. Then the mastering enginner destroys the sound even more to make it sound good on boom boxes or cars. Then rich audio freaks come along and try to convince themselves why to buy expensive cables to make that crappy recording sound better while ignoring basic physics.

I just posted this under the Jay's iyagi video on this paper... ( kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l5qCaayQudqvgYU.html ) "A bit of a rant... Note - you do not have to agree, and if you don't like what I have written that's fine - really. This video currently 342 comments and none point out the absurdity of sending a 4ns pulse down a cable intended for audio use as a test method? The paper barely mentions transmission line theory (highly relevant to 4ns pulses and fast transients, but not generally relevant to analogue audio signals). This becomes even more apparent when they try to measure transient response in section 4.4 when sending signals which would require the cable to have a matched terminating impedance and or matched source impedance, but they go with an arbitrary source of 100 ohms and a load of 10k ohms. This is reasonable for audio frequencies, even up to 100kHz or so, but they do not test with a signal that is reasonable for audio. A get it that audiophiles do not like engineering types (like me) questioning their beliefs, and I have little issue with that - they are entitled to their views. But I cannot accept "research" when the basic electrical principles of how signals behave in cables are overlooked to such an extent." Will see what happens....

Amir, you are the best. Thanks for calling these snake oil salesmen and clowns on the carpet. IMO, you are a rare voice of reason in an industry overloaded by fools and slimy idiots.

Awesome and fun video. Kudos!

Well that was interesting! It reminds me of when Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, became obsessed with vitamin c, and made some unfounded claims about its efficacy in treating everything from the common cold to cancer.

I like that you're bringing objectivity to this industry. As a reviewer, and as a human, there are times I get things wrong, but I try hard to make sure I do not. If I am wrong, I won't hesitate to admit it. I hope to never see my face on one of your debunking videos. 😁 I think many audiophiles aren't interested in learning. They would prefer to defend their existing beliefs. Ask them what it would take to change their minds about ______, and they'll likely say, "nothing." They know if they say that something could, someone might provide that information. When someone tells me nothing will change their mind, I know that the conversation is over and it's time to walk away.

He wanted to show expensive cables are better than cheaper ones. He found some random parameters that "demonstrated" the above, most likely by chance. Thanks Amir.

At 11:34 there's a note that says audio wavelength at 20 kHz is 15,000 meters. Is that something different than the wavelength which should be 0.01715 meters at that frequency?