I'm genuinely confused, because the rest of this channel is all about making speakers measure better, with no mention ever about how they sound before measuring and looking at the crossover components/etc. But the argument here seems to be that measurements don't matter, because you can't actually measure what sounds good, but apparently only for cables? Seems really convenient...measurements are king when you're selling a new crossover to "fix" a speaker that measures poorly, but when you want to sell a new power cable that doesn't have a measurable difference either in the cable or in the sound suddenly measurements suddenly don't matter at all. Ironically, audiophiles are often criticized for caring too much about measurements when comparing speakers/headphones/iems, because we all know you can't measure things like soundstage width and depth, imaging, instrument separation, etc. Yet when it comes to outrageously expensive cables and even amplifiers/dacs to some degree, measurements suddenly mean nothing to audiophiles because 'they don't tell you enough about how it sounds.' The only consistency is that it's always about justifying something more expensive, far past the point of diminishing returns. I get using good materials for cable and having good electrical connections is important. That's common sense, and we've all had cheap earbuds cut out or quit working from a cable going bad when we were kids. But when it comes to IMPROVING the sound, I have yet to hear any explanation (scientific or not) as to how cables can actually make a significant difference past a certain point. Every time this is discussed and someone does use the scientific method of testing as blindly as possible by listening for themselves, they get flamed because their DAC is too cheap, or their is to "sterile", or their speakers are only $2,000 and they need to be $25,000 to fully appreciate the subtle nuance of the specific weave in the power cable. Honestly the whole flat earther nickname is a huge irony as well, because the better comparison to flat earthers is the people that try to argue this so vehemently. Flat earthers can go to their conventions and enjoy theorizing and believing what they want together, and everyone else leaves them alone because they choose to ignore established scientific knowledge that is just common sense at this point in the existence of our species. But at the end of the day they are the minority, no matter how loud they are, or how many mortgages they had to take out for their speaker system. I have no problem with the argument that you should listen and a/b test yourself to see if you hear a difference. But I'm not going to spend $8k on a headphone cable to test whether it has a touch more "air" at 19kHz. If you want to spend the money on the setup to compare and demonstrate it sure. I'll listen with a completely open mind. But even if I hear that little bit of difference, even if I think it improves the sound, I'm never spending $8000 on that cable. The difference will never be worth it. I'm honestly somewhere in the middle because I know that measurements are necessary when designing audio gear, and can be useful when comparing gear to some degree. But when people start trying to sell obscenely expensive components like cables, claiming things with scientific terms that don't have any relevance to the application (unequal length speaker cables causing transmission line effects for example), then there's a serious problem. It very quickly becomes false advertising and deception. If you're going to speak subjectively then don't use scientific terms to try to describe something that those terms have nothing to do with. We have plenty of applications, such as ethernet at high data rates, where minute differences in cables can cause significant negative affects. And we have the capability to measure and compensate for those things with cable design etc. But in audio somehow all this actual knowledge of signaling and engineering just seems to get thrown out the window when it comes to things like cables, but terminology still gets taken and thrown around completely out of context and often with no relevance to the application, particularly when trying to sell something. You can buy your audio jewelry and I will not have any complaints, I'll buy some myself within reason because I like nice looking things just like anyone else. You can tell me it honestly makes your listening experience more enjoyable and I won't argue with you one bit. But if I can't hear a difference and it doesn't make my listening experience better, it's not going to be worth trying to convince me otherwise because I'm never going to buy your expensive cable if I can't hear a difference from a $50 or $100 cable. Especially if it measures identically according real science and what we are able to measure based on our current understanding of human hearing as well.

I've seen and heard enough proof that assures me connectors make no difference whatsoever (unless the original is faulty). Cable sellers at elevated prices should be closed down.

Hello Danny, I grew up believing that speaker cables have no effect on sound. I still own this opinion till today, but only because the arguments I heard did not convince me. If there are better arguments in the future, I'll be happy to change my opinion. I am bothered by the following: 1. Everybody who has worked on house electrics will know which small cable diameters are used for power lines in the walls. The chain is tearing at its weakest part, so why should I consider buying a expensive amplifier power cable, which is as thick as a finger, when beforehand the current flows through only a few mm² of normal, low quality copper ? 2. I am a vintage audio fan who owns a old Yamaha CA-610 amplifier. Since I replaced the old transistors and capacitors in the amplifier, I know through which small cables and components the signal has to "squeeze" before it reaches the speaker output terminal. Yes, it's over 40 years old, but the build quality back then was much better than most of today's consumer amplifiers. So again, why should I invest $350 into speaker cables that are as thick as a finger, when beforehand the signal flows through small cables and components made out of normal quality metals? And don't tell me that today's amplifiers only use high quality copper for their internal wiring. They don't. 3. Same goes for the cheap quality crossovers in speakers. My priority list for good sound would look like this: 1. Get your hands on high quality music and recordings. Don't play highly compressed 50-times remastered music... garbage in -> garbage out! 2. Invest in good room acoustics. (You hear up to 70% of the room reflections and only 30% directly from the speakers) 3. Build your own speakers with a good crossover and high quality parts. 4. Look for a amplifier that suits your needs. You don't need to spend a fortune for that thing. 5. If all of the things above are done, you are free to invest your spare money into things like speaker cables etc. Kind regards

I am an aerospace engineer (scientist) and I agree with your approach completely. The objective here is to find the best sounding speaker cables. That is accomplished by "testing" different cables (A B tests). Our "test equipment" is our ears and brain. Then, once we have determined the best sounding cables we can measure the cables in an attempt to better understand what makes the speaker cables sound the way we want them to sound (better). Now, with these different measurements we have a quantifiable way to modify the cables and see if the changes improve the way the cables sound. I suspect that is what you did to come up with; probably everything you sell. Thanks for all of the help you give the audio community. By the way, at my job we prove the Earth is not flat every day.

The "All science flat-earthers?" I think you got your camps mixed. It makes more sense that someone who believes the earth is flat, also believes that noise in the Mhz-range in speaker cables affect sound quality. The science doesn't stick in either case.

OK, do you want to end this ? Call Audiohilics, both of you go to a listening room, get some really really good speakers and really good amps/dacs/source. Place a giant AT transparent black velvet or something, so you won't be able to see if cables are changed or not and do a A / B comparison. Do 10/20 test runs listening to the same song and Gene will swap or not swap the cables and lets see how many times you "guess" to which cable you are listening to.

Agree that listening is needed along with measurements to prove one cable sounds different than another, but shouldn’t it be done via some sort of blind study?

Cables do matter, don't buy crap. I bought a pair of used 8 foot long Kimber Kables 8TC on eBay. I was replacing a pair of 8 foot long Monolith by Monoprice speaker cables 12 gauge and PE coating. They were also good. I couldn't tell the difference but the Kimber Kables are blinggier so I'm happy. The moral of the story is, if you don't use crap. A lot of good quality speaker cable will work just as well as the more expensive stuff. Sounding different does not mean sounding better. If a cable is tuned to sound a certain way, then you're buying that tuning, not a "better" cable.

I believe the placebo effect has a greater effect than the actual effect of using better cables. If you don't believe you will hear a difference, you probably won't If you do believe you'll hear a difference, you probably will If you've measured a difference, you'll be looking for it when you listen

I'm no scientist. I've heard my speaker cables improve the sound of my speakers from lighter gauge cables to heavier gauge oxy free cables. The biggest difference was in attenuation. I heard the sound coming through at a higher level of volume. And clarity during low levels of volume was improved as well. From generic 16 gauge clear shielded store bought cable initially, to then upgrading to Furez 12 gauge cable with fancy braided covering added along with Sewell Deadbolt terminations. (Which let's face it, is only a small upgrade compared to the current market) I heard nothing at all change when borrowing a friend's super duper high priced state of the art speaker cable with soldered connections bought from a company who shall remain nameless. ZERO difference. He tried, but he failed. No ifs ands or buts. I've heard a difference in crossover networks being upgraded. I've heard a difference while introducing DSP. I've not heard, not will I probably ever hear and difference in any upgraded power cord. I own a new $3000.00 Sony STR ZA5000ES flagship processor and the power cords we tried did not make any discernable difference whatsoever in blind listening tests. It was an exhausting weekend of trials. What we concluded was that longer runs of speaker cable DEFINITELY matter when considering the gauge. And DSP is some very interesting tech. Upgraded passive crossover networks yield clarity especially discerning faint sounds at low level. And experimenting with expensive stuff can be fun and there is nothing inherently wrong with using materials that look and feel upgraded from stock. And simply hearing a "difference" doesn't always imply an "improvement." -✌🏼

The big metal rods in concrete are called rebar. LOL

This shirt is awesome!!! XD And totally agreed, by the way! *added: Thanks for beeing so courageous handling this topic. There are so many guys out there, listening with their eyes.

Also, changing the shock CAN make a car go faster - around a track where cornering speeds are the limiting factor. Just saying. This also supports the idea that we don't yet know what to measure. First scientist: "Hey look at this; this cable is exactly 6 feet long." Second scientist: " So is this one, so they are exactly the same, right?"

There's the guys that are convinced that op amps can't possibly sound different and if they do it's because of the circuit they sit in. I'm convinced their audio systems being very crappy is the reason they can't hear a difference. Well that's if they bothered to try.

That's the NASA logo on your shirt. "We Checked" = having explored the flat earth question from space, they've done the science. Brilliant!

So you measure the sound of your crossovers with a frequency sweep. You can do the exactly the same with cables.Just show us a frequency sweep of a common heavy copper mains cable against an expensive audiophile cable and a show us the difference in the frequency response. Easy! Come on do it!

Hearing things subjectively is real science, not the measurements?

I’m sure some of you have heard me say this before, but both Peter Q from Audio Note and Herb Reikert said something like, “We can hear most of what we can measure, but we can’t always measure everything we can hear”. I tend to believe in people who have experience and have been in the game for as long as those two as well as Danny. Btw, If you’ve got an insulting or infantile comment, don’t bother. I’ve already heard them all, and I’ve also heard a difference between cables. Everything in the audio chain makes a difference and it all adds up.

OMG. A series about transporting electrons from A to B.

"Good audio" is one heck of a conundrum. Objective measurements have come a long way in creating correlation with what to expect from sound, but I do get the feeling that sites like ASR are missing a piece of the puzzle. I think they have amplifier characterization nailed, but there's definitely something missing from their speaker measurements, and Amir seems to acknowledge it. He's mentioned he likes speakers that don't "measure" well and vice versa. But this shouldn't serve as evidence that measurements are meaningless - it indicates that additional tests need to be added to the suite which quantity the noticed difference. But of course, a "noticed" difference needs to be proved with a double-blind test. It's nonsense to say "this difference can only be heard, it's impossible to measure!". On the other hand, it's also nonsense to look at only frequency response graphs and distortion plots and conclude that is everything you need to know about a sound system. Those characteristics do matter, and fluctuations in those measurements create incredibly obvious differences, which is why they are a great starting point, but they aren't the only measurements that need to be made.

Couldn’t say it better ! Well done !

According to engineers, cables affect sound but cables transparent to audio frequency signals can be made very cheaply. Expensive hifi cables can be just as good unless they unintentionally messed up some parameter actual engineers care about.

How come someone just doesn’t perform a blind test with say 100 people or more, collect the data and put this discussion to rest?

2 flat response speaker does not mean they sound the same. Same with wires. If both measuring the same doesnt mean they will sound the same. Pls continue educating people danny. Goodjob👍

10:40 "This all comes down with music enjoyment" So audiophile 10 000$ a meter cable is just a "placebo" of making you think the cable sounds better because it costs more. Like the good old heavier amp vs lighter amp.

I am not a scientist. I am not a Flat Earth guy. ( although, a flat earth could possibly make for an awesome speaker diaphragm, for projecting music towards the sun. Just a thought...lol) : D Cables, in my opinion, are conduits. Nothing more, nothing less. What sounds the best, is subjective: to each individual's personal musical preferences / expectations, physiological hearing preferences, and room acoustics. i.e. people with tinnitus are extremely sensitive to aggressive high frequencies and excessive treble levels. ( just one example) High quality materials / construction, excellent conductivity and smart engineering for cables: absolutely makes a difference. Science and measurements are important. At the end of the day, it will always come down to individual preferences, and the above mentioned contributing factors. One man's smooth, musical crescendo......is another man's dull decent into boredom. One man's exciting, lively high frequency / treble extension....is another man's excruciating ice pick through the brain. Gather 20 people around you, and try to agree what three toppings to get on some pizzas. Good luck with that : D Thanks for the video!!

Agree with you Danny about the listening tests. But, they must be double blind tests to be valid.

If there is any difference that could be heard I am pretty sure it could be measured as well. You just need to know what to measure and how to do that.

How is listening science ..... especially with the placebo effect. At the very least it should be a blind test. Until we get to the speakers it’s all electrical. So if there is a difference then it should be measurable, definitely with a cable. I think

Love the T-shirt! How appropriate! You're a brave soul! Thanks for venturing out of the 'audio bunker'!

Best video on KZfaq. Thank you Danny

Love your Channel Danny, Thank you for doing what you do.

Danny = Flat Responser

If there is a difference, wouldn't the cable just color the sound ? Wouldn't it make more sense to want a cable that is as neutral as possible to lower the amount of variables in your system ?

thanks Danny - thank goodness you are approaching this in a logical, common sense way. Measurements are intended to be tools to help us getter better sound not the other way around. Extreme objectivists can’t seem to grasp this.

Love the T-shirt Danny !

iWii Reviews here on KZfaq just did a Cheap vs Expensive Interconnect Cable with SOUND DEMO last month. You can clearly hear, even through KZfaq, that there is a difference between the interconnects

I like your videos, man. You are the real deal. Thanks for sharing all the great info and please keep it up.👍By the way, if that's the worst "senior moment" you ever have, you'll be in great shape, lol. Rebar isn't the first thing on our minds anyway, speakers...and women...are!🤑 Maybe not in that order, but we all know speakers and women usually aren't found in the same sentence...or same room together😁

I appreciate your work to help us enjoy music more!

Very interesting. Cannot wait to hear the rest. Ultimately, at some point in the future, we will be able to quantify and measure these differences that some of us can hear between amplifiers/DACs/cables etc. that measure similarly. Just because we do not have the tools and knowledge to be able to quantify these differences today using electronic measuring equipment does not mean that we can totally discard the fact that our ears and brains are telling us that there is a difference.

Did you see Next Best Thing Studio trick? Posting randomly that he would change one component and record it. Post the files to compare then ask people to guess what it was. easy to hear a difference in recordings. And knowing he had a bunch of Amps in line for review that was most of the guesses. but the shocker was he borrowed high-end cables :D

Mr Muscleman uses various sophisticated precision (his words) instruments in measuring cable differences. He also has an engineering degree. That's well and good! Unfortunately those measuring instruments are not capable of sensing sound stage, imaging, layering, width, depth, height etc. But the human (trained) ear can sense all these. NO engineering degree needed.

I heard a good explanation for those that don't hear difference in cables, it was about those that was not so used listeners or was not so much interested in HIFI! And did make a comparison for those that is interested in cars because many of them could point out what car it was just hearing the sound of the engine compared to those that was not so interested in cars. So this could been applied for us that is into the HIFI hobby, the more we listen the more we get experienced listeners and can hear the differences!

Guys, you have to understand that Danny has a conflict if interest because he sells his beliefs.

Now I begin to understand why they send him that shirt.

Dear Danny, many of us like to watch many of your videos because you are obviously a great speaker/crossover designer. And in all your videos you show your measurements and if the measurements are not as good as you want then you change capacitors and inductors to make the measurements and the sound better. So far all is perfectly fine. And now you insult your listeners who look at measurements and capacitance and inductance and you call them flat-earthers. Do you think that is fair? And why talk about big aluminum cable or steel rods? Nobody is using those! If you want to compare your cables then please compare i.e. 12AWG copper cables with gold plates connectors (because of no corrosion) with your special cables. And if you like not only do measurements but also make double blind tests and look how many people will be able to hear a difference. I would love to see a double blind test with let's say 10 people and look how many of them are able to hear that your cables are better. But please be fair. Compare your special cables with good cables like 12AWG copper cables with gold plates connectors. Be fair and open minded. And please don't insult your listeners and customers. Thank you Danny

I'm with you, Danny.

There are many variables that are hard to measure but definitely effect the sound. Dielectric absorption - the amount of energy needed to charge and discharge the insulation; rectification noise - the sound of electrons jumping from strands to strands on multi stranded cables; contaminants in the conduction material itself; different time arrivals of the signal itself at different frequencies (skin effect is one cause); effects of inductance, capacitance, resistance. And their are more, but this is a good starting point.

Great video! “Using what they can measure to justify their beliefs.” Beautifully put Danny, it is an ideology.

Measurements or a tool. Measurements are this in there for that. Measurements show you what’s wrong or what needs work. But you can’t measure differences in cables you have to listen to them. Got it

make a sound test with different cables and show us the difference

I'm in the middle of this video, and you just mentioned a listening test. But you _have_ to do a blind test. There are known ways to deal with the problems with psychology and placebo effects. A fair blind test is hard to set up, but it is possible with some effort and expense. I get very flustered by bad arguments being made on both sides.

you could absolutely apply scientific principles here of hypothesis and testing - have someone swap cables back and forth while you listen and show us that you can tell which cable is being used, blindly, with a high degree of accuracy. i still haven't seen that video. if anything the flat earth crowd should be equated with those who think that differences in (high signal level) cables are absolutely discernible. i want to buy your crossover upgrade for my newly-acquired LRS but this is making me reconsider...

3:24 The earth isn't Flat. It isn't Round either. It is closer to Sphere.

Technically, the world isn't flat nor round....its spherical! ;-)

I'm taking neither side here. With my ears and my equipment, and the few cables I've been able to try, I've only once been able to hear any difference (and it was a clear difference, but one of the cables was super cheap and nasty). But there are people on both sides of the cable argument whose expertise and opinions I respect, and my own limited experience is really not sufficient. So here's one thing that really does puzzle me... Most of us don't have the money to buy lots of different expensive cables and compare them ourselves, so we have to rely on what reviewers say. And the gold standard for comparisons is the double blind test. So, given that this controversy has been going on for decades, and some properly designed double blind tests could surely settle it one way or another, why aren't they being done?

Oop, there goes Danny setting internet fires again! ;P Looking forward to the next few videos in the series! In my little experience, a solid, clean connection from the amp to the crossover makes the biggest difference in clarity, while higher quality cables themselves lend themselves to a deeper/wider soundstage. Sadly no personal experience with power cords, I've only got the most stock/standard/generic onces available. :P

Almost ALL science is just measurements to justify an assumption. Real breakthroughs happen when the data change those assumptions but advances come when we figure out how to get the actually important data by inventing new methods of measuring and when we figure out what to actually measure. There is more that we do not yet know than what we do - maybe.

Why is it important to have filtering speaker cables when the cables inside the speakers tend to be of the basic kind? Sure, they are normally less exposed to other components (amps and power cables). Can the copper wire used in the coils in the crossover also work as a antenna? Would shielding the crossover give a improvement in sound?

I like big nice cables for the feeling they give. But I don' t hear any difference whatsoever. Which is a perfectly fine reason for me to have them, as long as you can still pay your bills afterwards..

If it rattles less, it goes faster too. You spend less time vertically and more horizontally, hence more time going forward. You'll arrive at your destination faster.

Good to stir the usual opposing positions and arguments again. But having borrowed and tried different interconnects and speaker cables just for fun. I have noticed subtle differences sonically...but found that good cheap ofc cables for speakers and belden for inters just sounded the best flavour for me. Which luckily was pretty cheap to buy and custom make to size. Never liked those silver tinned speaker cables for some reason...but then I'm old school lol.

Speakercables is a part as the amplifiers secondary loop and must be sized to handle it`s dynamic potencial without restricting it.

If there were any differences, they would be extremely tiny in the overall scheme of things within the audio chain. I once knew a bloke who had the pins of his mains plug gold plated, and he said he was amazed at the improvement in openness and clarity of his audio system.

Looking forward to hearing the difference myself someday! Thanks again Danny. Cheers

When the whole flat earth thing really flared up, I found something really fascinating. I noticed that those who argued and ridiculed the flat earth believers, for the most part, had equally flawed logic supporting their belief that was spherical.... They might be right, but they certainly didn't have any reason for their intellectual smugness. Even deGrass Tyson said some quite dopey things about it - presenting 'proofs' that weren't proofs.

I would like to see a new cable test designed to introduce specific distortions into various sample cable types so we can see how the various cables handle the interference. The people saying that cable types don't make a difference are not testing under the correct experimental conditions/parameters. Ex: EMP through two diff style cables with the same Inductance values will not produce the same effect.

British audiophile (Tarun) covers this topic well balanced.

Please also do a video in treatment and room acoustics ....there is no point to have the best speakers in the world in a poor room ....

Resistance, inductance, capacitance. That's it.

In my over 40 tears as an "audiophile" (since the days of zip cord for speaker cables), this has been a never-ending topic. I have had a ton of brand name cabling - digital SPDIF, interconnects, (RCAs and balanced) speaker cables, power cables. They all made differences, some more obvious than others - from soundstage, imaging, frequency response (subjective) differences - some making the whole system sound like a million bucks (to my ears) to sounding like a boom box. to bright enough to make your ears bleed. I could care less about the flat -earthers, that is why there is a market for hundreds audio cable brands. Period.

Seems pretty easy to me. If you hear a difference, an improvement, do it. If you don't, don't do it. Everybody doesn't hear the same thing to begin with. I have a serious case of tinnitus, from playing on a lot of loud stages. There aren't any filters out there that will block that off, it's always there. I can still tell the difference between something that sounds better than something else, but there's that ring, that will always be there too.

Cables definitely make a difference, but it doesn't mean expensive cables are always better than cheaper cables. I have a set of Tara Labs RCA interconnect cables that make my whole system sound warmer. If you can't tell the difference between that cable and My Monster Cables or audioquest cables then you are deaf.

Again, subjective listening is a million miles away from science Danny!

measurements are all very well. It is good, from an engineering point of view, to know a speaker is functioning correctly. But what I want out of a pair of speakers is for a double bass to sound like a double bass and a bassoon to sound like a bassoon. Their are no laboratory instruments that will tell you that. If I am listening to a musical instrument playing a note a 500hz, It is of relatively minor importance that I am hearing it at the correct dB level if it sounds like a sine wave. A frequency response graph does not tell you if a violin sounds like a violin.

Have you ever considered characterizing cables by using an impulse test? Similar to the impulse test used by the Absolute Sound and Stereophile to characterize a crossover? My thinking is that such a test would show how the cable responds to a wide frequency input. Because ultimately a cable is a crossover - loaded on one end and provided an input on the other.

Don’t sell our ears short on what they can discern. Even the average person can tell there is something wrong with their car engine just by the sound of it. They may not know what it is but they can hear that it doesn’t sound normal. An experienced mechanic will often know specifically what the problem is from the sound (or at least what to look for). Our ears seem to be able to focus in on minute details like a loose valve tappet might make a faint metallic sound but the mechanic hears it “clear as a bell”. I doubt that a spectrum analysis of the sound would be able to show you the issue as clearly. So measurements have their place but so do listening tests.

Interesting argument. Ive actually wondered about this recently. Not necessarily about cables, but with other audio products.

Lol, there better be an A/B test at the end of this.

It's funny that you claim that somebody is just confirming their beliefs while "not using science", because you are doing exactly that. This video is 6 minutes of claiming that "cable non-believers" are full of bullsh**, and then for another 7 minutes the only "scientific" thing that you say is "inductance". Whoa! And quoting the movie: you are not doing any science, you are just doing enough to hold to your beliefs. Scientific method is straight as a wire and guess what! You are not using it!

Cardas Audio because I like sacred geometry lol

It's an art. And it works. But you have to also have a decent system and skills to really be able to hear differences between cables. There is also a lot of gear out there that is so bad, that going from the worst to best cables, almost is impossible to hear. Also not only are many not measuring the right things. Many times it just is not possible to measure these things.

All cables sound different. However overpriced fancy silver or gold core cables that only rich people can afford are not at all necessary to get satisfying hifi sound to average working people who like quality hifi they can actually afford. They will buy the best sounding $100 cable over some $1,000-$10,000 cable & be perfectly happy with it, because it's good enough to them. Economics matter.

I agree…

Sure, do some multiple blind ABX listening tests

My thoughts: some audio components are like STEAK! Take two steaks. One steak from El Cheapo market that came from a cow locked in a pen from day 1 and shovel fed corn, and another steak from a rancher that grazes the cattle in the mountains with fresh water, wild grasses sage and foliage. You take half of both steaks and send them off to a lab for vitamin and mineral fat protein and nutrition analysis. The other half, you cook on a propane grill to medium: no salt, no pepper, no spices no nothing. Lab tests come back, and what do you know, the two steaks have 98% of the exact same and equal amounts of the exact same nutritional elements! Now taste those two steaks, and lo and behold....THEY TASTE TOTALLY DIFFERENT! But science says they are the same. They measure the same, but yet they taste totally different. *NOTE: This does not apply to ALL electronic or audio components.

Jay from "The Next Best Thing Studio" had an interesting test with 5 listeners. Conclusion: yes you can hear, but prference is something else and it would be the last prio. Soundstage made the most difference. (120 vs 4000 $)

Water sticking to spinning balls experiment next please

The analogy to use is like using horsepower how to measure the speed of a sports car ie if you have have two different sports cars with the same horsepower. The no difference people will claim that these two cars will go the same speed, instead of looking at things that also measurable affect like wind resistance gearing weight.

Does silver speaker wire sound different than copper?

Mars landing CGI was legit

@mark rutlidge I’m not trying to start a flame war; however, bad analogy! If you took two or more cars and measured ALL of the variables and all the variables were identical, the cars would indeed perform the same. If you look at Sports Racers, all cars in that racing class measure nearly identical, hence very competitive and driver skill is critical, that is excluding for any creative interpretation of the governing rules - still a bad analogy. If you take wires, determine the critical measurements (measurements that scientifically have been proven to impact human hearing), measure them in a consistent fashion with accurate equipment, they will perform the same. To evaluate the impact of the cables one must truly apply an unbiased, blind, random trial. If you did that and if the test results were able to be reproduced by other unbiased evaluators, you would have ground to make a statement regarding the effect cables have on sound quality - remember you must be able to reproduce the findings. To my knowledge, I haven't been able to find any group purporting the cable effect that has successfully attempted this. If I was in the industry of making audiophile cables, I would find an external unbiased group, a group of doctoral electrical engineering students looking for a project might be a good place to start. I would have that group find colleagues in other electrical engineering programs, and let them have at it. After peer review, all the companies involved would be able to scientifically claim that their cables are better and why. I’m NOT CRITICISING people for exploring the audiophile life style, have at it, change all the components you like until you like the way it sounds, and then change it when the urge to explore overcomes your current state of contentment/discontentment. My issue is with companies making statements, statements for which no critical proof is available. Personally, I like Nelson Pass’s article from 1980, he explores different cables, publishes the results and concludes that it’s not his place to judge, that’s how I feel. www.passlabs.com/technical_article/speaker-cables-science-or-snake-oil/

LoL this will cause some overheated brains, a never ending story. but so interesting tanks for your input

On a commercial level, the reality is that customers can only go by Vendor claims, and or by recommendations, and or by feedback, and or by actually using the product itself. If a product is demonstrably better than what is available in the market place today and can be sold at an affordable price then scientific evidence should be commission to validate this. With such evidence, the product would sell itself. You'd sell millions of these. As improvements involve unknown parameters and therefore cannot be measured, then the focus would revolve around a scientifically conducted blind listening tests using a large sample group and include a variety of components, as well as a variety of speaker cables. Interpretation of such a test would need to be interpretable in accordance with scientific methods.

You mean I have to listen to determine what sounds better? What sorcery is this?

An idea maybe would be to compare the sound that you record from the speakers. Using two really good microphones and with cheap VS audiophile cable. If there is an audible differences it should be possible to show with graphs of frequencies etc right?

I am not on either side on this debate. If cables do matter then why not eliminate them by moving components as close to the speakers as possible? I would think by doing this the damping factor would increase and the effect of the cables would be diminished.

Thanks Danny. Someone in another channel keeps suggesting to people that wire does not matter yet he personally use a hi end one. Such a hypocrite. Wires matter.

Somebody PLEASE try a piece of rebar as a cable and let us know.

Dan d'Agostino always said that the amplifiers that measured good results were not always the ones that sounded the best.