Albertporter: I can't control what you infer from what I write. If you want to infer that I love numbers more than music, go ahead, it can be your own little alternative to reality.
My insistence on ABX testing is to determine what, if anything, sounds different between two devices, systems, etc., in strict terms of what can be heard, and not influenced by marketing hype, pretty appearances, pricing, ego, etc. With essentially side-by-side comparison, it can resolve even fine distinctions more reliably than can sequential absolute evaluations of the type you advocate, which is prone to false detection of non-existant differences through bias, suggestion, or even fakery. Note also that ABX testing, as I had described earlier but it apparently didn't sink in, has nothing to do with numbers, measurements, or specs. Also contrary to Redkiwi's misunderstanding, ABX testing is not limited to short listening periods, but is at the listener's own discretion. Laugh if you like, but you're the one buying $$$$ cables and can't prove they improve anything.
Sedond: If that's what you want to believe I've contributed to audio, go ahead and believe it. Again, reality does not follow what you or I or anyone imagines, however desperately synthesized.
Sean: Resistance in series with an amplifier output does NOT raise the damping factor; it lowers it. The resistance of the speaker wire is parasitic and can be considered part of the output impedance. In particular, it will decrease the amplifier's ability to absorb the back EMF from the woofer. It will also cause a voltage-divider phenomenon, in which frequency-dependent variations in the speaker impedance cause its frequency response to become more irregular.
My insistence on ABX testing is to determine what, if anything, sounds different between two devices, systems, etc., in strict terms of what can be heard, and not influenced by marketing hype, pretty appearances, pricing, ego, etc. With essentially side-by-side comparison, it can resolve even fine distinctions more reliably than can sequential absolute evaluations of the type you advocate, which is prone to false detection of non-existant differences through bias, suggestion, or even fakery. Note also that ABX testing, as I had described earlier but it apparently didn't sink in, has nothing to do with numbers, measurements, or specs. Also contrary to Redkiwi's misunderstanding, ABX testing is not limited to short listening periods, but is at the listener's own discretion. Laugh if you like, but you're the one buying $$$$ cables and can't prove they improve anything.
Sedond: If that's what you want to believe I've contributed to audio, go ahead and believe it. Again, reality does not follow what you or I or anyone imagines, however desperately synthesized.
Sean: Resistance in series with an amplifier output does NOT raise the damping factor; it lowers it. The resistance of the speaker wire is parasitic and can be considered part of the output impedance. In particular, it will decrease the amplifier's ability to absorb the back EMF from the woofer. It will also cause a voltage-divider phenomenon, in which frequency-dependent variations in the speaker impedance cause its frequency response to become more irregular.
