I have one about cables, though not about the claim that "audiophile" brands provided better sound than do others. All companies have to create a market for their products, and in the 1980’s one emerging player in the audiophile cable business did so by claiming a cable using the "golden ratio" formula for the size of it’s conductors provides better sound than one that doesn’t. He also claimed that higher frequencies tend to propagate down thinner wires, lower frequencies down thicker---like an electronic/mechanical filter or cross-over.
Frank Van Alstine is an old-school EE who relishes debunking what he considers false claims, and he viewed George Cardas’ claim about wire gauge and frequencies as one. So at one CES Frank proposed to the Cardas team that he plug a cable made from only the thinnest wires Cardas uses into a wall power outlet, and one of the Cardas people grab the other end---you know, to see if the 60Hz electricity would travel through the cable, electrocuting the person holding it. They silently stared back at him at him, the sound of chirping crickets filling the room.
The fact that the Cardas claim for the sonic superiority of the "golden ratio" formula in cable design and construction may or may not be factual is a separate issue from how Cardas cables sound, of course. Wire gauge is only one factor in cable design, but Cardas made it a very important, in fact the MOST important, element in his cables.
