2. cables
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The Science of Cables

It seems to me that there is too little scientific, objective evidence for why cables sound the way they do. When I see discussions on cables, physical attributes are discussed; things like shielding, gauge, material, geometry, etc. and rarely are things like resistance, impedance, inductance, capacitance, etc. Why is this? Why aren’t cables discussed in terms of physical measurements very often?

Seems to me like that would increase the customer base. I know several “objectivist” that won’t accept any of your claims unless you have measurements and blind tests. If there were measurements that correlated to what you hear, I think more people would be interested in cables. 

I know cables are often system dependent but there are still many generalizations that can be made.
128x128mkgus
prof
1,741 posts
 
douglas,

That's terrific!  Nice to see.

I'll take a look at the articles further when I have time.

Where you able to discern differences between AC cables using blind testing/ABX?   If so, that would be the first example I've ever seen before.

glupson
1,794 posts
 
"Engineers developed wiring systems with low-reactance cable for use in the Apollo lunar missions and other mission-critical NASA projects, such as the International Space Station."
How much were they?
douglas_schroeder
1,824 posts
 
prof, yes, I was able to discern power cables as well. I will not pretend I have super hearing. The cables were not easy at all to discern at matched level. They seemed much closer in sound characteristics when ABX and matched level than when in normal use. But, the ABX was testing one leg of cabling, not the entire set. I was successful at identifying power cords with high percentage of accuracy, whereas amplifiers I could not. Frank Van Alstine and I had a wonderful conversation about that only after the review, so as to not introduce any bias. That's when I learned that at AVA the amps were the only parts of the system they could not ABX well, i.e. get significantly greater than 50% identification, either. Our results, though unknown to us at the time of the review, were parallel. 

That puts an exclamation point on the results, I'd say! 

Will that change many skeptics' minds? Probably not. Some people have incredible faith in their doubt.  :(
douglas_schroeder
1,824 posts
 
BTW, I did NOT invite NASA to my testing.  ;) 
douglas_schroeder
1,824 posts
 
Now to go listen to this new preamp under review; it's INCREDIBLE! It blows the doors off all the others! The sound is AMAZING. It is 50% BETTER than anything out there... 

But not as good as Schroeder Method.  LOL  ;)


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