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Do Cable Makers Know Their Own Products?

Like most of you, I have owned cables from many different manufacturers. How many of these cables are truly distinct from similar products put out by competing manufacturers? In my experience, there are some truly distinct cables out there but most fall into a gray area when they meet my system.

I was wondering if manufacturers would be able to recognize their own cables if they were put in a room with a high end system with someone conducting true A/B testing. For the sake of argument, let's say we put 5 top manufacturers in a room to test their top interconnects, speaker cables and power cords -- and their next-to-top interconnects, speaker cables and power cords. That means 5 manufacturers listening to 10 models of each cable. Before the testing begins we give them an hour to get used to the sound of this system. Would they be able to pick out their own cables?
sabai
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
How is it that their new cable has a black background, the next version has a blacker background, the next version has an ink black background, the next version has a jet back background, the next version has an ultra black background -- and the next version will have a (fill in the blank) black background.

How much blackness can a person take? Does it ever end or does the blackness just keep on getting blacker and blacker? And how can you tell the difference between black, blacker, blackest -- and blacker yet -- in these 10 different cables from 5 different cable makers?
mt10425
1,138 posts
 
Sabai, how about the description "neutral"? How can a cable (or any component) be "more neutral" than another? More or less neutral? To the right or left of neutral?
sabai OP
2,027 posts
 
Mt10425,
That is a very good question. What the heck does neutral mean?
reb1208
518 posts
 
"Neutral" in the context of audio to me always meant that a stereo system is capable of reproducing the sound of a recording without altering it. How one actually knows the sound of a recording is another story! LOL
rrog
1,958 posts
 
Sabai,
Reb1208, Do all of your recordings have a similar character or do they have their own character? Do all of your recordings tend to be on the lean side, the warm side or are they somewhere in between?
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