What do audiophiles want from a cable?


What should a high quality interconnect or speaker cable do to the sound of a system? Make it more transparent? Improve the sound stage and focus? Soften unpleasant highs? Tighten the base? Bring out the mids?

To me, a good cable should reveal more of what is on the recording and more of the true nature of my components. So when trying new cables, I look for more detail and accuracy without becoming cold and clinical. This seems logical, and yet after reading reviews and trying a few of the cables in the reviews, I find that the cables that have received glowing endorsements are not especially transparent or revealing. They modify the sound, but they don’t take me where I want to go. I wonder if the reason I don’t hear what the reviewer heard is that I don’t know what to listen for. Am I too focused on cable accuracy and resolution, and not enough on actual sound quality? Or is it just a case of no two systems sounding alike so why trust a review anyway? Thanks.
mward
inna
2,828 posts
11-07-2016 10:38pm
If there is a floor vibration - yes. I have almost none unless the volume is very high, I don't listen at such volume level.

almost none? I wouldn't think so, you know, what with the floor vibration produced by traffic, subways, Earth crust motion, those kinds of things. 

award

Great great question.....I think that your cables should be a base line to judge all you components with. There are no fixes when it comes to cables. Some are bright some restrict the sound. These are just adjustments for a component that you are not happy with. 

Your thoughts? 

helomech

I am very interested in those cables. Do you know what comet that was? 

My plan is to bury then under the foot of Mt. Fuji for at 5 years to bring out the true sonic characteristics. Hopefully then they will make my crappy sounding system sound halfway decent. 
cables don't "restrict the sound"

some cables will act like inductors or capacitors to modify the sound

if like it, call it euphonic distortion

if you don't, then call it distortion
I aim for high resolution, clean, grainless sound which is natural, smooth, fairly neutral to slightly warm in tonal balance, harmonically rich, well balanced top to bottom (ie: not overly emphasized bass or rolled off top end) & well built. I use Jorma cables in my system which are made from extremely pure copper, ceramic, wallnut & pure, uncolored teflon.