Cable auditions - Hard Work?

Jadem6: That was a really outstanding analysis you provided. Made good sense, to me.

Jadem6

If all of the various lines of KS cables have the same characteristics, and by that I assume you mean -they allow a perfectly square sine wave to pass, then how is the halving of costs accounted for?

thanks
paul

With all due respect to Jadem6 and your excitement over the Emotion, we need to be careful not to jump to the wrong conclusion here.

A perfect square wave is the sum of an infinite series of sin waves. It is impossible to generate exactly, and no wire with any impedance will pass it exactly. In theory, only a wire with resistance, but no capacitance and no inductance, can pass a square wave without creating distortion. So wires with low impedance are preferred if this is the goal.

Kabala-Sosna claims that their Emotion has the lowest overall impedance of 31 competitive cables (which they do not identify). However, it is still not zero. So it would not be accurate to say it can pass a perfect square wave. In fact, it is careless to assert that there is no other cable that can pass a square wave as well as the Emotion, since all other cables have not been tested. If low impedance were the only design goal, it would not be difficult to achieve. However, there are other factors in cable design and these all must be taken into account.

So, Kabala-Sosna is doing something different, and many believe it is better, however, it isn't necessarily "the best" or "totally uncolored" when compared to others. Remember, the cable effect is also dependent on the componants it connects, and these dependencies may override everything else.

I have the Emotion XLRs and find them extremely musical and listenable. However, in my system, I don't believe they are necessarily the most neutral for purposes of a reference. The most neutral is not always the most listenable, but I continue to enjoy them anyway. I don't like neutral food either, and enjoy adding some spice.

Any piece of wire can pass a square wave in the audio frequency range perfectly at the cable lengths we are using, maybe you are mis-interpreting what Joe meant? Maybe he can post a graph showing what he means.

steve

Paul (Oldpet) I can not answer your question without speculating. I will attempt to ger and answer from Kubala-Sosna.

Zargon, I agree with all your comments, and I believe I tried to point these subjective conclusions out.

[So, Kubala-Sosna is doing something different,and many believe it is better, however, it isn't necessarily "the best" or "totally uncolored" when compared to others. Remember, the cable effect is also dependent on the components it connects, and these dependencies may override everything else]

If I failed to get that across properly, I apologies for it does indeed remain subjective.

Steve, I would not be surprised if I mis-inturprited much of what I was told. I do however stand behind the general pholosaphy behind my posted thoughts. Both you and Zargon have put words in my mouth however. Below I copied my words:

"If there is such a thing as a completely neutral set of cables, as has been suggested by Kubala-Sosna about the Emotion cables, it would be hard to prove by listening. The Kubala-Sosna Emotion cables (power cords, interconnects, speaker cable and digital cables) pass a square sign wave through the full audible spectrum. This is the only test I know of that can quantify a cables ability to transfer a signal without altering the characteristics of the signal. I can not verify the point, but KS explains that other cables they have tested are not able to pass a completely square wave throughout the frequency spectrum. If I understand this correctly, that means all the other cables he tested were not able to transfer the signal un-altered. I do not know if this creates neutrality or simply affects the dynamics, but..."

"OK, for the sake of argument let me say that the KS Emotion are as close to neutral…"

"If you are interested in hearing your components I recommend finding a neutral cable."

"I believe Kubala-Sosna cables are 100% neutral,"

"I believe all three, actually five lines of KS cables have the same characteristics. I actually know very little about the other lines, other than…"

I never did claim a perfect square wave and I hedge the neutrality issue with “IF” there is …

This is a concept “we” audiophiles throw around a lot, yet I’m not even sure what neutral is. I assume it to be something with little affect on the audio signal, and yet I have tried to make it clear I have no test to verify this. So if we need to nit-pick over my words, please use my words and not others.

I stand by the intent of my words, that these are unique to my ears, and I do believe they are break through. I understand this is only my personal experience, but my experience on five different systems, and in all cases it has had the same affects.

JD