Have you seen any CABLE measurement tests?

measurements do not necessarily correlate to observed sound

Depends what you mean by "observed sound." Our everyday observations of sound are heavily influenced by non-sonic factors--setting, mood, prior opinions about the performers/equipment, etc. Your brain is wired to synthesize information from all your senses, plus stored memories, and that's what it does. Obviously, measurements of sound aren't going to tell you anything about all the non-sonic things that are part of your mental mix when you're listening to something.

But if we isolate our hearing perception from all that non-sonic stuff--by listening without knowing what we're listening to--there is a high degree of correlation between certain measurements and our perceptions. See, for example, the work that Floyd Toole and Sean Olive have done on speaker preferences. A good basic summary is contained here:

http://www.harman.com/about_harman/technology_leadership.aspx

See also Earl Geddes's work in progress here:

http://www.gedlee.com/

hi Pableson, are you saying that cables which measure "better" sound "better" ? are you saying a person listening blind will usually prefer a cable which measures better than another cable ?

are you saying you can predict the "sound" of a cable, again when listening without being influenced by non sonic cues ?

finally what about the particular components feeding and receiving a signal, isn't there an affect of the components being interfaced upon a cables performance ?

why do you need cable measurements? what will they tell you?

can you tell by reading measurements how a partcular cable will sound in your system?

are you saying a person listening blind will usually prefer a cable which measures better than another cable ?

No, I'm saying that a person listening blind will usually not prefer either, because he usually won't be able to tell them apart. When he can tell them apart blind, the measured differences will be substantial, because you need a substantial difference in RLC values to produce an audible difference in frequency response.

IOW, for cables what we can predict from measurements is whether differences will be audible--again, assuming you don't know which is which. If you do know which is which, that knowledge alters your perception.

finally what about the particular components feeding and receiving a signal, isn't there an affect of the components being interfaced upon a cables performance ?

Yeah, but again this is no mystery. If you know the output impedance of the amp, the RLC of the cable, and the impedance curve of the speaker, you (or rather, some software) can plot the FR curve of the cable in that system. In general, the output impedances of solid state amps and the impedance curves of most box speakers are such that most normal cables will not produce audible FR differences. (They may produce level differences because of resistance losses, which is why level-matching is required for good tests.) If you're trying to drive electrostatics with a tube amp, YMMV.

Pabelson,

Thanks for adding some clarity to all the confusion and misinformation about cables.