Speaker wire is it science or psychology

Hello Kat, in the ecample I had in mind, we used LPs, a Spectral cartrige, made by Scantec I think, with a Goldmund Reference at the time. The amps were old Spectral 200 class A and Jadis 200 monoblocks . The Jadis preamp was easy to discern with both amps. It was much more difficult between the Spectral and the Gryphon, but after a while I could make out specific differences between the two- believe or not, by the way certain cembalo pasages in a Bach Suite were resolved in the background. The XLO excelled with the Jadis gear, the MIT with Spectral, so that part was easy. Speakers were Quads.

Detlof, Kat; thanks for the kind words. Cheers. Craig

Garfish: Why do you believe that trying to understand audio technology precludes music appreciation? Understanding how things like wires work can help prevent you from ascribing non-existant characteristics to them, because your senses, or how you perceive what your senses tell you, can be misled by your expectations.

Detlof: Thank you for the clarification. How closely did you match the levels on the preamps, and many trials did you do?

Hi 702; Good post. I agree 100% that I would like to be able to accurately measure more-- it's just that we can't so I resort to much that is more "psychological" in nature, ie how does one measure enjoyment? We have to listen to make that judgement, IMO.

Buying decisions have to be made to get us anywhere as music lovers, and as science can only get us so far, we have to take the necessary steps beyond science to put together a musically satisfying stereo system. Using our senses-- including common sense, also very much makes us an integral part of the process.

I admire the accomplishments of scientists and engineers as without them, we'd have no stereo equipment or recorded music, but without art (music) there would be no need for stereo it. Speaker wires are not even the tip of the iceberg in this issue, IMO.

I was a Forest Soil Scientist for 32 years, and as such I did a great deal of landslide investigation(s)-- used state of the art models etc. But at the end of the day when the Manager had to make a decision about building a road, or logging a timber sale, it virtually always came down to "my professional judgement" to make a recommendation because we never had enough research, studies, information etc. There was was not time, money, or capabilty to do the research we really needed/wanted to make even 75% accurate predictions.

And so it is with audio. And sorry for the diversion. When the scientific info. is available I will be most happy to use it and see if it measures up to my listening standards. We had a rule of thumb-- no one ever has all the research/information he wants. --didn't intend to get so carried away. Whew! Craig.