Best way to hear sonic signature of a cable?

Newbee - I think you are missing out on a big bit.

You should use the new cable for a week or so ( as you suggest ). Put back the old IC ( as you suggest ) - listen for a couple of minutes. THEN swap back to the new cable. That´s when you hear the differance!

I don´t know why, but it´s "harder" to detect the downgrade ( if any ) than the upgrade ( if any ). When you swap in this order you should much easier detect the cables signature.

Done it many times on most tried out gear and cable. Don´t know why - but it´s a SURE teller!

Best,
Mike

A better way is to blindfold yourself and have someone else switch the cables
and see if you can even tell which is which. If you can't, then don't buy the
hype. If the more expensive happens to sound like crap, keep the cheaper
one. Lather, rinse, repeat. Next, take all of the money you were going to
spend on expensive cables and go out and listen to more expensive speakers.
See what kind of speaker upgrade you could get with that money. Ask
yourself which is the larger bang for the buck upgrade. Listen to the different
speakers with your eyes closed or have someone else switch between them --
see if it is as hard to tell the difference between speakers as it is to hear the
difference between cables [while blindfolded]. Ask yourself if you'd rather
have better speakers with inexpensive, but well-performing cables or the
same speakers but with more expensive cables. These are the tests I would
suggest.

Actually, I think Newbee is correct.

When you've run your rig a week with the cable you're evaluating, then swap back to your old cable you instantly "feel" the results.

Do you connect with the music better, or do you instantly feel a loss of involvement? This is what works for me anyway.

I've learned that what seems "better" is often just "different"...this is why cable evaluation takes patience.

try to listen on the most efficient set of speakers possible- you will hear more of the differences...

"try to listen on the most efficient set of speakers possible- you will hear more of the differences..."

This is not always true. One can argue that high efficient speakers has lower requirement. Therefore, you can't hear as bigger difference because it doesn't draw as much current/voltage through the cable. I found the less efficient setups can hear the same amount of differences too. It really depends on your overall setup.

Consistency is the key to test the sonic signature. It doesn't matter how many setups you test, you should always get identical results.

I've always compared any cable over 5 totally different setups and found the result always identical.