I am stunned

Sugarbrie, I was not speaking to anything particular in your post re:a controversey, but admit I was unclear. My final comment was general and rhetorical.

Whether real or imagined, there is a difference. No one gets into any trouble until they try and explain why. We humans, with our ultra-sophisticated reasoning abilities, are not very well-suited to just let little conundrums rest. Me? I could care less why, just is. Hence, I don't understand how it amounts to a controversy. Lost o' things are hard to explain in mathematical terms. But to me, that says more about mathematics than it does anything else, because humans don't interface with the world via math formulas.

Maybe though, I have missed the boat completely on this one, and all here are just speaking on some plane I am unable to grasp. If that is the case, I expect to take my licks gettin' straightened out.

Thanks,
Chris

There are too many points being raised to address properly, but here goes. Upfront, I’ll proudly admit to being an EE. I’m also a musician (amateur, but get paid fairly often), and while some of you wouldn’t consider my system high end, it’s not too bad: Dunlavy SM-1s driven by a Plinius 8150, with a Marantz CD/Pioneer DVD feeding an MSB Link DAC III.

First, Liguy, if you like the setup, great! No need to go to single cables, just enjoy. That’s the most important message. But Liguy is no empiricist, at least not as indicated in his message. As others have noted, he just set up new speakers, for crying out loud! This would be like me upgrading to Dunlavy SC-VIs while changing the Plinius’ power cord and then talking about how the power cord added so much bass!

Second, Sugarbie's Pavarotti example is absurd. The differences between voices are so gross as to be orders of magnitude greater than any effect cables (or most other equipment) can have. This is why you can tell your mom’s voice from a telemarketer immediately (other than the fact your mom probably doesn’t call during dinner . . .), even though it has traveled over miles of cable (not even silver) and passed through non-linear speech coders which have limited both the bandwidth as well as dynamic range.

Third, what are these “phenomena occuring outside of the mainstream of official thinking.”? Science has a VERY solid understanding of electrical signal propagation, especially at audio frequencies. If you know of any truly new effects that are significant at audio frequencies, you’re well on your way to a PhD in physics.

Last, there certainly are measurable differences between some audio cables. Except in extreme cases, though, I’d be willing to be that most of the differences have no audible effect. Solid empirical evidence that cables with similar electrical properties have audible differences is pretty hard to come by, to say the least.

Cheers,
JHunter

Glad I got mine in before that last one!

*This is not an attack* Mr. Hunter, doesn't the word 'empirical' mean 'of, or pertaining to the senses'? If that is so (it is so), my ears provide the empirical evidence of discernable audible differences. I think you mean solid mathematical evidence, don't you?

Thanks,
Chris

J Hunter: I am curious as to why you would be willing to bet that there would be no audible differences (in most cases) between wires and cable if you have not listened to "many/most" of them yourself (which you have obviously not done, based on your post). It does not seem to be much of a scientific approach on your part, IMO. Granted, I have listened to cables from different manufacturers that sounded very much alike (close but no cigar) and some sounded so awful (even after a few hundred hours of play) that they were sent back. Hearing is believing, but first you must take the time to listen.

Thanks, I accomplished something for once. My point on voices is meant to be absurd. All of our voices are produced by exact same material; the same human flesh. But they all sound different. So why is it absurd to some that some of us think cables sound different made of the same material? I notice always notice a difference cable to cable, sometimes even a different length of the same cable (mainly with interconnects).