Well, I think you and I are more in agreement here than not. I really did not want to say this, but I guess I will, it really astonishes me sometimes how designers of gear have there biases. Probably not exactly here, but you'd almost think they were deaf and couldn't hear the differences between two cables. lol. Yeah, I know there are differences. I haven't really been active in audio for many years, but when I've listened to cables some were definitely better than others, and in some cases night and day. ...
Of course designers have their biases. That's why their designs are different from someone else's.
So, Frank if you just happen to be reading this piece from me, I'd go to each of the cable vendors we have here on AC and ask them to lend you a pair of each of there respective interconnect or speaker cables. As a manufacturer, you could say you were looking for the best cable that would be cennerjictly correct for your gear. Some of the vendors here know what they are talking about and again I would start with them.
Frank did something like this in the past. It was reported in Audio Basics.
As for the vendors knowing what they're talking about, that may be, but very few seem to be good at sharing that knowledge. I see a lot of "sounds great" and pseudo-science.
Much of the pseudo-science is at the level of homeopathic "medicine."
Latch onto something that is so subtle that it only effects transoceanic cables, then puff it up to be a "real" problem at 1 meter lengths.
That's how we got oxygen-free copper and linear-crystal or whatever they call it, and silver wire to kill vampires.
Once you're there, you wander off into speculation that the color of the insulator effects the "sound" of a cable.
It's one thing if you actually design a cable. You're seeking certain characteristics, or seeking to improve certain parameters. You can then communicate that to your customers, and even perhaps offer advice on whether the cable will be suitable for their use.
But most just listen and arrive at "sounds great." That's crap. It's just as valid for me to listen to the same cables and pronounce that they are the root cause of AIDS. (See, now you know. AIDS is due to Monster Cable. Before we had Monster Cable we didn't have AIDS, and my careful listening has determined that stereo systems using Monster Cable cause minute changes in the germ plasm, and this produces AIDS.) (I just picked Monster because it popped into my head. I'm not seriously suggesting that Monster Cable has any effects at all. This was just a joke, not fact, and not intended to be seen as libelous by any lurking attorneys.)
Would you fly in a plane that had been "modded" by some of these people? People who don't do any objective testing? I can just see it, a 767 with so many gonzo caps and gonzo wire that the access panels won't close. The SR-71 Blackbird was really fast, and it was black. Therefore, planes go faster if you paint them black. I'm going to demand that United paint all their planes black so I can arrive more quickly.
Teflon is relatively low in terms of coefficient of friction. Therefore we'll just add it to our motor oil and the engine will run smoother forever after.
Oh, it clogs up the oil filter? Oh, it doesn't actually adhere to bearing surfaces? Oh, it starts to decompose (undergo pyrolysis) at engine temperatures? My bad.
I know what the response will be. "But Cable XYZ sounds better." Wonderful. You've still been snookered because there are far better places to put your time and money.
