ABX testing with AQ Dragon power cords

@dwcda Thank you for your post and your reasoned responses to several hostile and incredulous responses. You and I share a similar philosophy about the audible effects of cables and cords. I've tried to hear the difference in interconnects and power cords at least a dozen times over the years. So far I can't tell one from the other. I am not saying that someone else cannot hear the difference. If they believe that one cable has more detail or better soundstage than another cable then that is their truth.

Due to my life sciences background when I do a comparison between components or cables I try to reduce the influence of expectation-bias as much as possible. I have two DACs, an SACD player, and a CD player. Using Blue Jeans cables as a control, I can compre the sound of two components to get a baseline. My Berkeley DAC (using the SACD as a transport) and my Marantz KI Ruby sound very similar playing a standard CD. When I replace the interconnects in one component I can compare the sound against a standard (the other component).

Lots of people on the forums have said that silver cables have a distinctive sound. So I bought a pair of AudioQuest silver RCA cables to see if I could hear a difference. I left the cables in for several months so they could "burn in" and I could compare them every so often to see if I could hear any of the sonic effects that others describe. Short answer - no.

AFAIK, there is no ABX or double blind test that shows that audiophiles (or normal people for that matter) can tell the differnce between interconnects or power cords. There are dozens, maybe hundreds, of tests that show the opposite - that if the listener does't know the brand or story of the cord he/she is listening to, they can't tell cables apart. If anyone is aware of a scientifically rigorous blind test that shows that listeners, even trained listeners, can hear the difference between cables please let me know.

What is interesting about this debate is that merely reporting that one cannot hear a difference between cables brings forth a surprising degree of defensiveness. It's similar to the response you get if you challenge someone's religion.

If I understand the OP correctly, he is not saying that cable differences do not exist. He is just stating that using the methods, materials, and conditions he has at his disposal, he can't hear a difference. That makes two of us.

I've moved the speakers out & closer a bit. The center of the speaker is now 55" from the back wall. The speaker centers are 82" apart and the listening position is 82" from the center of each speaker. I listened for awhile & I do like the sound so I'll keep it like this for awhile & play some records. Time will tell. 

The owner of the amp/cable company heard no difference. He still thinks that there is a reason for it and is working to help me determine why.

Under normal circumstances we shouldn’t expect to hear differences between these cables, so I don’t think looking for a reason is appropriate here. Looking for a reason when a difference is perceived makes more sense. If a way is found to make a perceivable difference happen, then we’d like to know what kinds of things were changed, and it’d be interesting to see if measurements can pick up on something, and maybe we’ll solve a mystery.

Room looks nice! How resolving it actually is I can't say with any confidence by looking at it. You could test that too, using REW. You can also listen to bass and lower midrange clarity using a gated burst test like the MATT:

In all the cable cable controversy, it is the cable believers who so quickly go to the ad hominem remarks and get upset so quickly. This is no surprise since they are the ones who have fell for the anti-science paycho acoustic depths and spent so much money they could have spent on room acoustics or speakers. 

There is a physics principle that says you can't get more information than the original signal. Your system has cables that are probably better than most recording studios so any differences you hear using super duper cables are outside the limits of what the recording engineer, musician and producer heard in the first place. There is no getting around this argument. 

Another reason you can't hear the difference is because you have well designed power supplies in your components, the argument that the better the system is the more you can hear the cables is backwards.

Good of you to try!

The equal triangle distance is something that is rebuked by many. The ideal distance between the speakers should be about 83% of the distance between your ears and the speakers. Meaning you would be better off 100" from the speakers since they are 83" apart. The other important component to all that is to have at least 8 feet behind your head to the back wall. If you don't then you would need to shorten the distances between the speakers and yourself. Anyway, once I found this out, I have never had any inclination to change it. Main difference is my speakers have less than a 1/2" of tow in because my acoustic treatments allow for it. The toe in thing is obviously speaker dependant but the room has a lot to do with it. Your speakers look like the kind that could sound best if aimed straight out if your first reflection points are correctly treated. I use high diffusion there with absorption for second reflection points right next to it. Funny how this thing started with cables and moved onto things that will have much bigger impacts. Glad you are keeping an open mind. Enjoy the journey!