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Cable design is a lot like creating a pizza

If you look at the construction of an RCA cable it can be very simple or can be very complicated. Eg. Audio quest higher end interconnect cables are extremely creative, the diagram on their website is visually stunning.

Ultimately, Cable design in many cables involves coloring the tonal signature. Cooking a pizza is all about making all the ingredients come together so it tastes amazing. Some do it a lot better than others and Pizza is a lot cheaper.

For cables, There are conductors, drain wires, shielding, Airfilled tubes, different gauges, etc…. Then there’s the copper strands which can be very detailed and numerous and twisted. So much going on.

With pizza you have cheese and sauce and spices and the dough and it’s all mixed together with all kinds of variation. Ultimately the sauce makes or breaks the success of a pizza slice.

With audio cables, hi end Cable designers are endlessly trying different ways to do all this. In the end they find something that sounds kind of nice. They may not know exactly why it does sound the way it does.

So that’s my take on Pizza design and cable design.

jumia
jerryg123's avatar
jerryg123
3,429 posts
 

@thyname +1

jetter
3,033 posts
 

It is often posted that the stratospheric high price of some high end cables is due to the extensive R & D that goes into the formulation of the final cable.

This is just my opinion, but when I hear this I wonder what kind of jobs the posters have/had to think that designing, producing and testing audio cables is a very challenging job.  Again, my opinion, but from my viewpoint it sounds like a rather straight forward and mundane task of combining various metals, insulators and connecters (probably provided by subcontractors), to produce a final desired outcome.  Even with 1000s of different possible combinations how long do you think it would take a few people to perform?  In my world it better not take too long or your history.

I just think that compared to the universe of semi-sophisticated jobs, this does not strike me as approaching rocket science.

 

 

 

jumia OP
528 posts
 

The only way high-end cable manufacturers can continue to be in business is to employ people, whoever they are, to mix together all kinds of strands and insulators until they create a new sound that is appealing that may be marketable. And it continues. Without a new product every year they will have a diminished market because interest also diminishes unless the product line continues to change.

These people with a lot of money to spend are smart people and yet they continue to buy these very very expensive cables. Why is that? They must know it’s not the greatest and smartest thing to do.

I’m all for quality cables but the buyers need to be more careful so as not to escalate a problem that only serves to divert money away from more meaningful endeavors within the audio world.

kingharold
304 posts
 

I am holding out for room temperature superconductors before I replace any of my patch cords or speaker wires.

holmz's avatar
holmz
2,328 posts
 

If that same energy and human labor and time was put  instead to practical & productive use (I.e getting gainful employment), they would instead perhaps be able to buy afford, and try the same exact thing(s) they bash nonstop all day every day in all audio forums constantly. Just a thought 

Without any proof if these things working in some better way, I’d rather just sit me arse eating pizza and listening to music.

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