Cable design is a lot like creating a pizza

Sorry, but the farther you get from NYC the worse the pizza (and bagels) gets. Although I do admit having lived in Chicago their deep dish is yummy for what it is, but it’s not real pizza. Ehem. California pizza? Oxymoron. As they say in Brooklyn, fuggetaboudit!

But I have now concluded that perhaps you do not consume alcohol.

LOL!! That’s exactly what I am doing now my friend. It’s Saturday evening. Am I allowed to? Cheers anyways

Oh, and this exactly what you said:

So yeah they are exactly like a pizza, and everyone claims that their pizzas are the best.

Regardless of what THEY claim, do you have a preference in which pizza you like? Or do they taste the same as long as they measure the same? 🤦‍♂️😂

@holmz : do all pizzas taste the same to you? Serious question

Wow… just wow.
No, of course they don’t.
 

But I have now concluded that perhaps you do not consume alcohol.

@holmz : do all pizzas taste the same to you? Serious question 

Oh boy. 

Wow! Jason Bourne! I knew you never miss any cables thread, but three consecutive posts in 11 minutes??? You must be in distress. What is disturbing your soul?

It serves to illustrate how ridiculous cable design is. Especially if they can't explain what they've done Beyond marketing rhetoric.This also applies to preamplifiers and amplifiers.  And here even more complicated, and many are profoundly confused as to why components sound the way they do. Mostly we are all paying for fantasy creations of clever and very smart creators of complex electrical Devices.  
And like many of us I pay up for this stuff. Sounds better, no idea why. 

Maybe you’d be better off on Reddit, then you wouldn’t have to bother yourself with all this inconvenient “thinking” stuff.

A dash of pepperoncino if sound is too dark. Use sparingly if heartburn is a concern.

Heck, I’d still be using the Cotters if they weren’t buried so deep in storage! They were the favorite recommendation of The Audio Critic - which all the subjectivists here hate!

There is no way to justify four-figure cables. That's like paying a thousand bucks for a pizza made in Brooklyn, NY and flown hot to LA first-class! To the wire fanatics it is a faith-based religion with zero scientific backing. 

@jumia : Ever since Disc Washer brought out their Gold Ens IC's in 1976 wire has become a growing market! I had some Gold Ens. Sounded fine to me! I replaced them with Cotter/Verion Tri-Axials ($30/meter). Still have six pairs in storage. Now use a mix of Audioquest Silver Extremes, DH Labs and Monster Reference. To me they all sound equally fine! 

...and all kinds of different pizza and varying quality ingredients used in various pizza shops. Results vary quite a bit from garbage to amazing Pizza. Similar situation with junk cable designs with low or high quality conductors, dielectrics, materials and assembly. Some cables impeding the sound more than others.  

Sounds better, No idea why.

I'm good with that. Sound is what I'm after.

OMG jumia!  Wow!  Totally agree!!

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.

OK - another analogy might be better.

Cables are like vodka and spirits.

We can have pure grain alcohol (maybe with rain water for the Sterling Hayden crowd)….
Or we can flavour it with oak and hundreds of berry types etc.

I would rather that the cable be zero capacitance 0 inductance, and 0 resistance… so it was like the amp was wired to the speaker… and maybe no crossover either.

I can then spice it with electronics or a DSP…

Basically there is no way to add in distortion with say a preamp, and remove it with a cable. One could add in other distortion to make it more even across the playing field, but what is the point?
It becomes an almost impossible combination of adding in distortions to arrive at a flavour of the month.

So yeah they are exactly like a pizza, and everyone claims that their pizzas are the best.

Women are like cables very hard to understand and can be a short-lived fantasy.

@roxy54 

Congratulations on never having had a bad pizza.😁

I don't agree that cables are like pizza; but sex is like pizza. Even when it's bad, it's still pretty good.

It serves to illustrate how ridiculous cable design is. Especially if they can't explain what they've done Beyond marketing rhetoric.

This also applies to preamplifiers and amplifiers.  And here even more complicated, and many are profoundly confused as to why components sound the way they do. 

Mostly we are all paying for fantasy creations of clever and very smart creators of complex electrical Devices.  
And like many of us I pay up for this stuff. Sounds better, no idea why. 
 

There's 30 seconds I'll never get back...

Is there a point to this?  And how is this different from any other audio component? Why limit it to just cables?  Audio, like pizza, is what it is.  Again, what’s your point here?