Well Dave I of course agree, nothing is better than trying real cables in ones real system. Of course equipment matters, more than anything. Of course a room will change how each piece of equipment works, but we all should know this. I do not think the idea here is to have absolute results, and I would hope people would not buy simply from reading some persons opinions on Audiogon.
It seems to me there are more than enough Audiogon police telling us to use our ears, and cables do not matter. I appreciate your insight, and for ten years have respected your views, I do however think this would be a useful idea.
That being said, I can not believe you have ever found Nordost Valhalla to be soft, warm and rolled off. I doubt with the slowest amp in the world you would conclude anything other than Valhalla is more detailed, faster and has a finer leading edge on a bass note than most cables. The opinion will still be a comparative one, and on any equipment, Nordost will be...
I can not believe you have ever heard a Purest Dominus sound like a Nordost Valhalla, one any system it will have similar comparative values to each other. If you disagree, and you have found Dominus to be thin, etched and more detailed than Valhalla, I bow to your amazing wisdom.
In my opinion, cables are relative to each other, and the relativity is a near constant. Of course each system sounds different, thus the need to have an understanding of how some popular cables will behave it their system. The point of a guide is to narrow the field, then yes, go to Cable Company and try cables that might match your needs, but trying every cable is crazy. The last guy who did that was institutionalized for two years. Poor guy...
Oh yea, that was me.
