DO CABLES REALLY MATTER?

geoffkait,

Unfortunately, "chair contains foam similar to something" does not equal "it sounds bad". Writing 101.

What-about-this and what-about-that routines are not that routine at all. I do understand that direct questions asked about your, to say it politely, vague and often incorrect statements may not be to your liking. Well, every now and then you run into a person who reads your post way better than you have ever written it. From time to time, you do show some knowledge and ability to contemplate in a positive way. Sadly, it often gets annihilated by your inept writing skills.

Maybe a course in creative writing would not be a bad first step. There is such a thing as "lifelong learning" and it is no shame to get better at something at an advanced age.

As a side note, I do not drink alcohol so you can start by taking comments about being drunk out of your writing style.

You got me there, dude. I guess I didn’t realize just how clean that slate is. 

Lifelong learning.

Glupson,
I was, as you can tell, pointing out the philosophical pitfalls accompanying the manner in which the OP went about gathering his knowledge of cables and the incongruity in the way he defends his argument.  He may very well be 100% correct.

Personally, I have not experimented with cables and as such have no opinion on the matter.  With that said, I have been thinking about it and researching lately. As a man of science, and the inherent quality that goes hand in hand with gathering quantifiable and empirical data, I do lean in that direction.  I will, however, be borrowing some cords from my local dealer and performing a test much as @dorkwad described. 

In the end, cables do matter, in all sorts of ways, but that has more to do with how people "know" things.  In looking at the many facets of this particular conundrum, it seems language, the senses and emotion are the main vehicles used in gathering and solidifying the said knowledge. I am happy to read some of the informative posts, engage in a little discourse and listen to good music without worrying too much about the cables.

chenman
Who is to say that confirmation bias is not at work either? Someone spends $500 on a cable because they believe it will enhance the sonic performance of their system is going to be psychologically pre-disposed to hearing it. There is no way around that. How much so is up for debate?

>>>>The arguments regarding confirmation bias, placebo effect and other psychological phenomena are the “weapons of mass destruction” of died-in-the-wool pseudo skeptics. No one is saying psychological issues never occur, but they don’t always occur. They can be controlled through careful testing by skilled listeners, I.e., audiophiles. It might not be easy. I never promised you a rose garden. 🌹Therefore, that particular argument is a logical fallacy. 😢 By the way, you could make your argument a whole lot stronger and more believable by other undecideds and newbies if you used $5000 instead of $500. 😬