Have cables become somewhat of a snake-oil topic.


I've invested many tens of thousands in high end 2-channel home audio gear and cables. I'm also a musician who has recorded and created mixes in many of the top recording studios in LA, NY and Nashville. These studios most often use the highest quality power treatment, tube condenser microphones, pre-amps, EQ modules, AD/DA converters, compressors, monitors, etc. Obviously, the goal in a recording studio is to capture the realism of the live studio performance for both vocals and instruments, and create a final mix-down that highlights the natural subtle nuances of the performances of each musician.

With that said, my 20 years of informal research inside these studios says that virtually NONE invest in high priced specially stranded balanced interconnects or speaker cables. Instead, various models of a particular Japanese cable is considered the studio "gold standard" and is WIDELY used in the top studios across the country. Now any good mixing engineer is at least AS interested as any audiophile, in all the audio characteristics and variables we discuss ad nauseum in these A-gon threads. So if recording pros are willing to spend hundreds of thousands on electronics and speakers, to capture the natural and neutral sound of a musician's studio performance, why is it that expensive cabling is seen as the snake oil equivalent in the recording industry. (Moreover, I could go one step further and ask why some home audio D/A converters far exceed the cost of the most sought after professional studio D/A converters?.......we'll leave that for another discussion.)

I DO NOT disagree that substituting a Nordost, Siltech, Cardas or various other high end brands into my personal studio rig do not make a difference. There are indeed audible differences between the brands in terms of bass extension, smoothness, imaging, graininess, etc. However, these DIFFERENCES are not necessarily equivalent to an IMPROVEMENT in capturing the natural/neutral details of a given performance.

(I intentionally will not address the mastering process since that has everything to do with radio and marketing execs commercial sales expectations, rather than a true to life presentation of the musical performances.)
jymc
I own/run a busy studio here in New Hampshire and I absolutely hear a difference in high grade cable as opposed to low/mid level. While I acknowledge that "better clarity" is a matter of opinion another benefit of better grade cable is "signal strength"...which isn't opinion but something easily measured. All you have to do is a test I have done many times. Take a mid level Hosa/Peavey/proco mic cable (or guitar) and plug it into one of your preamps (Groovetube Vipre's and Focusrite Producer packs in my case) and make note of the input level when you pre is set to null. Then take a high end cable like a Monster 1000 series and do the same thing and you will see a much stronger signal coming into your pre. I also do hear a difference...mainly in the very low end. Lets face it....sending the healthiest signal you can to your gear (whether its a high end pre or your marshall stack) makes a huge difference in signal to noise ratio as well as how much overdrive you can squeeze out of your amp. You can also try and put mid level speaker cable to your right monitor and high end cable to your left...chances are you will hear a difference...no matter how slight.

Thanks,
Kevin
But doesn't there need to be some systemic synergies at work for cables to function properly? Also, what about directionality of RCA plugs? I have found that substandard performance can often be linked to one of the following root causes:

1. lack of attention to the whether an RCA plug is an pitcher or a catcher,

2. overuse of the phrases "all out assault" or "trickle down" in marketing materials, or

3. not enough 9s in the alloy.
Jymc,

very nice intro. Would love to hear more of your thoughts/impressions?
Everybody who said high-priced-cables were worth the prices are truly a liar. "I'm happy with the cable I've just replace" = That is a kind of self-confusion. Meaning, "I spent more than enough money, so should sound good, should hear better..."
Let's not buy any snake-oil cables, let's focus on music itself!
PS
Can a expensive cable eliminate surface noise of vinyl when I play old vinyl records? Only my ears filter the noise out if I really focus on music itself from speakers!