I see the issue with ABX blind testing
I’ve followed many of the cable discussions over the years with interest. I’ve never tested cables & compared the sound other than when I bought an LFD amp & the vendor said that it was best paired with the LFD power cord. That was $450 US and he offered to ship it to me to try & if I didn’t notice a difference I could send it back. I got it, tried it & sent it back. To me there was no difference at all.
Fast forward to today & I have a new system & the issue of cables arises again. I have Mogami cables made by Take Five Audio in Canada. The speaker wire are Mogami 3104, XLRs are Mogami 2549 & the power cords are Powerline 10 with Furutech connectors. All cables are quite well made and I’ve been using them for about 5 years. The vendor that sold me the new equipment insisted that I needed "better" cables and sent along some Transparent Super speaker & XLR cables to try. If I like them I can pay for them.
In every discussion about cables the question is always asked, why don’t you do an ABX blind test? So I was figuring out how I’d do that. I know the reason few do it. It’s not easy to accomplish. I have no problem having a friend come over & swap cables without telling me what he’s done, whether he swapped any at all etc. But from what I can see the benefit, if there is one, will be most noticeable system wide. In other words, just switching one power cable the way I did before won’t be sufficient for you to tell a difference... again, assuming there is one. So I need my friend to swap power cables for my amp/preamp & streamer, XLR cables from my streamer to my preamp, preamp to amp & speakers cables. That takes a good 5-10 minutes. There is no way my brain is retaining what I previously heard and then comparing it to what I currently hear.
The alternative is to connect all of the new cables, listen for a week or so & then switch back & see if you feel you’re missing anything. But then your brain takes over & your biases will have as much impact as any potential change in sound quality.
So I’m stumped as to how to proceed.
A photo of my new setup. McIntosh MC462, C2700, Pure Fidelity Harmony TT, Lumin T3 & Sonus Faber Amati G5 & Gravis V speakers.
I agree. So, I record the sound each time I change any cable or equipment. Can you post any live-record video? This is my video of 4 power cords comparison. Click these times (4:46 JPS), (9:50 Zentara), (14:38 WT v2), (18:53 WTPC) to hear different cables. More time marks are in comment section. Alex/WTA |
@mihorn I listened to that on my system & heard no difference between any of the 4. So I had my spouse choose the part to play while I had no idea which she was playing & I could not tell if she was playing different pieces or just the same one again & again. So no difference for me. Is it just me? Has anyone listened to those 4 recordings and heard differences? |
You previously stated you surmise anyone who cannot hear differences that you perceive in cables, to have compromised hearing and/or equipment; that sure seems like professing to me. I’m unclear which stance you actually hold since it couldn’t very well be both, could it?
Well, that’s your prerogative @soix . Rigorous objective studies on our biological capacities and limitations tend to hold up among scientific panels and courtrooms, but admittedly Internet personalities can think of them whatever they want, whether or not they’ve reviewed the material.
@dwcda YouTube compresses sound files so there’s potential for argument. However, I’d expect any compression effects would be independent of cables. Multiple other reasons why YouTube clips could be problematic for comparisons like this, but I’ll try to give a listen later. Thanks @mihorn for making the effort. |
Thank you for your honest feedback! 1st, it’s hard to notice the sound difference with my system which is a really good sounding system. The sound is still good with a bad power cable. 2nd, the change between 4 PCs is one piece power cable which is may be 3~7% of a whole sound. It is a small portion. 3rd, You have no idea what the difference looks like between 4 PCs sounds. The sound is a hard field to describe or explain since the sound is invisible. The evaluation of sound needs much experienced and trained ears. Many people and I took decades to earn seasoned ears. Below is mahgister feedback of 4 PC test video from Cable matters thread which I agree. I can hear the differences easily...😊 Wavetouch win for me easily ... More natural sound ... The worst is the first i dislike it completely 😁... Second zentara better indeed but wavetouch win the cake and is not fatiguing as the first cable and more natural timbre than the second ... ============================================= 4th, my system is an only natural sound system in the world and your ears are used to un-natural sounds. Your ears need a couple minutes of adjustment with my system sound. A sample of the natural and un-natural sound. There are many more me to say but it is useless if you don’t see it. ==================== 4 sounds are confusing. Please try 2 sounds. Please listen below whole music. Try to watch 70% (listen 30%) to locate sound images and location of instruments and voice. Concentrate and try to remember.
Please try to locate instruments and voice. Click 18:53 Please try to locate instruments and voice. Click 4:46 Please remember the difference is subtle. Alex/WTA |
That's my concern with the cables I auditioned. There could be differences but they're very small and not worth the cost to me
I'd find that analysis valid if mahgister listened to a sample of 6 recordings and gave a similar synopsis without knowing which recording related to each cable and could discern the duplicates. |
