John Dunlavy On "Cable Nonsense"

It always surprises me to hear someone adamantly denying hearing any sonic differences between the various manufactured interconnects, and all the while condeming others that do. Without sarcasim meant, I honestly wonder if those that argue against these facts are possibly sonically deaf, or maybe it's their gear...I don't know. It truly perplexes me though, that they appear to be sincere audiophiles and do apparently appreciate music, still, they are unable to hear the tone, detail, or soundstage changes in their music, when equipment changes are made, yes even to include interconnects. I know I do, and if you don't, well stay with your Emerson clock radios and stop being a nuisance to others.

I don't think there's anyone here trying to claim that all audio gear is of the same quality, or that no changes made to equipment will have an effect on the sound it produces. That's absurd.
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm just interested in what happens in blind tests, and if anyone remembers, that's what the article that started this thread is about.
The relevance of such tests to your listening is debatable.

Sean, electrical PROPERTIES dictate the electrical behavior of wire, and audio signals are electrical.

Of course what you said doesn't work, and I never said that it would. I just said that speaker cables should have as little resistance as possible. They should also have minimal shunt capacitance and series inductance, but being in a low impedance circuit, the capacitance and inductance are fairly unimportant, especially for the run lengths you find in homes and studios. Velocity factor has totally negligible effect on audio.

I don't want my speaker cables to have "sonic characteristics." I just want it to deliver the signal from the amp to the speaker without alteration. You might be interested to know that 12 gauge zip cord at 30 cents a foot makes excellent speaker cable for runs less than, say, 40 or 50 feet. For longer runs I'd go to at least 10 gauge.

I get by with 26 gage speaker cable, but then again I use low watt bulbs (300B's).

Placebo effect is worth paying for. Audio and visual perception, in the end, is all in the mind. It all ends up as a psychological phenomenon - pure interpretation. Thus a placebo effect, especially for audio or visual interpretation, is entirely real in my opinion. And worth paying for.

Everyone's brain is wired differently, thus we all "hear" and perceive things in an individual way. Belief systems rewire the brain (memory is electro-chemical configuration). Thus scientifically, believing in something can in fact alter its perception to you.

Note that Dunlavy does say that cables have very different electrical properties which are measurable. As an engineer, Dunlavy has decided to build cables that focus on optimizing these electrical properties. They might even sound good? Too bad their appearance is crap.

I personally find that good looking speaker cables (fat, color coordinated, well terminated) "sounds" better. Thus I pay.