The truth about interconnects - can you handle it?

Nrchy, do you really think that we cannot explain why cables sound different ? Personally I think we can, which is why the cables that people consistently rank the best show similar physical characteristics, whether it be minimum capacitance, minimum inductance, or stable, known impendance ... depending which is the key design parameter for the use of that cable.

I agree with you that "scientists" who claim that all wire sounds the same based on their limited science are misled. On the other hand scientists who claim that cables do sound different, and that in virtually all cases there's a simple explanation why they sound different, are being totally honest, and are probably correct.

Well said, Sean, except that I know of no one with any scientific credentials whatsoever who claims at all wire sounds the same. That canard was actually invented by the "everything sounds different" crowd, because it's easier to refute something that clearly isn't true than to take on the arguments your opponents are really making.

I'm new to this hobby but in regards to the placebo effect, I can say that I only started my research after I heard differences from swapping cables on my system. The placebo effect only works when you have a preconceived benefit of a certain product (advil, etc.) I had none in regards to cable differences. I was running a generic Monster cable until a dealer lended me a pair of Siltech. The differences were more than obvious and that's how I ended up in this "miserable, bank-breaking, but somehow joyful" land of hi-fi.

oh, by the way, the artist tends to look for similarities, and the scientist look for differences. Which one are you?

Jchen--Your understanding of the placebo effect, at least as it applies to perception, is wrong. (It's actually wrong even as it applies to medicine--the placebo effect can work even when the doctor tells you the pill won't work.) Simply knowing that two cables are different can make them sound different to you. In studies of hearing perception, people who listen to the same thing report that it sounds different about half the time.

That doesn't mean that all cables sound the same. It just means that when they do sound different, it might be real, or it might be in your mind, and there's no way to know for sure--short of the sort of objective scientific test that will be pooh-poohed here, so let's not even get into that.

Now, you're free to say, "I don't think it's in my mind," and buy whatever cables sound best to you. Just don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to denigrate science to justify that. Nobody has to justify anything in this hobby.