Top 10 Signs That A Cable Company is Selling Snake Oil


This response was published by Audioholics.com.
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The audio industry is full of hype with the most nonsense surrounding the simplest component of the A/V chain - interconnects and speaker cables. Because there are often very little measurable and audible differences between cables, many of the exotic cable vendors use psuedo junk science to differentiate their products from their competitors. These vendors often prey upon the suggestible audiophile giving them reasons why these products must be utilized in their precious systems in order to achieve the best performance possible to reach the true path of audio nirvana. Listed below are the top 10 cable snake oil claims to watch out for. If a vendor is selling you on any of these fallacies, run don't walk away from their products, unless of course you enjoy a good sci-fi story and desire to buy expensive audio jewelery.  

Watch out if a Cable Vendor or Manufacturer:
  1. Promotes that their product allegedly eliminates audio related Skin Effect and/or "Strand Jumping" problems.
  2. Claims revolutionary breakthrough in cable technology by polarizing or biasing the dielectric using a battery.
  3. Promotes that their products eliminate "Audiogenic", "Diode Rectification" or any type of non linear distortions. See Debunking the Myth of Cable Distortion and Dielectric Biasing
  4. Physically places (+) and (-) wire leads in separate dielectrics not closely spaced in a common jacket. See: Calculating Cable Inductance of Twin Feeder Cables
  5. Claims vast improvements in sound by inserting "Cable Elevators" to raise the cables off the floor and minimize electron misfiring or static energy fields.
  6. Claims that cryogenically freezing cables improves fidelity or measurably changes electrical properties after the cable is restored to room temperature.
  7. Claims that their cables require a "Break In" period.
  8. Claims that measurements cannot quantify why their designs are superior and often misapply engineering principles in their reasoning but abandon the associated governing laws and metrics that establish them.
  9. Claims audible differences exist between stranded and non-stranded wires of same gauge rating, geometry and conductor spacing.
  10. Claims audible differences between silver and copper cables of equal design geometry and gauge.

128x128blumartini
It's really not worth the effort to dig up and post science and evidence to the contrary.It's a silly article.
An obvious troll. Bad Blumartini! Most of those “audiophile myths” are actually true. Duh! Where do all the nitwits come from?
Despite all the naysayers you are spot on and it reminds me of when I worked at several “high end” audio stores years ago. I spent two summers working in two stores, one in Chicago and another in the Norfolk area, almost two years apart. I remember feeling very annoyed with all these claims from vendors about their revolutionary cables so I decided a test, which in both instances ultimately cost me my job (summer job so no big deal but did well for my masters thesis). I did blind tests for as many customers as I could and I would setup using the same speakers, same song three times in a row and would change only the cables (speaker cable, power cable, interconnects or digital cable). In each test it was.generally just speaker cables to make my point. I don’t remember a single customer that ever picked the “audiophile” cable (nordost snake oil, etc) in any of my tests as being better. More often then not the monoprice or blue jeans would end up on top, again I repeat the high end cables never won. I generally told customers after that when they were ready to buy cables to let me know and I would choose their winner (not letting them know which one it was). Again, two states, two years apart, same “high end” stuff and no one could tell (we had several local producers who are well known in the music business who picked Best Buy monster cable). So much like other fads you don’t always get what you pay for. 
so I decided a test, which in both instances ultimately cost me my job
Man....you did not learn it from your first mistake!
:-)