What do audiophiles want from a cable?


What should a high quality interconnect or speaker cable do to the sound of a system? Make it more transparent? Improve the sound stage and focus? Soften unpleasant highs? Tighten the base? Bring out the mids?

To me, a good cable should reveal more of what is on the recording and more of the true nature of my components. So when trying new cables, I look for more detail and accuracy without becoming cold and clinical. This seems logical, and yet after reading reviews and trying a few of the cables in the reviews, I find that the cables that have received glowing endorsements are not especially transparent or revealing. They modify the sound, but they don’t take me where I want to go. I wonder if the reason I don’t hear what the reviewer heard is that I don’t know what to listen for. Am I too focused on cable accuracy and resolution, and not enough on actual sound quality? Or is it just a case of no two systems sounding alike so why trust a review anyway? Thanks.
mward
Where are you Budburma?  Hopefully somewhere "hearing the humanity" in front of the Opera Callas.  OR maybe on top of a Catskill peak barking at the moon.  Either way...We need your input here, and I need more of your impressions of Sablon Panetela and the Western Electric 16ga wire that I have loved in the past with vintage McIntosh toooooob gear.  Btw, I saw where the Dueland guy has made a copy wrapped in cotton, soaked in mineral oil, and then baked in an oven....no joke lol.  

I think you're onto something here chrisr, because that is exactly what she said.

Yea thanks maybe something really big I know, but I just don't get the use of liquid in cables as discussed above,other than maybe for having an additional layer of control over photons' energy? I have always thought that electrons traveling down a pvc-covered  (or PE) wire could not be struck by a single photon and even if they did, the photon(s) frequency could not be high enough to change electrons' kinetic energy, not to mention eject a single one from the copper. The work function is totally insufficient in this case imo.
Hi chrisr,

What is your opinion on the potential of liquid for rejection of RF/EMI before reaching the conductor?

Best to you chrisr,
Dave