Why Do Cables Matter?

@ieales 

”Just for laughs, when I see a patent on HiFi gear these days, I read it...

... if I can while ROTFLMFAO 🤣”

Applying for and receiving a US patent requires that the product designer provide some plausible engineering principles to support the patent application, and an attempt to explain how it works and how it provides a unique design solution for a particular problem of set of problems.  While patent applications are also a form of “sales”, one hopes that the engineers approving patent applications have greater experience and expertise than the average consumer, in this case consumers of hifi cables.  My assumption here is that there is a higher standard of “proof” required for the presentation of the idea to the patent office than, say to consumers at audio shows, showrooms, or viewing online videos.  If this assumption is not true in general for patent approvals, then heaven help us all.

kn

The dead horses are strewn all about in these parts and people just keep on beating on them. 🐴💀😵

Applying for and receiving a US patent requires that the product designer provide some plausible engineering principles to support the patent application

I know... I gots one and was involved in others.

As Reagan opined, "The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would hire them away."

Last time I checked, which was a long time back, US examiners started @ $35k and I was paying $125k for engineers.

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.”
― W.C. Fields

Why do you have to lift speaker cables off the floor?

Lifting the cable off the floor lowers the cable’s total capacitance, which can make a difference to the sound of your system in either or both of two ways: The first way is by directly affecting the frequency response of your speakers.5 Oct 2020

Bunking Cable Lifters - Positive Feedback

I tested in my system by lifting the speaker cables, and the bass generally got a lot weaker.

Put the cables back on the wooden floor and the bass is back now.

Took some towels and threw them on the cables now the bass is fuller with beautiful extension. Keep he towels where they are :)

I have tried, but cables seem to be the least easily discernible items to listen for in an audio system. Speakers are easy, but if you want to truly hear cables (any chance in hell of hearing differences without knowing exactly which cable you you changed to?) then you'd better have absolute superb speakers and amplification, IMHO.

Amplification changes, if done correctly, can be heard over time, or if you are lucky, almost immediately. Digital stuff gets tougher for me but can be heard. I guess I've not gotten into a huge enough upgrades to feel expensive wire is truly necessary beyond buying quality cabling, but not into the thousands of dollars and more.

I do hear folks point to wiring inside an electronic device in the audio chain and feel like nothing beyond that is necessary. That is more than laughable (at least to me).  Do they want a tiny board trace wire/connection al the way to the loudspeaker. I submit large better wires count for the current/voltage put out by a power amp to the speakers.  I could be wrong but I'm into decent cabling, even if not tossing tons of money into wire I can't hear compare to some acoustic room treatment.  :-)