Why Do Cables Matter?

All these dead horses must look like hairy pancakes by now.

@donavabdear,

To echo thyname's post and to reference your recent post, we are attempting to retrieve the original "7" not 7.5.

Do you accept that recovering all of the information contained in the original recording is a legitimate aim of hi fi reproduction?

Paul McGowan of PS Audio admits that AQ Dragon pc is far superior than PS best power cables.

Does PS Audio still make power cables?

Is Paul deluded or is he a charlatan? Why would an owner of a HIFI firm recommend someone else gear? Come on people.

You really want to know if cables matter, go to a HIFI store and ask for a demo on a system that they chose. It is as easy as that.

But you wont. 

@donavabdear we are apparently talking past each other here a bit.  To the degree you called me out on that, you sound like my wife.  She is quite smart, so that’s a compliment.  

Like others who just posted to this thread, I never said I was trying to get 7.5 worth of information value out of a recording that only has a value of 7.  OK?  We straight on that?  I think pretty much everyone on here has addressed that issue in a way that is consistent with your point, so we should be good.

I also maybe misinterpreted your point to mean it is hopeless to use way more expensive cables than the recording studio, because you might be trying to score a 12 out of 7 in replaying the recording, and that is just such a ridiculous concept, right?  Nobody would claim that.  Right?  At least I haven’t read a single post in this thread where anyone claimed that.

I think what folks are getting at here is that better hifi systems, including their better and finely optimized cable looms, more closely approach reproduction value of 7.0, say attaining a value of 6.45 (subjectively) compared with less capable systems with less resolving or higher loss cables which may only be capable of achieving a reproduction value of 5.9 or 6.2 (subjectively) for the listener.

My point was also that as systems become more resolving and more closely capable of reproducing what is actually on the recording (nothing more), the variation between quality of different recordings and their pressings becomes quite apparent, and this can either lead to more enjoyment or less enjoyment for the listener.  Again, with system and cable qualities adding synergistically to the approximation of perfect replay of only that information captured on the original recording and source material, be it analog or digital formats.

All that said, I am having a distinct sense of deja vu, so I’ve either had this exact same discussion in the past on this or other forum, or I am doomed to have it again.

kn

@yoyoyaya I'm saying that the audiophile view of cables is not one of science but religion. People on this forum and on YouTube along with salesmen at EXPONA often describe the characteristics of their components as creating something in the music while using their 100k components that are much better and finer tuned than any recording studio. This is not possible because despite the statements of $80k DAC's or $40k XLR's with the same neutrik connectors on the ends covered in 3x colored shrink-wrap, you are not going to achieve anything better than the Canary or Beldon star quad XLRs that were used in the studio. Logically $80k cables will get you close to simply welding the amp to the speaker but that cable is never going to give you anything positive. 

As far as getting to the point in audio quality as the original recording I think that level can be surpassed in speakers but with musical attributes that are not mixed and A.I. in the near future will be able to give us all very high quality by filling in the musical harmonics and subtracting the unintended noise in the recordings. The mindset in the audiophile world is not trying to get back to zero (the original recording) but it is buying exceptionally expensive things like cables in which at the original studio used cables 1/10th the price and therefore theoretically is not capable of producing a fraction of the quality of signal in the playback recording if all the thought in modern audiophile cable technology is correct. It's always the same picture. Super turbo mega cables inserted between a skinny fuse and the crossover wire a speaker can't make a difference just like inserting a firehose between two garden hoses can't make a difference. In physics in called Kickoffs law.