Why Do Cables Matter?

@reimarc

Thank you for the inspiration.

but I would never spend more than a couple of $100 on them.

Wait till you hear better sounding interconnects. You might then gladly part with money to own that sound. ☺

If you ever decide to purchase expensive cables, buy second hand. I got my AQ Fire RCA cables for 1/4 of the original price.

I found this tutorial for a DIY interconnects using silver wires with interesting aircoil design geometry aimd to achieve low L and C.

TNT Aircoil MKII Interconnects

Product: TNT AirCoil mkII, no-compromise DIY interconnect cable
Manufacturer: not for sale, TNT-Audio DIY design
Manufacturing cost: between 100 and 250€
Reviewer: Piero Canova - TNT Italy
Reviewed: December, 2021

Tutorial for the building of TNT Aircoil MKII Interconnects

How do they sound?

We have tested these cables in several systems and configurations. Tubes, solid state, single ended, balanced, lengths ranging from 70 cm to 2 meters: there was never any issue of compatibility. I cannot honestly say they were clearly better than every other cable they were compared with, but for sure, they weren’t inferior to the other cables and, in many cases, we are talking about cables that are very, very expensive and exclusive. Several times the owners of the systems asked me to make, for them, some cables to replace those they had. Overall they are excellent, but in my view, they excel in four aspects: bass frequencies, soundstage, time coherence and speed. In bass frequencies the increase of clarity is evident; thin solid cores remove the bloat generated by thick fat cables, clearly improving the quality of sound. Thin wires minimize time smear allowing a much better coherence across the entire frequency spectrum. Low capacity design and no screening means a cable that is super fast in responding to transients. Honestly, I don’t have a good explanation for the soundstage, but width and depth of the virtual stage are substantially increased where the system allows for it.

Better crossover components in speakers make a much bigger improvement in sound rather than replacing the internal wiring.  Replacing the electrolytic capacitors in less expensive speakers with roll film caps or at least bypassing the bigger electrolytics with a small film capacitor is the biggest bang for the buck.  I was doing that back in the 1990s.  Better inductors and resistors in the crossovers will help too.  Then after all that, internal wiring may or may not make a sonic difference.  It is typically not too difficult to get to the crossovers in speakers.  Film capacitors for a given value can be quite a bit larger than their electrolytic counterparts.  That’s why sometimes it better to just put a small value film cap in parallel with the large valued electrolytic.  Gain most of the improvement in sound that way.

I’ve been a lifelong music lover, so I’ve also been pursuing audio systems and upgrades that get me closer to live performances. I recently upgraded my interconnects from Kimber Hero to AudioQuest Dragon (read Robert Harley’s review in The Absolute Sound).  My Speakers sounded more alive, more detailed in the midrange and highs, and better controlled in the bass region. I am now planning to upgrade power cables.

@gs5556   YES! 

@nonoise Sounds much like Kenjit doesn't this poster.  

@jasonbourne71 Your history does omit some important facts.  Monster 300 (the original, not further Mark versions or Monster 400s) was simple in design and well executed.  For some reason, the future cable designer/manufacturer (I forgot his name & company) was entrusted with Monster's first interconnect.  It is a success over the typical really cheap and common RCA ICs at the time.  It has a bloomy and full bottom end, mostly neutral mid and rolled off highs, very pleasant, not highly resolving, but at the time, it was a step in the right direction for improving audio sound.  

So, don't tell me it's a bunch of baloney.  Sure, I've heard excretable, extremely expensive high cost/end cabling but I also have heard bad/cheap Pangea power and IC cabling in even high end systems where the owner typically was an electrical engineer and until shown the value of a quality higher end cable, said cabling doesn't matter (usually just power cabling).  

I'd be ready to make a poll and I'm pretty sure that, in 2023, the vast majority of audiophiles agrees on the fact that cables matter, that it's completely normal to hear differences and that spening a certain amount of cash on cables is, in fact, healthy.

Naysayers may think they are smarter than the rest, they are mostly unable to hear the difference and frustrated, due to diminutive hearing or a lousy system. 

Threads like this belong to 1971 when all amplifiers were thought to sound "alike".