Al, Thanks so much in particular for this comment.
"Regarding natural vs. artificial materials, it stands to reason that the characteristics of the insulating materials surrounding a conductor can affect the sonics of a cable in various ways. But I would be (very) hesitant to draw any general conclusions about natural vs. artificial without extensive and carefully controlled comparisons."
Folks, forgive the rant of a professional chemist and amateur philosopher. Nothing exists physically that is not made of chemicals or elements, which in turn are made of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Stated in philosophical terms, chemicals (and their constituent parts) are the material cause of all that exists, whether they be made by sentient or nonsentient efficient causes. Protons, electrons, and neutrons or their derivatives don't think. They do not know what or where they are, or how they came to be. Cotton is almost pure cellulose, which is a chemical. Cellulose does not know if its efficient cause is biosynthetic or not. It does not know or care how it came to be. It does not know if it was manufactured by people in a chemical plant or by "natural" means in a cotton plant that grows in the ground. The same is true of silk or latex rubber.
If one inherently rejects anything "artificially made," then what are you going to do for a conductor? The tin plated copper wires don't grow on trees. They are manufactured by humans in factories. The music we listen to is largely synthetic, coming into existence by the deliberate design and execution of human beings. Not many of you, I'm guessing restrict your listening to the songs of humpback whales. Nor do many of you, I think, travel by means of an all natural wooden wagon pulled by all natural mules. The outer jackets of your vacuum tubes are made of glass, not of silk.
Shall I go on?
