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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
waxwaves's avatar
waxwaves
206 posts
 
I'm not too sure about the two schools in that sense sense folks, but I'm keeping an open mind.  If anything, there is the transparency, analysis, and resolution heads(I'm not naming any names), the warm, full bodied, and harmonically rich camp(you know who you are), And then MAYBE "the Neutralists"(it's what you THINK is neutral).

McGrogan is so right about cable modifying the sound to suit tastes/equipment and IMO it is suiting the "taste" of the equipment that is most important to keep in mind here! 

Yes I believe you will love the sound the cable imparts on your system IF it works well with the equipment.  For example, I can tell that cable x is really jiving with my DAC and cable y is sounding really good from preamp to amp.  BTW...rarely ever are they the same cable in my experience.

maplegrovemusic's avatar
maplegrovemusic
1,113 posts
 
Just carry the signal and add nothing to it ..Please .......Dont need anything added . System sounds great without added bass or treble manipulation . 
terry9
2,353 posts
 
Agreed Almarg. Well directed.

Eric, I am lazier - after I built theoretically optimal cables (viz the Maxwell Equations) with gold plated, fine silver wire, vanishingly low dielectric absorption in a Faraday cage, and ETI connectors, and got little or no improvement over microphone cables, I just bought a stack of Starquad.

I know by single blind experiment that every high quality styrene cap and every nude Vishay resistor makes a perceptible difference in my home brew electronics. So I spend money there. Exotic cables? Not for me - can't afford them. YMMD

waxwaves's avatar
waxwaves
206 posts
 
terry9, if you come here and take the cable I use as a preamp jumper on my integrated amp while I'm at work and you switch it with an inferior cable, I will most certainly notice... guaranteed.  Absolutely positively.  I tried it recently and my audio system was much less enjoyable.  This was very obvious to other people that listen to music here on a regular basis.  From them I got the "what did you do?"  There was most certainly a decrease in the level of performance.  Similar performance loss is apparent when I position the cable that I enjoy so much on the output of my DAC in between the preamp/amp.  The magic is lost, it just can't do it.

terry9
2,353 posts
 
Sorry, wax, don't quite understand a few things. First, exactly what components are you connecting? Digital source --> DAC --> Integrated amp --> amp ??? Or something else?

Second, how does the sound improve? What are the characteristics of the performance loss?

Third, what characterizes an "inferior cable"?

I can hypothesize, but until I know more I can't really respond.
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