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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
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Randy-11 wrote,

- What you CAN trust is a blind listening test - both A/B and extended on familiar program material

Blind tests are just as inconclusive as any other tests. You could even say untrustworthy. Sorry to burst your bubble.

waxwaves's avatar
waxwaves
206 posts
 
A blind test is just an averaged subjective test of what the average guy is capable of in a usually imperfect listening invironment.  There is no best for all applications, so no one cable will be Champ all the time.  IMO, there are better than average designs that perform at an obviously higher level consistently across the board.

inna
7,296 posts
 
Waxwaves, I only have experience with Neptune. I don't know, maybe some dealer can loan you the Poseidon. Or perhaps you could ask Jim himself for an advice on how to audition the cable in your system without buying it first. I would be curious to hear his response.  I too might get Poseidon later because I need one more cable and can't afford two Neptunes, or maybe I'll wait for couple of years and get another Neptune, I haven't decided yet. The price difference for 1 meter pair is something like $650. 
randy-11
1,913 posts
 
Blind testing removes confirmation bias.

If you don't understand that, then you are doomed to live with a tin-foil hat on your head.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
randy-11 wrote,

"Blind testing removes confirmation bias.

If you don’t understand that, then you are doomed to live with a tin-foil hat on your head."

Wow! If you’re worried about confirmation bias you’re in a world of hurt.

But what I’m really driving at is that if a blind test results are negative what can you conclude? Nothing. Any test blind test or otherwise is just a data point. There are many reasons why a test might have negative results. So, that’s why you actually can’t point to blinds tests as proving something doesn’t work. Conversely if a blind test's results are positive then we can say, hey, this thing might have a shot! Follow?

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