Just wanted to add my 2 pence to this discussion. I must admit I have always been on the fence with this argument, believing, as most other do, that after a certain price point most cables are equal and that we just buy the look after said certain pric point. I attended the Bristol Audio show in the UK this year (have been a few years now) and purposely sat in on a speaker/interconnect demo being run by the Chord company, just to confirm my thoughts on my cables.
i wouldn’t say I was shocked but I would say I was surprised. There was most certainly ‘differences’ in how the cables sounded, with some providing more depth and detail in the music. (Things you couldn’t hear with one cable, but could hear in another).
Id say the demo lasted over 1 hr, the format was piece of music played for say 15 seconds with one cable. Then switched out with an ‘upgraded’ cable, then same piece played again. Totally open setup, all in view, with connectors showing (rear facing) . Very simple setup and no smoke or mirrors at play.
The main thing I picked up on was that most of the differencesi personaly heard we’re minor. I wouldn’t even they sound better or worse, just different, some I like some I didn’t. I think that is more the point, they just sounded different, to some they may say they sounded better, others worse.
The only major thing I took away from it all, and the only thing that in my opinion DID improve the sound reproduction/detail etc for the better was the use of shielded cables. That for me was the only thing I would now make sure my cables had as this and only this made a big enough difference to the sound that I could 1) actually hear it and 2) say it was a definite improvement.
they also demo’d new silver banana plugs and £3k meter cables all of which I couldn’t say made anything sound better or worse, just ‘different’, but hey, one mans different is another mans better.
