DO CABLES REALLY MATTER?

Here's a tale from the old school/used side of the tracks.  Few weeks back I bought a Wadia 170i (10 yrs old) to use with a few ipods I own.  Hooked it up to an 18 yr old dac I had in the 'spares' closet.  I used a set of DH Labs IC from the dac to the pre.  VERY pleased with the sound but the highs were a bit 'tizzy'.  I've read this can be an effect of high jitter so I'm looking into a new dac but I decided in the meanwhile to attempt to 'calm down' the highs by switching out the copper encased in silver IC with a (really) old set of Audioquest FMS Blues.  Problem solved!  Almost too much so, I'll be getting a new IC from Blue Jean shortly.  But the cables clearly sound different from one another, I basically used the blues as a tone controll

^^^^

*fist bump for ganainm*

Elizabeth I agree that many folks have valid reasons for enjoying the sound of expensive cables more than the cheap ones. Even bling and look, construction etc seems perfectly good reasons to spend more. My main problem is extraordinary claims made by sellers and then repeated by gullible believers for many reasons. If you like what you like and can aford it, have at  it.  If you thought about the variables and prefer to give less import to hard physics and engineering and more to your own complex senses and psycology thats fine. But  newcomers should know there really is a lot of pretend fake not- real made up physics and statistical math out there. There is a ton of fun in this hobby even involving "blurry edges" of science and perception (dacs anyone) circuit implementation, room acoustics, beautfully constructed electronics, the incredibly variability of speaker designs and builds, to have wildly divergent opinions and experiences in the audio hobby to share and not have to butt heads against the brilliant work theoretiical AND applied, that defines small signal propogation in wire transmission lines. 

I’m into audio to enjoy listening to the music at home and use gear to attain that enjoyment. I am somewhat amused by all the vigorous, albeit seemingly well-intentioned, discussions about how to achieve that object through any sort of “test.”  To each his own, but at the end of the day, forget about the means and simply enjoy the end result. 

elizabeth,

I am totally in the audio cables can make a difference camp, but I can also say some folks ARE bamboozled by hype and cost and size and bling.

But not you? ;-)

I kid...but with a serious point; in the cases you believe to hear differences between cables, how have you determined you, yourself, have not been bamboozled? Surely, such fallibility isn’t just a problem for other people.