It should be pointed out that Nelson Pass’ article on cables is almost 40 years old. Not that it’s a bad article but it was written at the very beginning of Cable history right after Polk, Fulton and Monster Cables, the first “exotic audiophile cables” were introduced. The article obviously doesn’t address the *many* developments that have occurred since 1980, including extremely high purity copper conductors, Silver conductors, break-in theory, advanced connector design, controlling wire directionality, long crystal copper, shield design and exotic innovations such as cryogenic treatment, Carbon conductors, liquid conductors, EMI/RFI products, graphene enhanced conductors, etc.
The article was written, arguably, at the beginning of high resolution systems; the very first digital systems (Yikes!) were still a couple years away at that point in time. Not to mention all the other advanced audiophile developments in room acoustics, advanced fuses, and vibration isolation and many other tweaks that came much later.
from Nelson Pass’ article,
“At this point many audiophiles are wondering, "Where are the listening tests?" I have listened to these cables on a variety of amplifiers (mostly my own) and loudspeakers, including Magneplanar Tympani 1 D’s, MG II A’s, modified Dayton Wright XG 8 MK III’s (as shown in Fig. 6) Cabasses; I have also heard some examples on Dahlquist and Snell loudspeakers.
Frankly, I found it difficult to assess the results except at the extremes of performance. For 10 foot lengths with properly terminated cables and speakers with inductive high frequency characteristics, the differences between low inductance cable and twin conductor are extremely subtle and subject to question. With a low output inductance amplifier and a Heil tweeter (whose impedance is a nearly perfect 6ohm resistive) the difference was discernible as a slightly but not unpleasant softening of the highest frequencies. Fulton or Monster cables were a clear improvement over 24 or even 18 gauge, though a little less subtle than I would have expected, leading me to believe that the effort associated with heavier cables pays off in bass response and in apparent midrange definition, especially at crossover frequencies. The worst case load, the modified Dayton Wright electrostatics, presented some interesting paradoxes: the extremely low impedance involved showed the greatest differences between all the types of cables. However, the best sound cables were not necessarily electrically the best because several amplifiers preferred the highest resistance cable. In one case, I had to use 24 gauge cable to prevent tripping the amplifier’s protection circuitry.”
Link to full article at,
https://www.passlabs.com/press/speaker-cables-science-or-snake-oil
The article was written, arguably, at the beginning of high resolution systems; the very first digital systems (Yikes!) were still a couple years away at that point in time. Not to mention all the other advanced audiophile developments in room acoustics, advanced fuses, and vibration isolation and many other tweaks that came much later.
from Nelson Pass’ article,
“At this point many audiophiles are wondering, "Where are the listening tests?" I have listened to these cables on a variety of amplifiers (mostly my own) and loudspeakers, including Magneplanar Tympani 1 D’s, MG II A’s, modified Dayton Wright XG 8 MK III’s (as shown in Fig. 6) Cabasses; I have also heard some examples on Dahlquist and Snell loudspeakers.
Frankly, I found it difficult to assess the results except at the extremes of performance. For 10 foot lengths with properly terminated cables and speakers with inductive high frequency characteristics, the differences between low inductance cable and twin conductor are extremely subtle and subject to question. With a low output inductance amplifier and a Heil tweeter (whose impedance is a nearly perfect 6ohm resistive) the difference was discernible as a slightly but not unpleasant softening of the highest frequencies. Fulton or Monster cables were a clear improvement over 24 or even 18 gauge, though a little less subtle than I would have expected, leading me to believe that the effort associated with heavier cables pays off in bass response and in apparent midrange definition, especially at crossover frequencies. The worst case load, the modified Dayton Wright electrostatics, presented some interesting paradoxes: the extremely low impedance involved showed the greatest differences between all the types of cables. However, the best sound cables were not necessarily electrically the best because several amplifiers preferred the highest resistance cable. In one case, I had to use 24 gauge cable to prevent tripping the amplifier’s protection circuitry.”
Link to full article at,
https://www.passlabs.com/press/speaker-cables-science-or-snake-oil