DO CABLES REALLY MATTER?

@elizabeth I agree with you. Some speakers have some pretty unique design improvements. My gato Fm6 have some pretty unique things that they do with the crossover as well as other things. My dac is made by the brother of the inventor of the ess Sabre chip. KR audio just sent me there newly developed just released Kt88 tubes. I have nothing against vintage gear but there have been technological advances in the hobby as well as in digital that I’m taking advantage of. I’m enjoying my run and my system. I have nothing against the budget guys or vintage guys. I think I have created a great sound And system that nobody else will have in terms of my combination of gear and cabling.

My impression is that high end audio since the 90's went down into a rabbit hole, which I would describe as 'data dump'. The majority of  designers seem to focus on the highest possible resolution, as if the essence of music can best be communicated with maximum detail retrieval. Whether or not you agree with this is not the point.

My point is that cables will make a huge difference in 'data dump' systems, where just about everything makes a difference. In a way these are unstable systems, not unlike complex systems in nature on the verge of chaos (climate change comes to mind). They yield the highest 'information density', which can be exhilarating as well as highly unpredictable and volatile. You hear everything, but the musical message easily gets 'lost in translation'. 

By comparison well designed vintage systems are more stable, being less 'close to the edge'. System balance is not that easily disturbed and the 'fabric' of the music remains intact, no matter what cables you use.

Sound familiar?

Old thread and ancient topic, but my .02...........Worked on top shelf military electronics for 45 years and we never worried about "better"
cables until well up into the Ghz range.............Any cable, properly designed and terminated for the prescribed use should easily pass any electrical signals passing through it, period. Can cables sound "different" ? I guess they can or people wouldn't spend ridiculous sums for them. I suppose it comes down to your money, your choice, but I honestly think there are far better ways to improve your system sound than mega-buck wires.....................it is after all, simply wire with a dielectric. It should do nothing more than transfer a signal from point A to B.............If you have money to burn and it makes you happy, enjoy.

edgewear,

You are making a claim that others have made here: that it takes a really high resolution system for cable differences to become apparent.

1. But as I keep pointing out: People with "lower res" systems have been talking about and reporting differences between cables for ages.  You can go to Amazon and find hundreds and hundreds of customer comments on speaker cables and interconnects there, many of these people clearly are not using super high end gear. In fact you can look up cables on amazon costing a mere 14 bucks, and find a hundred people commenting, many on how they clearly made a sonic difference in their system.

Now, if you really need a high resolution system and/or high end cables for the differences to really show, then that implies all these "bottom feeding" folks are imagining things. And if all those people can imagine they are hearing differences every time they buy new cables on their lower end systems, then it just implies the role of imagination in hearing cable differences, which is a problem for anyone, high res system or not.

But IF these people....and the great many over the years with modest systems...are really hearing sonic differences, then it puts the lie to the idea that you need a super high res system to hear them. (And that’s usually the first thing some audiophiles claim to cable skeptics - "you must not have a high resolution enough system!")

2. The scale, and character of audible differences audiophiles often attribute to changing cables are not "subtle" but are often declared as "so obvious, you’d have to be deaf not to hear it." With changes in all manner of sonic attributes. There is no reason to think such obvious differences require some Super Special system. Even a modestly priced, well designed speaker for instance can easily show you very subtle sonic differences (for instance, between one album master and another, even subtle remastering, etc).