The Science of Cables

@mkgus

 Is this related to the fact that when you are in a large, noisy crowd you can “tune in” to your conversation and clearly hear the person you’re talking to? There is some sort of highly advanced filtration going on in the brain in that scenario. A microphone cannot do that. It’s just a vibrating membrane - it can’t selectively hear what it wants.

Exactamondo....very well stated....and that ability is even much more pronounced in rooms that are acoustically correct ( in fact that is one of characteristics of a "good" room ). 

Btw a neat little bit of theatre that we sometimes do for clients is to record our conversation and then play it back. What you hear on playback is a conversation in a very noisy/echo laden room, something that was definitely not apparent in the original conversation because our ear/brains had done an effective job of editing the noise out by, uhhh, actively ignoring the noise. And this has proved a very effective sales tool cause after the shock wears off we usually get the contract.

So when time and budget allows film acoustics involves creating an environment around the set that not doesn't have the sound of the huge studio volume and is tuned to actually sound like what the set looks like. And all of this done with the strengths ( its really sensitive and picks up everything ) and weaknesses ( its really sensitive and picks up everything ) of the microphone first and foremost on the agenda.  

Btw this is also a pretty neat way of evaluating a listening space since it kinda short circuits that editing function and it very effectively deals with the low frequency issues that all rooms have. 

One thing that is missing in all these discussions is the esthetic value of the cable. It applies to speaker cables, interconnect cables, and power cords. In most other components in the system, people are willing to pay more, sometimes a lot more, for something that is more pleasing to the eyes. Cables are no different. The question is how much is the esthetic value worth to an individual. I’m willing to bet most everyone will pick the prettier “cable” all else being equal. 

@taras22: "You may want to go take a peak at this thing called proof theory, which talks about what numbers can and can’t do. One of the things it says is that numbers are an abstract concept that relate most perfectly to themselves and only tangentially to the reality around us. And btw was a key development in the movement that led to the "quantum" revolution that has defined physics over the last century or so, which introduced us to the concept of curved space. So relativity you are much closer to flat earth than you may want to admit."

What a bunch of goobledeegook. You didn’t say anything nor did you make one single, coherent point.

The "movement that led to the ’quantum’ revolution that has defined physics..." You have no idea what you are saying and this is just lame regurgitation of some nonsensical mumbo jumbo speak that you read in some quasi-science comic book.

@stevecham

You have no idea what you are saying and this is just lame regurgitation of some nonsensical mumbo jumbo speak that you read in some quasi-science comic book.

Funny, I distinctly remember it as a graduate program at a university.

And I will leave you with the following to contemplate.

   As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality.”

-Albert Einstein

@kalali, yes me too. I've become quite fond of those transparent high grade OFC speaker cables recently.

I shudder to recall those days of the ridiculously thick and unwieldy Naim NAC5 cables which they insisted were designed for their amps.

I loved the impressive construction and reliability of their amplifiers but shame on Naim for that particular piece of opportunism. Not even stylish or pretty, just thick and crude.