The Science of Cables

I recall many of John Dunlavy’s emails from that 1996 time period. The DAL speakers pretty much had a 6 ohm nominal impedance. When he entered the speaker cable business, he believed his cables should reflect the impedance of his speakers. So he designed his cables to be an extension of the impedance of his speakers as seen by the amp outputs.

John Ulrick, the man behind the Infinity Systems SWAMP and Infinity servoloop-controlled subs for the IRS and later the founder of Spectron Audio that designed the refinement of his class D amps, made a set of cables called Remote Sense cable that extend the negative feedback loop of the his amplifier all the way to the speakers to enable better control over the speaker.

A lot of cable designers simply buy bulk spools of wire from a supplier and contract with a conductor weaver vendor and outer jacketing sheath vendor to throw a HEA cable together—whether PC, IC or speaker cable—and call it good.

Other designers buy the conductor materials in bulk and refine them prior to creating their final cable products (either during manufactur like Teo Audio or post manufacture like MG through treatments). Why expend this effort, if not to control, fine tune or otherwise obtain their desired properties—whether measurable by test or by listening?

With regard to the Schroeder Method, those who doubt its efficacy in improving SQ I suspect haven’t tried it with an open mind. The thread discussion on the topic didn’t start with what is labeled as the Schroeder Method thread described here, however. It is discussed in a few threads in the cable forum, most notably in the Teo Audio cable threads, for example.

My view is that we all want an audio reproduction system that permits the most revealing yet relaxed reproduction of music. I’m not sure that we are served by pigeonholing viewpoints to the disservice of that goal.

Some designers have an intended objective about the criteria of the SQ they strive to achieve—and often that is not necessarily driven by monetary considerations. I’m not sure if articulating those objectives makes a difference to consumers.

What matters to most is whether they have a smile on their face when they listen to their audio systems.

@prof 

Have at it

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OK. Here is your problem, at the most basic level you have confused science with its close relative applied science. The latter, also known as engineering, which generally defines its mandate with the term "good enough" whereas the former runs on the idea "its never good enough". Audio for many of us is hobby that involves pushing the limits ( its never good enough ) whereas for your preference, the pro side mentality, its more about just getting the job done ( like LCR is good enough eh ). So if you are happy with functional mediocrity go ahead and knock yourself out, but please don't try to impose your rather dogmatic beliefs on others. Its not only bad form, especially when you resort to calling the non-believers stupid or idiots or ignorant, but back-slapping self-righteousness is going end up really hurting your shoulder.  

Outrageous claims by high end cable makers? Outrageous or simply the usual audiophile technical verbiage? Let’s take a look, shall we? Here’s an excerpt of the Valhalla 2 cable description from Nordost’s web site. Nordost is one of prof’s examples of “outrageous claims.” Now, I ask you, are these claims outrageous?

“Over the years we have been able to develop cutting edge production techniques and technological innovations that both improve the quality and precision of our manufacturing process and propel the capabilities of our products to previously unattainable levels. The Valhalla 2 range benefits from the gains of those years of research and development in every aspect of its construction.

While V2 cables remain true to the Nordost design philosophy, using silver-plated, OFC solid core conductors, extruded FEP insulation, a mechanically tuned construction, and asymmetrical grounding, the advances made from that jumping-point are astounding.

V2 cables use Dual Mono-Filament technology, along with an innovative, proprietary connector called the HOLO:PLUG®, designed to be the best possible interface between the cable and component. The combination of these two ground-breaking technologies allows Nordost products to perfectly match our philosophy of low mass design, optimal signal transfer and perfect impedance matching.”