The Science of Cables

 Cables? Cables? 

 Coming from a electronics technician background of 35 years, I am always astounded at the extremely over analyzed critiques of cables. I am also blown away by the extravagant cost. 

 I suppose my background makes me look at them from an  inductance, capacitance, resistive ( DCR ) and impedance  point of reference . 

 While there is an apparent technological advancement in the materials used to make cables,  it’s still all comes down to capacitance, inductance, impedance, and DCR.  Now,  with all those new advanced cable components ,  they do have an affect on the previously mentioned  technical characteristics. 

So, I decided to make my own cables. I bought some reasonably priced  American designed Australian made RCA male connectors.  Then I began looking for a good two conductor and single conductor with shield cables. I hate the stif inflexible “high end“ cables that you can buy online and through hi-fi audio vendors.   I found some very good Japanese made highly flexible shielded cable and was able to easily assemble them. 

Got to catch a plane will return with my results!

@tubegeek,

"While there is an apparent technological advancement in the materials used to make cables,  it’s still all comes down to capacitance, inductance, impedance, and DCR"  

Hopefully, the above is a statement we can all agree upon. The science of cables.

As the OP asked,

"If there were measurements that correlated to what you hear, I think more people would be interested in cables."

As far as I know, nothing beats high purity OFC. Not in performance, not in sound,  nor in price.

OFC is ridiculously under priced for what you are getting. 99.99% purity. 

"Oxygen-free copper (OFC) or oxygen-free high thermal conductivity (OFHC) copper is a group of wrought high conductivity copper alloys that have been electrolytically refined to reduce the level of oxygen to .001% or below.[1][2]


Use in home audio

The high-end speaker wire industry markets oxygen-free copper as having enhanced conductivity or other electrical properties that are supposedly advantageous to audio signal transmission. In fact, conductivity specifications for common C11000 (ETP) and higher-cost C10200 Oxygen-Free (OF) coppers are identical;[12] and even the much more expensive C10100 has only a one percent higher conductivity—insignificant in audio applications.[12]

OFC is nevertheless sold for both audio and video signals in audio playback systems and home cinema.[12]"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxygen-free_copper

Pretty sure that it is the corrosion resistance of OFC that makes it the material of choice.

Is there an acknowledgment of the impact of AWG? Do our skeptics ever compare cables of similar conductor for differences sonically between higher and lower AWG? 

It’s interesting that mr Miller can actually say l/C/R/ impedance measurements have nothing to do with the way cables sound. When the companies spend millions developing components and materials that effect all those measurements. The point is they do.

In “my” opinion here’s the difference. The difference is your ears or my ears or Bill’s ears or Mike’s ears. So, if you spend a lot of money before you hear them then money doesn’t mean anything. I will gladly admit my ears are to old to be a very good critic,  so to me measurements make sense. Many people will NEVER admit that they don’t trust their ears. Those same people will NEVER submit to blind tests. I’m also familiar with all electronics having a sound signature, because everything DOES! Those include, tubes, audio transformers,  amps, preamps, coupling   capacitors, hook-up wire, resisters, connectors, audio jacks and plugs.  So if you buy the best of everything theoretically you should have the best sound! But can your ears hear the difference?? 

Example:  My relatives live in Northern California and love their Sonoma, Napa wines,  ( and they should),  but will never submit to blind tasting if it’s California  wine, it’s the best as soon as they see the label! Needless to say being from the Northwest I don’t buy California wines! Ha 

Some audiophiles only read the labels and  dole out the money. .......Foolish