lols there are about 15 pages so there
is no way I'll read through them all. But anyway, some
conclusions are needed.
-----------------
YES, cables do make a difference and I
think we (or most of us) would agree. If you don't agree with
this, then might as well arguing about 2+2 = 4 and basic number
theory.
YES, we can measure cables and different
cables will exhibit different "objective" set of
measurement results. You may need some sensitive and expensive
equipment from Agilent and not some cheap 24Kbit PC audio sound card running MS OS
lols.
The part where it gets tricky is how to relate what we
measure and what we hear. YES, we can get some basic
"objective" measurements to correlate with some basic
audiophile terminologies, but only up to a point since our hearing is
really too complicated to understand even with the advent of today
science (lols dark energy not withstanding). For example, if a
cable has too much capacitance, the sound will lack dynamic. Or if a
cable has too much inductance, there will be ringing so the sound
will be a bit edgy, nervous. If the cable has too much resistance,
it will also reduce dynamic (like putting a 1ohm resistor in series
to the bass driver of your speakers). And of course some basic “LCR”
can be measured so nobody will argue with this. But beyond some basic correlations between
objective measurements and hearing, it gets complicated and we don't
have any hard science to explain or at least not that I know of.
Modern science has a lot of equations but I don't know of any
equation that if you plug in your “LCR” parameters, it will tell you how
musical the cable will sound. So at the end, you have to rely on your own hearing, God forbids.
-------------- Entering a bit more
“scientific realm”.
What is a “perfect” cable? A
perfect cable is one that can deliver a signal from one end to the
other with perfect phase and amplitude relationship (that is no phase
shift or amplitude attenuation in all freq.) But since all audio cables
are transmission line in theory, there is no such thing as a perfect cable. Some freq.
(even at audio freq) will have some phase shift or attenuation with
respect to some other freq. If you solve Maxwell equation, it works
all the way down to DC so audio freqs get affected too even in theory
and not just at RF freq. So here you have three basic variables: phase shift, amp. attenuation, and freq. Since these are analog, you end up with literally infinite number of combinations that your ears have to deal with. And although all cables will only have these three basic variables, the number of permutations are infinite so there is zero chance that two cables will measure the same. And you're in a bit of a bind. And if you're an "objective" type, then you believe in theory. And just as I said above, "objectively", all cables will measure differently (remember infinite permutation). Heck, the same cable will measure differently at different times. Therefore the conclusion is all cables will sound differently due to measurement.
A lot of measurements are way too
overly simplistic. For example, I've read a lot of on-line
measurements were done on a single frequency, @1KHz. The person who
carried out this measurement and proudly proclaimed that since both
equipment have the same jitter at 1KHz, therefore they should sound
the same. The problem is these measurements were done at steady
state (not to mention at a single freq), whereas our hearing is transitory. For example, if you play a
C note on a piano, you get the fundamental frequency but also the
ovetones which decays at lower (or higher) frequencies at specific
timing interval and amplitude. If your audio cable somehow delays
(as in phase shift) a certain overtone frequency or incorrectly
attenuate an overtone amplitude with respect to the fundamental
frequency (vs real life) then it does not reproduce the C note
properly. It's very difficult to devise a test where you can measure
this on a cable. Maybe there is but it's not easy and personally I
don't know of such.
I once read The Art and Science of
Motorcycle Maintenance and the guy said gravity is not that different
from religion lols. Good thing I got some open minded head to know
what's he talking about. Anyway, as someone already brought it up,
the term “LCR” is kind of like gravity in that sense. It's just
some made-up stuffs we invented so we can solve the Maxwell equations
which are in themselves made up stuffs. And if you believe LCR is
something that ends all then you're are just as bad – hiding behind
your own misguided science.
Descartes, Hume, Kant
Do they know
Do you know
Nobody really knows
Except the shadows
...
From the beginning
