Are cable recommendations worth anything?

Months ago I read an article about 2 scientists did a double blind study testing an expensive cable vs a coat hanger. The coat hanger won. That’s where I’m at with cables.

Just remember that Paul's opinion on double blind tests is about as informed as our company's janitor. His statement is self serving at best silly for the most part.

To the op, notice any cable suggestion thread and if 20 people respond, there will be 20 different answers so your basic premise and statement is obviously right.

Ignore certain posts that state a good cable will always be good. That just ignores reality. You can create a cable with universally good shielding. You can create a digital cable with uniform and accurate impedance (and shielding). For anything analog, it's always a system that consists of the source, the load and the cable which is not to imply that the cable will make a difference you can hear, but no suggestion is likely to be correct unless it takes into account both the source and the load.

Too much inductance can make a speaker cable warm by attenuating highs but the impact is likely to be subtle. Too much capacitance can make some amplifier/speaker connections unhappy, and you can create subtle increases in distortion with certain cable impedances coupled with certain amplifiers and speakers, though audible or not is highly questionable.


Warm, or bright for interconnects is suspect as differences between most in most systems would be in small fractions of a db, and there are no transmission line issues, settling issues, or any of the myriad of other claims. Shielding can make a huge difference.

Digital cables carrying synchronous audio can certainly impact jitter, but for asynch USB, no, not even a little bit. They can help or hinder noise transmission, but a well designed piece of equipment should reject any noise on USB or Ethernet, so makes me wonder about the claims when connected to $5-10+ equipment. Are they designed that poorly?

And yes, a coat hanger with the right system could sound better than a $10K cable, or worse, and all this talk of geometry, dielectrics, etc. etc. is for the most part pretty meaningless. Weird that only in audio do these things matter. You would think all those high powered scientists would have picked up on these advances by now for their scientific endeavors.

The sillyist of all, the taker of all cakes, is using a battery or anything else to put a bias on the shield/ground or any other part of the cable. Who is the moron who came up with that idea?  What's worse is these turkeys in another piece of marketing literature will try to use triboelectric effect to justify their cable. Bueller? Bueller? ..... This only occurs very low signal levels and very high impedances (think medical). Even with a turntable you would be hard pressed to show there is any triboelectric effect.  However, if you want to ensure you maximize the triboelectric effect (which is a bad thing), then bias the shield so you maximize the charge of the capacitor. The things audiophiles will believe.

I am not sure on the issue, personally. But I know this is not a simple, open and shut case in favor of double-blind. At the very least, it's complicated:
https://audiophilereview.com/audiophile-news/why-double-blind-testing-cant-work-for-audio.html
https://www.stereophile.com/content/highs-lows-double-blind-testing-page-5
https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/limitations-of-blind-testing-procedures.1...

There is no open-and shut on double blind, as that door was shut ages and ages ago. Double blind works. If you don't eliminate bias (which double blind does), then the results of any subjective test are suspect. The only definitive aspect of a double blind test is the "tester" has no idea at any time, either directly or through inadvertent suggestion (hence double blind) what particular product they are testing. Take 30 second to test, take 30 minutes, take 30 days. It can still be double blind. Any reviewer who claims immunity to bias is lying.