If Cables Are Not Tone Controls...


I can't count the times audiophiles have said "Cables are not tone controls".  But if we audition (remember that?) two sets of speaker cables and decide that one sounds "better" than the other, aren't we using it as a tone control?  You can call it whatever you want, but in reality we are deciding which cable contours the sound to our liking?  Or should we just buy the speaker cable with the lowest resistance, inductance and capacitance we can find and if it sounds like crap, change other components until it sounds good?  Then we're just using the other components we've swapped out as tone controls. Just asking.  
chayro
Coloration or color ? Those are very different terms. 
Purist Neptune is a great cable, I have it as well. It seemingly brings out all the colors but it also brings in some colorations. Colorations by addition mostly not by subtraction, as far as I can tell. This is not a neutral cable, if there is any neutral cable.
Try to audition cables and listen to them in your system, to see which one is matching your system.You will be surprise expensive cable at times won’t match your system. So they are useless in your system.i agree with Doug  +7
Yes cables impact tone and can certainly change the overall tone and sound of a system. In some systems the “change” is better, in others not so much. It depends on the starting sonic point of a given system and the listener’s sonic preferences. I send the same cable to two different customers. One likes the resulting sound of his system more than every other expensive cable he has owned and tried. Another finds it just ok. Ha! Welcome to the world of audio and audiophiles. All fun, good and true. Enjoy your music fellow Agoners.