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.
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.
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Don't expect those who mix cables to agree or understand.Nonsense. The only way that statement can be valid is if each source and load are electrically identical, which they clearly are not. It is possible to turn an excellent system into unlistenable by swapping a single cable from the same manufacturer that does not mate well with the driving and source impedances. Similarly components can be tuned by using different capacitors and resistors in the signal path. The diverse components have the same value but not the same impedance. Ditto cables. One company who understands tuning is Noble: "Some of my work involved tuning the power supply. It may come as a surprise to learn that you can change tonality without even touching the signal path, because the signal originates from the power supply. The impedance curve of the N11's power supply is absolutely homogenous from DC to 200kHz, which creates a very balanced sound. I also tuned the resistors for the voltage gain, using a mix of carbon and metal resistors to create a neutral balance. There are a lot of preamps that claim to be 'neutral' or 'in balance,' but there are different shades of 'neutral.' If you have a tube preamp, for example, 'neutral' is at a different level than solid-state; it's not better or worse, but it is different. It took a lot of work to find the tonal balance I like a lot that measures well, with low noise, and fits very well in the Noble Line." from MBL Noble Line N11 line preamplifier |
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