How accurate are cable descriptions for your system?

lalitk

I prefer cable brands that are tuned to convey the music in most natural way without emphasizing any elements of a recording.

Well now, is it even possible to tune a speaker cable? Surely it's not the job of a cable to emphasise or supress frequencies and a good cable will transmit all frequencies without timing issues or transient degradation.

 

artemus_5 - I had the Silversmiths and they didn’t do much in the way of improving the sound of my integrated NAD M33, but they didn’t do anything bad either.  Very tough to connect if you have tight/close together speaker connection points.  The best thing is the owner is a great guy and refunded the full price without issue.

You might as well ask a Ouija board what cable to buy!

The only way I have found to approach it is to trial certain cables in my system.

Sure, there could be a "wrong" cable for a particular system, given how the components, as a system are voiced- that is, you are combining attributes and to some degree using the cables to fine tune the system. Before you go crazy on wire, I’d want to know that the system is optimized for the room, some room treatment or other things may prove to be important too, but placement and positioning, which may require some experimentation and heavy lifting, might also be in order first.

Sometimes, differences in cables in my experience are subtle- not imaginary, but the system has to be capable of revealing, and benefit by, the match up. Some synergies are well known for particular amp-speaker sets. I know one person whose tastes are in the stratosphere and he largely avoids audiophile cable in favor of very basic wire.

Hearing an entire system "loom" of one cable type or brand can let you hear the "house sound" or character of the cable a little more easily, but there could be differences within a brand, from the lowest priced to the upper tier.

And that is where you can waste money until you trial them in your system. It is work. I did it first, meaningfully, in the late ’80s, and after a weekend listening to 4 or 5 cables, I came up with one I preferred. I can’t remember where it ranked in terms of price.

There’s a lot of stuff written, but given the wide range of variables between your system and someone else’s (the room alone, as well as set up will have a considerable influence over sonic outcomes even if the gear comprising the system is identical--not something likely), I’d say that the views of others may gave you some insight into the sonic signature of a cable. But it is in your system, using your ears, that you will make determinations, not the words of someone else using a different system and room. That’s all I got. Good luck. The more time you spend on listening and evaluating, the better your outcome will be. You also will learn to improve your analytical listening in the process of making such comparisons for yourself.

I hate to say it but those cables for $100 and $79 are going to be junk, the best cables for audio and this has been proven for 50 years now is OCC single crystal wire and it's not cheap but if you hear it compared to all the other ofc stuff on the market including the real expensive stuff that's a rip-off the OCC is the clear winner, the ofc stuff is not even in the same league.