Cable design is a lot like creating a pizza


If you look at the construction of an RCA cable it can be very simple or can be very complicated. Eg. Audio quest higher end interconnect cables are extremely creative, the diagram on their website is visually stunning.

Ultimately, Cable design in many cables involves coloring the tonal signature. Cooking a pizza is all about making all the ingredients come together so it tastes amazing. Some do it a lot better than others and Pizza is a lot cheaper.

For cables, There are conductors, drain wires, shielding, Airfilled tubes, different gauges, etc…. Then there’s the copper strands which can be very detailed and numerous and twisted. So much going on.

With pizza you have cheese and sauce and spices and the dough and it’s all mixed together with all kinds of variation. Ultimately the sauce makes or breaks the success of a pizza slice.

With audio cables, hi end Cable designers are endlessly trying different ways to do all this. In the end they find something that sounds kind of nice. They may not know exactly why it does sound the way it does.

So that’s my take on Pizza design and cable design.

jumia

Sounds better, No idea why.

 

I'm good with that. Sound is what I'm after.

...and all kinds of different pizza and varying quality ingredients used in various pizza shops. Results vary quite a bit from garbage to amazing Pizza. Similar situation with junk cable designs with low or high quality conductors, dielectrics, materials and assembly. Some cables impeding the sound more than others.  

@jumia : Ever since Disc Washer brought out their Gold Ens IC's in 1976 wire has become a growing market! I had some Gold Ens. Sounded fine to me! I replaced them with Cotter/Verion Tri-Axials ($30/meter). Still have six pairs in storage. Now use a mix of Audioquest Silver Extremes, DH Labs and Monster Reference. To me they all sound equally fine! 

There is no way to justify four-figure cables. That's like paying a thousand bucks for a pizza made in Brooklyn, NY and flown hot to LA first-class! To the wire fanatics it is a faith-based religion with zero scientific backing. 

Heck, I’d still be using the Cotters if they weren’t buried so deep in storage! They were the favorite recommendation of The Audio Critic - which all the subjectivists here hate!