Cable design is a lot like creating a pizza

"It serves to illustrate how ridiculous cable design is. Especially if they can’t explain what they’ve done Beyond marketing rhetoric.

This also applies to preamplifiers and amplifiers. And here even more complicated, and many are profoundly confused as to why components sound the way they do."

@jumia

Agree 100%. It’s incredible how much money is made from cables transferring a low voltage audio signal. The recipe and ingredients are constantly changing in order to fleece the audiophile sheep of their disposable income. The more they spend the better they feel. Then there are the common sense, practical types who build their own cables with quality materials that get the job done just as well at a small fraction of the cost. They are often mocked however by the elitists who’ve spent a weeks pay with results no better.

@jumia 

A very good analogy! So I’ll have a plain pizza and add my own toppings of amp and dac and DSP please.

@rodman99999 

 I have no doubt that there are many using cables as tone controls, which simply goes to show: cables CAN/DO make a difference in reproduction.

      However: everyone I know that uses high-end cables, regardless of position in their system, is attempting to do as little damage to their signal* as possible.

                             *the goal = neutrality/faithful reproduction

at first glance these two statements appear contradictory to me. They raise the question as to how do we know that cables are revealing the truth versus adding desirable distortion? Seems like there might be a place for measurement here.

once we recognize that there is such a thing as desirable distortion then the question becomes what is the most effective way to add it when it is desired. I would think that DSP would certainly be competitive with cables as a means. If you want to learn more about desirable distortion I suggest you read some of what Nelson Pass has written about his First Watt amps.

@holmz -

     Maxwell's equations weren't wrong, but: there's much more involved*, when we're dealing with retaining a plethora of frequencies/voices (instrumental and vocal), ambient/room information (height, width, depth) and placement of the afore mentioned voices, within that space.    (iow: much more sensitive info, than what's contained in DC or AC).

       Even those involved in manufacturing PC boards for more the more sensitive RF systems, take into account the variables involved when choosing materials, as signal speed is dependent on their dielectric constants and possible frequencies to be encountered.

       We've engaged in this conversation before, so: I suspect your queries to be more argumentative, than inquisitive.    Hence: this post is more for those extant, that are genuinely interested in the Physics of what's what with our wires.

                                      If I'm wrong: my apologies!

"But what part of a stereo systems is like a transmission line?"

                 *http://www.audiosystemsgroup.com/TransLines.pdf

@bruce19 -

     Some of us have had the blessing/experience of being heavily involved with the production and recording of live sound, in a multitude of venues, over decades.

     Having recordings that one has personally made, can generate high confidence in one's reference materials.

      I've never been able to abide audible distortion*, in any system I'm responsible for, or: listen to.

     PLEASE: save me the, "auditory sensory memory" rhetoric, as that (as regards EVERY OTHER of the human senses) varies greatly between individuals.  ie: how hard is it for you, when you answer the phone, to recognize the voice at the other end, even if you haven't heard it in years?

             *ie: "warmth/musicality", colorations, added pleasant harmonics, etc