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

In that the author states:

A relatively short length of cable shows no measurable transmission line effects for low frequency signals. But if the cable is long enough (or the frequency components of the signal are high enough), transmission line effects will begin to appear with increasing frequency or length.

The signals are generally on low frequency, say <20kHz.

 

        Refer to my post, dated 09-18-2022 at 09:32am (Indiana time)

 

 

Refer to my post, dated 09-18-2022 at 09:32am (Indiana time)

This one?

 

@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).

The electrical signal has no idea about the placement of musicians in a room.

And the plethora of frequencies are all <20 kHz, which is not like MHz or GHz, where transmission line theory is used. 
The author in the link you provided below says so.

 

       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.

Ok we can talk about dielectric constants.

 

       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

A pizza that adds and subtracts nothing to your esthetic experience...hmm...alert the metaphor police immediately.

     I have but one word, to express my personal view as regards the Church of Denyin'tology and it's obfuscating, classically (possibly: willfully) obtuse adherents:

                             floccinaucinihilipilification

                                    Happy listening!