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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
rodman99999
6,206 posts
 

     A number of cable construction topics were discussed in the thread linked below.    Virtually: everything/every objection any poster could come up with.     

     Might be worth the review, to anyone interested in the baking of a better, er... I mean: the MAKING of a better cable.

    https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/power-cable-break-in-such-a-change

     btw: None of my posting have ever been intended to convince ANYONE they're doing something wrong, in their own listening rooms.     Far as I'm concerned: that's your domain, you're the pope in your own home and whatever makes you happy is fine with me.

      When I was in the system building business: (though my own taste has always been for transparency/signal integrity) whatever flavor/coloration of sound the customer desired...WELL, my philosophy was, "The customer always thinks they're right!" and it was there to make THEM happy.

       I just hate it when those disposed to experimenting with their own gear, are dissuaded by so much uneducated negativity, every time the subject arises.

                                         Happy listening!   

rodman99999
6,206 posts
 

@jumia -

     Thanks for your forbearance and compliment.

     My only agenda in here, is to help others better enjoy their music.

    Whether what's in my reproduced musical events or the pizza before me; it's my desire to savor EVERY component in the mix.

                         Who the hell craves a bland pizza, right?

jumia OP
528 posts
 

I think it’s very helpful to clarify that cable manufacturers are in the business of producing variations in sound (eg. Coloring).

The problem with marketing these products is that it takes a while for someone to discern whether the variation in sound is something they will be comfortable with. We all listen to a diversity of music plus home theater stuff where variation is all over the map.

To insert new cables and when a change is heard, the immediate tendency can be to like it. We all like change. And then maybe we determine whether the change was good and that takes a while. And then the breakin Factor further complicates and extends the evaluation.

And of course the biggest marketing strategy of all time is positive reinforcement.

There are fundamental basics that are very important to cable production but the marketing Materials don’t really go into all that in a very helpful way. Its proprietary and we can’t reveal what’s in the secret sauce.

It’s a royal pain in the ass to buy cables. I’m using 15 ft mogami w3173 cables between preamp and amplifier with RCA custom connections and they were just lovely. 3173 are not sold the retail because these are thicker cables. And only $150.

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