Why Do Cables Matter?

Recording sound is a different process than playing back the sound. Microphones are not same as speakers. What you are playing back from is a finished product. You're starting all over again when playing back so getting the best out of it is a new game. 

The using the same cabling used in recording during playback argument is no more valid than the one about all that cabling that comes before your outlet, or the ones in your amp. They're all red herrings. 

An old and talented sound engineer with lousy hearing, crappy speakers and whatever limitations he's under knows what to do to get the best sound just like some deaf composer can write a symphony and know how great it will sound. 

All the best,
Nonoise

+1 Nonoise.

@donavabdear. I agree with a lot of what you say about Al Schmitt’s recordings - which are superb. However, I disagree with your "bottleneck" comment. You miss the point that the engineer doesn’t just listen to what’s being recorded via monitors. They listen to the actual sound of the instruments themselves. In addition, good engineers know exactly what every piece of equipment in the recording chain does in terms of the sound which is finally committed to the recording medium. Furthermore, in multitrack recording, the engineer has the opportunity to listen to each track solo and, actually, has access to a lot more information than anyone who only hears the final two track mix.

To conclude, as nonoise says arguments about any piece of equipment in the recording chain setting a limit on what can be used for reproduction are just red herrings.

That’s the end of my contribution on this topic.

@nonoise : +2

@donavabdear @nonoise @yoyoyaya 

Great points which I failed to understand about the equipment and about a good engineer creating things which project beyond what their equipment literally reports to them. Thanks.

@yoyoyaya

It makes me laugh as audiophiles prattle on about recording unless they were recording engineers themselves.

Engineers may attempt to get what’s on the other side of the glass into the recording. And almost always certainly must fail. And as often as not the recording is a creation in its own right assembled from tracks recorded on different days, often in different rooms, possibly on different continents.

No engineer anywhere ever heard in the booth what was actually playing in the studio. Not even when nothing is playing. The studio has an ambience which is masked by booth equipment self-noise and air-con. Acoustically they can be worlds apart due to volume, shape, contents and surface treatment.

One of Al Schmidt’s masterpieces is Toto IV. The iconic track ’Africa’ began as a four bar drum segment cut from hours of recordings, spliced end to end and then looped. Everything else is layered on top over many months. I still get goosebumps today when I recall when Jeff brought a cassette of the finished song to a date and played it for the cats. We were speechless. Drum perfection!