Yes, cables do make a difference -- regardless of price...

@markwd "...And competent and scientifically sophisticated cable manufacturers ... would be trumpeting their product measurements all day long if they in fact had any clear measurement differences to promote.".

@markwd "I look forward to more evidence in the future! I don’t see anything here except bland vitriol and bald assertions. "

@markwd I think it would be great if all the smart folks who produce cables showed some evidence. I’m always attracted to the unexpected and novel.

@markwd ... The important question is when are we going to get any good evidence for cables? ...

@markwd In any case, I have a BSEE and MSEE in information theory and signal processing, as well as PhD work in cognitive science

Now the homework begins for you, tag - your turn. What say you?

Please enlighten us or debate us more as to your own understanding or theory about cable current bunching, or skin effect, or current uniformly across a wire conductor, or resistance in a cross-sectional area of a conductor. Or, how about characteristic impedance of a cable, or series inductance, or G shunt conductance, or shunt capacitance, or "frequency smearing" in different cable designs.

You asked and poked at it, here is a manufacturer who measures and promotes it;

Analysis Plus, quote:

"...we then set about designing our own approach to audiophile cables, relying on solid, measurable data rather than subjective claims".

Source:

@decooney Just skimmed through it. It's fairly high level and just presents measurements that support their general theory wrt frequency effects, EMI, etc. What is missing is a simple, clear series of experimental measurements of the impact on sound reproduction. That is, like the null test I suggested above, it would be awesome to see the cables being deployed in a reproduction chain and that they measurably show improved fidelity to the original signal, reduced noise, or reduced distortion.

It's such a simple test! Much more simple than their crazy modeling of skin effects, etc. If their cables reduce distortion and noise, then I think they have a home run opportunity to show that it impacts the reproduction chain. I would love to see those results!

@markwd ”It’s such a simple test! Much more simple than their crazy modeling …

Can you describe in some level of detail for us the test case scenario you are referring to, and what good test results would look like?

This would be helpful to understand, and for comparison to the testing NASA did before deciding to select Analysis Plus cables for one of their programs. Thanks. 

@decooney Sure, but also note that the NASA email (granting it's authentic) is concerning a laser diode application that bears little resemblance to audio-scale electrical properties.

So, the test is very simple: take a high resolution audio stream consisting of music (you can do single tones/sweeps later). Connect the streamer to an excellent DAC using modern USB cable. Connect DAC analog output to excellent ADC using Test Cable A. Record audio. Replace Cable A with Cable B (try a bunch of budget through to expensive). Record, record, record. Align the digital signals and subtract them from one another using standard software tools. Any residual signal represents differences between the cables. If the residual spectrum is bass-rich, that might be called "tubby" by the subjectivists. More high frequency might be called "more resolving." Fair enough! 

OK, so we looked at analog XLR interconnects in the above scenario. We can also do speaker cables by getting a calibrated microphone like the Umik-1 from MiniDSP and recording the track again through the streamer > DAC > amp > speaker chain. Swap cables and then compare once again to look for why folks think there's an obvious difference.

Do the same kind of thing for power cables, power conditioners, ethernet cables, etc. There may be differences! The SPDIF cables from 2013/2017 mentioned in posts above showed flaws, but SPDIF is notorious for jitter issues, especially in the old days.

We need some exciting results for the other categories of cables!

@chocaholic 

Re: mains connection 

Poorly designed components (or components that didn’t look at this issue) can have leads that act as TRANSMITTING  antennas of noise.

Given the rats nests of interconnects and power leads in the back, I wouldn’t be surprised, at all, if an interconnection doesn’t pick up garbage transmitted back out from an unshielded power cable, especially if they are touching and follow parallel for a fair length.

My theory is based on a sample of one, where the power cord of my turntable laid flat against my phono cable and I could (and anyone could) hear a hiss until the two were pulled apart.  Kept happening due to how everything was smashed together in my original set up.

Went away when I switched to an Amazon (nothing fancy, but definitely shielded, you can’t detect current with a “live wire” detector) mains cable.

Mind you, the phono cable is the thinnest interconnect and the MC signal the weakest signal in the chain.  So the most vulnerable.

When I redesigned my rig, it made me run all interconnects XLR (including phono), picked fully balanced components (including phono amp) and took great care lay out wiring with a considerable air gap and no touching.

it’s also super sharp looking behind the scenes which makes my OCD very pleased. LOL.

Not fancy wiring, either.  Mogami platinum with high end furutech ends.  Speaker wire is larger gauge pure silver from a military aircraft (used for fire reasons), braided by my daughter.  I doubt all in its $1000.