2. cables
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I see the issue with ABX blind testing

I’ve followed many of the cable discussions over the years with interest. I’ve never tested cables & compared the sound other than when I bought an LFD amp & the vendor said that it was best paired with the LFD power cord. That was $450 US and he offered to ship it to me to try & if I didn’t notice a difference I could send it back. I got it, tried it & sent it back. To me there was no difference at all.

Fast forward to today & I have a new system & the issue of cables arises again. I have Mogami cables made by Take Five Audio in Canada. The speaker wire are Mogami 3104, XLRs are Mogami 2549 & the power cords are Powerline 10 with Furutech connectors. All cables are quite well made and I’ve been using them for about 5 years. The vendor that sold me the new equipment insisted that I needed "better" cables and sent along some Transparent Super speaker & XLR cables to try. If I like them I can pay for them.

In every discussion about cables the question is always asked, why don’t you do an ABX blind test? So I was figuring out how I’d do that. I know the reason few do it. It’s not easy to accomplish. I have no problem having a friend come over & swap cables without telling me what he’s done, whether he swapped any at all etc. But from what I can see the benefit, if there is one, will be most noticeable system wide. In other words, just switching one power cable the way I did before won’t be sufficient for you to tell a difference... again, assuming there is one. So I need my friend to swap power cables for my amp/preamp & streamer, XLR cables from my streamer to my preamp, preamp to amp & speakers cables. That takes a good 5-10 minutes. There is no way my brain is retaining what I previously heard and then comparing it to what I currently hear.

The alternative is to connect all of the new cables, listen for a week or so & then switch back & see if you feel you’re missing anything. But then your brain takes over & your biases will have as much impact as any potential change in sound quality.

So I’m stumped as to how to proceed.

A photo of my new setup. McIntosh MC462, C2700, Pure Fidelity Harmony TT, Lumin T3 & Sonus Faber Amati G5 & Gravis V speakers.

dwcda
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audphile1's avatar
audphile1
5,227 posts
 

@dwcda well that’s great news! Confirm your findings and move on. $18,000 can easily be spent on an amazing improvement in room acoustics and components. Enjoy the music!

mihorn
517 posts
 

OP    There is no way my brain is retaining what I previously heard and then comparing it to what I currently hear.

I agree. So, I record the sound each time I change any cable or equipment. Can you post any live-record video?

This is my video of 4 power cords comparison. Click these times (4:46 JPS), (9:50 Zentara), (14:38 WT v2), (18:53 WTPC) to hear different cables. More time marks are in comment section.  Alex/WTA

dwcda OP
116 posts
 

@mihorn I listened to that on my system & heard no difference between any of the 4. So I had my spouse choose the part to play while I had no idea which she was playing & I could not tell if she was playing different pieces or just the same one again & again. So no difference for me.

Is it just me? Has anyone listened to those 4 recordings and heard differences?

​

benanders's avatar
benanders
234 posts
 
soix

8,560 posts

“What works for you works for you. But professing what you perceive should apply to others’ perceptions and/or use cases? Better off having some evidence.”

@benanders Yeah, and if a frog had wings he wouldn’t bump his ass a hoppin’. Back in the real world and in most cases there is limited or no “evidence,” especially with something like cables.


@soix evidence for / against cable differences - that cable manufacturers don’t seem to hold consumer preference studies seems like a strange knowledge gap to maintain, IMO. Critical parameters for cables in aerospace and military purposes show minimal to no measurable difference in what almost any HiFi setup would use. But let’s set aside such measurements since admittedly they’re of limited relevance for music listening purposes if not closely aligned with consumer preference studies.

 

I mean, that’s why we’re here — to give others an indication of something they might or might not want to audition or try, not to profess as you say that our perceptions will necessarily be the same as theirs, but indications can still be very useful and helpful despite the inherent variability.

 

You previously stated you surmise anyone who cannot hear differences that you perceive in cables, to have compromised hearing and/or equipment; that sure seems like professing to me. I’m unclear which stance you actually hold since it couldn’t very well be both, could it?

 

(BTW, when I said I can hear differences that are clear, consistent, and repeatable I was saying for me — not necessarily others — in response to your assertion based on some study somewhere that people’s aural memory is crap and you need a flip switch to reliably discern differences — I again say hogwash to that.)

 

Well, that’s your prerogative @soix . Rigorous objective studies on our biological capacities and limitations tend to hold up among scientific panels and courtrooms, but admittedly Internet personalities can think of them whatever they want, whether or not they’ve reviewed the material.

 

dwcda OP

8 posts

@mihorn I listened to that on my system & heard no difference between any of the 4. So I had my spouse choose the part to play while I had no idea which she was playing & I could not tell if she was playing different pieces or just the same one again & again. So no difference for me.

Is it just me? Has anyone listened to those 4 recordings and heard differences?

 

@dwcda YouTube compresses sound files so there’s potential for argument. However, I’d expect any compression effects would be independent of cables. Multiple other reasons why YouTube clips could be problematic for comparisons like this, but I’ll try to give a listen later. Thanks @mihorn for making the effort.

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