Do your ears deceive you?

Confirmation bias is real. But some cables do make a difference. If you can’t hear it you either have the wrong cables, an insufficient system, an inability to hear those differences or confirmation bias against cables. 

It’s kinda funny....I’ve wanted every single set of cables I’ve ever installed in my system to sound like "The Ones", yet several sets hang on the wall of my basement shop, got passed on my boys, or got resold, because once all the excitement and expectation bias wore off, they just weren’t what I had hoped they’d be.  It can take quite a while to recognize all the subtle things going on.  

It’d sure be cheaper and less frustrating if I couldn’t hear the difference.

A truly blind test is when I change a cable or add a tweak unbeknownst to my spouse and the change is perceived immediately.

I think my bias is that I do expect a difference.Why else make a change? But it's not always positive or sometimes so subtle it's not a keeper.

 

These engineers would disagree with the OP.

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Bybee Technologies – Founded by Jack Bybee – Physicist

 

Jack Bybee's did research in cable/circuit design for military use.

Bybee’s first commercial products emerged from Cold War-era military-industrial research. The stealthy shadow contest of nuclear submarine detection, location and evasion demanded ever-quieter circuits, lower electronic noise and greater signal-to-noise ratios. Practitioners summed up the problem as: “reducing 1/f noise, from DC to 2000hz”.  

Bybee’s technology involves exotic blends of rare-earth metals or their isotopes to reduce electronic noise in circuits. In the mid-1990s, Bybee’s AC filtering was among the first of its kind to use exotic doped materials instead of transformers or balanced power, which made it a novel concept at the time.

Jack’s science and physicist background gave him the understanding about negative effects of quantum noise. Link here.

 

Purist Audio Design – Founded by Jim Aud – EE & Physicist

From there, I earned my Electronics Engineering degree at Brescia University, and would later study Computer Science for almost two years at Westinghouse. Then I came to South Texas Nuclear, and studied what they’d call today nuclear physics. Link here.

 

Shunyata Research – Founded by Caelin Gabriel – Research Scientist

Caelin Gabriel is a former US military research scientist with a background in research and design of ultra-sensitive data acquisition systems.  These systems were designed to detect extremely low-level signals otherwise obscured by random noise, requiring years of intensive research into the sources and effects of signal and power-line noise interference.  Link here.

 

Silversmith Audio – Founded by Jeffrey Smith – Engineer

CEO/Designer Jeffrey Smith is a Wyoming native and graduate of the United States Naval Academy with a Bachelor of Science degree in General Engineering. He also earned a Master of Science Degree, With Distinction, in Defense and Strategic Studies. Link here.

 

MIT Cables – Founded by Bruce Brisson – awarded 20 USPTO engineering patents.

MIT Cables founder Bruce Brisson began purposely designing audio cables in the 1970’s after encountering the sonic problems inherent in cables typical of the day. Link here.

 

Audioquest – Garth Powell - Sr. Director of Engineering

Formerly with Furman Power for 12 years.

@knotscott

It’s kinda funny....I’ve wanted every single set of cables I’ve ever installed in my system to sound like "The Ones", yet several sets hang on the wall of my basement shop, got passed on my boys, or got resold, because once all the excitement and expectation bias wore off, they just weren’t what I had hoped they’d be.

That pretty much describes the audiophile condition I have observed, participated in (for years), and read about here and on other forums, and even in professional review publications, over the past 25+ years.  Everyone is looking for The One great thing that will clarify, tonally densify, and totally transform their system.  

I have read countless posts and reviews about about cables, fuses, Class D amps, and all sorts of small filter boxes, and testimonials from early adopters about the latest and greatest missing link they added to create their final perfect system…until the next latest, greatest thing came out.  Many of us have boxes of cables, footers, and electrical do-dads that came in with a bang and went out with a whimper.  Yes, I agree there are (subtitle) differences to be heard but IME the lasting effect is usually far less than the hype.  Black, red, blue, orange, purple, and pink, the one thing all of this stuff has had in common these past 25 years is dollar$.  The folks selling this still are mostly selling hope.