What were your own blind cable test results?

Chadnliz: you shouldn't walk around when doing a blind test!

Chris

Well, that analysis is only accurate where the prettier cable sounds better. If it's the natty looking cheap cable that sounds better then that argument falls on its butt unless you have some type of incentive for the cheaper cable to win of course.

But if the two sound the same -- or close -- then this is very relevant. Ditto if you believe that cable differences are generally exaggerated.

Well my test was with several interconnects instead of speaker cables. My gear was a DBX BX3 power amp,CX3 pre-amp and two DX-5 CD players. The pre was connected to the amp with Straightwire "Choir". The speaker cable was Zu Cable "Wax". The test cd's were both Eric Clapton Unplugged. I think thats the main reason I keep my CX3 around, I'm able to connect two cd players at the same time. All cables were low to mid-fi grade. the cables were, Audioquest Jade,Ruby and Sidewinder, Straighwire symphony 2 and Rhapsody, Zu Cable Oxyfuel, Signal cable Analog 2, along with several levels of Monster cable which I don't remember. I would plug in two cables, start both cd players at the same time, close my eye's (That's the blind part) and switch between cd1 and cd2 on the preamp. which ever cable I liked, moved on to the next round. In the end, the Rhapsody and Signal cable sounded the best to me. the BX3 power amp would allow me to do the same with speaker cables, but I would need 2 pair of the same speakers to keep things even.

I'm talking about equal cables (thus, sounding the same) with different cosmetics.

Springowl,

A lot depends on the speaker impedance and the amp output impedance. Amps with low output impedance will modify the transfer function as the speaker load varies with frequency. This can become audible when the speaker load vary significantly, as more voltage drop occurs across the amp output stage when the speaker impedance is very low.

For example, imagine the amp ouput impedance is 4 Ohms. The Speaker impedance varies between 16 ohms at 60 Hz (driver/box resonance) and 3 ohms at 2 KHZ. The speaker frequency response is perfectly flat.

The drop across the output impedance of the amp means that the music at 60 Hz is roughly two and four tenths times GREATER than it should be compared to music at 2 KHz (in order to sound flat). This is enough to be clearly audible. It will sound like bass bloom at the woofer resonance frequency.

Now throw in a cable with a high resistance and you will alter the transfer function again.

A 1 ohm cable will mean that the amplifier sees 17 ohms at 60 hz and 4 ohms at 2 Khz.

The music at 60 Hz will now be one and nine tenths greater then at 2 Khz....a small but not insignificant change.

In contrast, a speaker with a perfectly flat impedance response and flat frequency response will sound the same at both frequenies when driven by the amp with 4 ohm output impedance.

In contrast, an amplifier with low output impedance (less than 0.1 ohm) will sound the same at both frequenies even with the speaker that has a highly variable impedance response with frequency (3 Ohms at 2 Khz and 16 Ohms at 60 Hz).

So what does this mean? It means the audible effect is determined by the cable AND the equipment it is connecting.

In some cases a different cable will not make any difference and in other cases it will indeed make a subtle difference. Therefore it is incorrect to attribute the change (or lack of change) in sound (bass bloom in this case) to the cable alone! The same speaker cable may do nothing for one person and yet make a subtle difference for another....all dependent on the gear it connects.