A hard look at the effect of cables

This article unfortunately reminds me of attempting to make good speaker cables using my Nakamichi AV10 as test amp. What finally sounded only OK on AV10 was poor on everything else. The weird loads with normal speakers is why I was so taken (and purchased) some TBI speakers as they are closer to resistive load than inductive. I have not seem many threads from people with successfull experience from 2 inch long speaker cable mono amp hook-up. How can we normal folks use this info ?

hi shadorne. there are two cable interfaces that you may be overlooking, namely the source to preamp and the preamp to amp. what about transport to dac

Since these are just signal cables (almost no power or current), they have a specifically designed buffer circuit at the input of each component in a chain (rather than a nasty complex load of a speaker). These cables are far less of an issue than speaker cables. The components can be designed to preserve signal integrity across interconnects to a much higher degree.

So 20 feet of shielded XLR with good components at each end is therefore much better than the equivalent in speaker cable connected to a nasty complex load.

Ngjockey makes some great points.

I don't believe the article was meant to blame cables but rather highlight the complex interaction of the system due to the cable's connection - and that the cables themselves also contribute to the overall effect to varying degree.

I don't feel I have any answers but I do know that I have experienced significant changes (relatively speaking) with different interconnects and power cords, as well as speaker cables. And not only that but in some cases, I've had significantly larger changes with different interconencts and power cords than I have had with different speaker cables. Not sure why but I have witnessed it with my own ears, which I trust.

But this would make sense too in the context of what Ngjockey brings up: how can a simple cable have such an impact when you are talking about inserting it in a system with huge capacitance and inductance all over the place?

It is amazing and humbling for me to witness the complexity of our universe. The more I try to learn and figure out, the dumber I realize I am.

Arthur

"It is amazing and humbling for me to witness the complexity of our universe. The more I try to learn and figure out, the dumber I realize I am."

Arthur, if only we all were as humble.

I don't believe the article was meant to blame cables but rather highlight the complex interaction of the system due to the cable's connection - and that the cables themselves also contribute to the overall effect to varying degree.

Arthur, now I fully agree. However, the title of the thread was "a hard look at the effect of cables", which implies that the cables themselves are the primary cause of observed differences. I am just presenting the alternate viewpoint that one should look at the system holistically.

The authors (Philip Newell and Keith Holland) in your original link state

It does not take too much imagination to realise how a 20 or 30 amp low frequency current can modulate high frequency signals passing along the same cable at levels of 40 dB below.

and

the generally prevailing opinion is that multi-amplified systems sound 'cleaner' than equivalent systems using single, full-range amplifiers. And of course, with multiamplification, multi-cabling is an automatic result.

and

There is no doubt that it is asking a lot of any amplifier, or loudspeaker cable, to faithfully pass up to 11 octaves of musical signal with a dynamic range of 90 dB or more. Considering the fact that no loudspeaker driver can do this, it seems perfectly reasonable to split the frequency bands ahead of the amplifiers and drive each frequency range independently. {Note: This describes an Active Speaker}

and

It has been the experience of the authors that as the frequency bands become narrower, the need for specially selected cables reduces considerably. {my point above, earlier in this thread}

=> I interpret the authors as saying that you can, if you like, regard cables as the root problem (presumably band-aid or color your sound by finding a cable that has the least problems in combo with your gear) or, alternatively, you can turn to Active Speakers if you simply want to avoid a whole bunch of issues that they describe (drawback: this requires accepting a manufacturer's design rather than your own recipe for sound, a kind of straight jacket).

BTW: Great that you pointed this article out. It is the most compelling argument for taking a serious look at Active Speakers that I have seen in a long while. Of course, for those who are not interested in tackling the root cause, then it can be construed as a good reason to try another more expensive speaker cable...perhaps it will sound better ....perhaps it won't...at least the cable tweaking provides hours of entertainment!