Cables Are Crazy, what do you think?


I have been in several arguments with my best friends father on the subject of high end audio components and cables. He is a DR. of physics and mathmatics and always takes the stance that cables just transfer information and should show no effect on sound performance. He does stipulate that depending on the material used can change what information is transfered. He is no audiophile and I have tried to sit him down and show him what does happen when you do use different cables but he never seems to make the time to let me prove to him that different cables have different sounds. I know cable make a huge difference in a system, but does any one know how I can verbalize that to a DR. of physics with more intellegence then it just sounds different with different cables?
willypinecrest
Yes, give up. Why should he take time to validate your point when it is not important to HIM? Most engineers I know who are also audiophiles start out as skeptics, and only come around to the value of cables (if they ever do) when faced with the empirical evidence from their own ears that they can improve the subjective performance of THEIR OWN SYSTEM. Suspension of belief and years and years of formal training and successful application of physical principles requires a significant reward!

The best lay explanations of why cables "improve" sound reproduction has more to do with what they don't allow to happen to the current and signals coursing behind your sound system than what they actually DO or DON'T DO to the SOUND in the absence of complex EM fields, i.e. are they acting as active antennas or passive pipes. With that said, my experience is that silver has a "different" sound signature than copper, but that may be beyond mine or your ability to explain to the good Doctor. I am sure it has something to do with "skin effects", but may also just be that silver wire makes a different kind of antenna than a copper wire???
Ask him whether RF can impact sound performance. If he says "yes," then tell him that certain power cables reduce the amount of RF coming into the system. QED.
Don't bother as most people with physics degrees and most engineers do not readily accept that cables can make anything but the very slightest of differences to analog audio signals in a properly designed system. This is not new...just accept it and get on with life. If $1000's spent on cables work for you then enjoy but don't expect many scientists to share your convictions. A typical scientist when faced with a huge difference between one adequate speaker cable and another will simply assume something is wrong with the equipment or its combination rather than attribute significant audio properties to the cable ( you know - amp instability - complex low impedance speaker loads => rightly or wrongly scientists view cables as being passive in analog audio applications).
Thanks for all the input. I think my favorite is Jaybo with the prettiest jackets sound the best. I have played around with many cables and I can tell the difference and I will continue on my quest for a complete system that sounds best to me. Thanks again
If Peter Walker of QUAD did not believe that wire affected sound I do not think your friend will...

Thankfully Peter believed in other things like speaker design!