A New Believer

Would you agree that "immeasurably small" is the same as "not noticed at all"? Therefore something "very noticeable" ought to be measurable, correct? If so, please advise where in the literature of cables one can find a side-by-side comparison of phase shift or frequency response pitting one cable against another under identical conditions.

I would also contend there is no way a reasonably short cable (<4 feet) could possibly contain enough capacitance to affect the loading of the input, though there may be some poorly made beast out there that does. Shielding is a different issue, which can affect sound, particularly in low-current turntable connections. But added RFI is not the issue; sound quality is. I still don't know what independent variable can be assigned to a cable for this.

Whether the difference is better or worse is a subjective judgement made by the listener

Here are a few
Happy reading

http://forums.audioreview.com/showthread.php?t=2526

http://www.audioholics.com/reviews/cables/speaker-cable-face-off-1/speaker-cable-face-off-1-page-2

http://www.cardas.com/content.php?area=insights&content_id=10&pagestring=Measuring+Cable+Resonance

"being biased into a logical conclusion" you wanna retract that:)

No because my logic always won out until I started doing extensive listening and realized I was hearing differences, sometimes profound differences between ic's and speaker cables. Sometimes there are no apparent differences. How can this be?

"Whether the difference is better or worse is a subjective judgement made by the listener" I agree Ahendler

The history of this hobby always has the naysayers and a healthy dose of skepticism is always a good thing to maintain to keep reality in check. All I'm saying is that I can hear differences between cables that matter to me in the best examples and don't in many or even most cases.

Ahendler--

If there is a specific study at Audioholics, I would be glad to read it. As for the Cardas link, that pertained to speaker wire, not interconnects. I would certainly agree that speaker wire should be as short as possible to minimize resistance. Anything fatter than 14-gauge, however, is probably overkill except on the longest runs.

But there really isn't a measurable difference among reasonably well-made interconnects (i.e. decent connectors, well-shielded cable). R, L & C are the only variables, and none of them vary enough in industry products to make any measurable--certainly audible--difference. Use whatever you like, but if you're changing out one decent cable for another, you are wasting money, time or both.