A New Believer

Shadorne: The point I was making is this. There is NOTHING that is absolutely understood in our hobby. The example I gave you was the one that supported "CD reproduction was perfect" It turns out that as envisioned it is not. Just because one cannot measure it or do not have an explanation of why a certain thing goes against the "Mainline Thinking" does not mean it does not occur. While I agree that all the other items you list are very important and should be optimized the bottom line is this.I also agree with you that there is a LOT of snake oil out there and if you are not technically savvy can get burned.

You have a CHAIN and every link in the chain right up to your ears modifies the sound. In my opinion the simpler these interfaces are the less likely that you will have a large interaction between them. So I would refrain in general with "grossly inaccurate" unless you have a very good grasp of the interactions of even a few feet of wire that has capacitance, inductance and resistance and a feedback amplifier with a speaker load.

Al: There is a fly in the ointment though. Speaker loads are very far from being predictable speaker to speaker. The low output impedance of an amplifier will help but as I said in the first post you have the cable and the speaker in series. Feedback amplifiers can measure well under continuous drive but can fare badly in transient conditions.

Regards,

J

04-20-11: Stops
Al: There is a fly in the ointment though. Speaker loads are very far from being predictable speaker to speaker. The low output impedance of an amplifier will help but as I said in the first post you have the cable and the speaker in series.

I agree.

Implicit in my comment about the predictability of the interactions between cable impedance and the impedance and other characteristics of what is being connected was the thought that the effects of any given cable will vary widely depending on what the cable is connecting. Sometimes in opposite directions, in fact. Nevertheless they are generally predictable for a given combination of cables and components, assuming the technical parameters of both are known.

For example, a low capacitance interconnect cable used as a line-level interconnect will tend to have GREATER bandwidth/faster risetime than a higher capacitance cable, as a result of its interaction with the output impedance of the component that is driving it. That same low capacitance cable, if used as a phono cable in conjunction with a moving magnet cartridge, will tend to have LOWER bandwidth/slower risetime than a higher capacitance cable, as a result of its interaction with the inductance of the cartridge. Same cable, exactly opposite effects depending on what it is connecting. Those effects will sometimes occur at frequencies well below 20kHz.

Feedback amplifiers can measure well under continuous drive but can fare badly in transient conditions.

Agreed also. Although in typical situations I would expect cabling to play a role in that which is minor or negligible, relative to the performance of the amplifier itself and to the sonic effects of amplifier/speaker interaction.

Regards,
-- Al

Thanks Al I agree with all the comments

Regards,
J

Al: I am not sure I wholly agree with the concept that the speaker cables have an insignificant effect.

The simple fact that people hear a difference by changing the cables WITHOUT changing the speaker suggest that the cables must have a pretty dramatic effect in the coupling/performance of the amp and the speaker. Maybe the point you made was that the speaker is more complex than the wires but the bottom line is that the cables change the sound. Which really is the bottom line.