A New Believer

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.

04-21-11: Stops
Al: I am not sure I wholly agree with the concept that the speaker cables have an insignificant effect....

Stops, with all due respect that is a complete misreading of what I have said, which surprises me after your previous response. My reference to speaker cables having a minor or negligible effect strictly applied to your comment about the effect of amplifier feedback on transient response, and applied to the role played by the speaker cable in that specific effect (relative to the more important role of the amplifier design itself, and the interaction of the amplifier with the speaker).

Early on in this thread, in my post dated 4-10-11, I explicitly seconded a comment by Audiofeil which said essentially that cable differences exist and are easily perceivable in many systems, but that the correlation between performance and price is small. I also expressed the view that the real question that should be focused on when it comes to cables is the degree of correlation between performance and price. I provided a link to a post I had made in another thread on that subject, in which I provided rationale for that position, at some length.

Everything else I have written in subsequent posts in this thread has been consistent with those viewpoints, that cables can and do make significant differences in many systems, but that in my opinion, and in the opinions of several others who have posted in this thread in addition to Audiofeil, the correlation between performance and price is a weak one.

Regards,
-- Al

Al: Sorry about that I guess I should have read that more carefully.I also am guilty of not reading your earlier post.

I DO agree with all you have said before.

Your point also about poor correlation abetween performance and price is exactly what I suggested when I volunteered the Anti Cables as an example.

I should stop shooting myself in the foot!

Regards,
Jake