Cables – Speaker as well as interconnects – ugghh

“The Sandringham's have an 8 ohm nominal impedance, and also apparently have a benign impedance vs. frequency curve. That will reduce their sensitivity to cable differences”

This is big, Al and I’m trying to digest it. So, if I understand correctly, the Sandringhams are rather stable animals that are less prone to exploit the shortcomings of various cables – is that right? And if this is right, would it then follow that the shortcomings of lesser cost cables are not as noticeable?

Am I on the right track? Some great suggestions have been put forth in this forum on lesser cost cables – I’m usually of the mindset that if I’m not spending a lot, I’m not getting much. However, maybe I can get by with less here…

PLEASE correct me if I’m way out in left field and thank you!

Rbschauman, yes, your interpretation of my comments is essentially correct. IMO many cable-related comments that you may see are flawed in three ways:

1)They fail to take into account that cable effects are significantly dependent, and perhaps mostly dependent, on the impedance and other characteristics of what is being connected.

2)They assume a high degree of correlation between performance and price.

3)They often assume that the ability of a system to resolve musical detail goes hand in hand with the ability to resolve differences between cables, and they therefore assume that if a system cannot resolve differences between cables, its musical resolution is deficient. That is incorrect, IMO, because (as implied in no. 1 above) many technical factors can be cited that will increase the sensitivity of a system to cable differences, but that have nothing to do with the ability to provide better sonics.

You may find my comments here to be of interest, as well as the comments by others in the same thread, some of whom, such as Tvad, have considerably more practical experience than I do in this area.

IMHO, FWIW, YMMV, etc. :-)

Regards,
-- Al

Thanks, Al,
I appreciate very much your taking the time. It means that I should never again recommend a brand of cable. If I ever run into the review of the AR9 that states that the only measurable impedence is in the form of resistance, I will send it to you, although I'm sure that this is true only at the test bench.
Best Regards,
Lynne

You know, if you don't want to spend a lot of money, try the cheaper grade Audioquest stuff. I used them for years and they are quite refined with no serious flaws. And you won't be making a big financial commitment but I'll bet you'll be happy for a good long time while you study up on things.