Speaker wire is it science or psychology

Everytime I read about ABX testing/Blind/double blind testing I have to wonder: What is the effect on the sound quality of the component(cables) under test, due to the addition of the switching gear?. No matter how good the gear is, there gotta be some dilution.

Stevemj: You're not off-base. Cables are not directional and can't be for audio, specifically for the reasons you described. The conductors have to pass current equally well in either direction.

Nilthepill: Why would the switching cause "some dilution?" Do you own a sound system with no switching? With no contacts? All junctions soldered from source to speaker drivers? I doubt it. With good switches, you don't get "dilution."

70242 - It's a pleasure to have you here. When I started posting comments about some of the absurd claims made for different types of cable, I was contacted by a cable manufacturer. I will send you their E-mail. It attempts to describe why wires sound different. It's good for a laugh.

I don't know if manufactures just have a low opinion of audiophile's intelligence or if they really don't know any better themselves.

Stevemj; it's a shame that you're unable to trust your own senses. Craig

702, its interesting what you say about not being able to hear simultaneously. I have not been unsuccessful in discerning between different amps or wire in rudimentary blind testing, ( no scientific aspirations here in this case) what I needed however, were longer stretches of music (female sopranos, solo violins, solo cello for voicing or big orchestral renderings for width and depth of soundstage and layering or certain string quartets for resolution and speed). In listening, I would pinpoint aural clues for myself at specific points of the score. Once I had this, it was fairly easy to differentiate between various DUTs. What I needed was familiar music, scores which I knew inside out and preferably also had heard already live.