Which cables go with what?????

What an awesome thread! I love it! :) The first three posts hit the nail on the head in one way or another - that being the simple FACT that nothing we have to work with in audio is truly neutral. Everything on this planet produces a sonic signature of one type or another when energy is applied to it, and to assume that it doesn't is pure fantasy.

Audioengr wrote: "If the average audiophile spent his time trying to weed-out the tone control cables and get some neutral cables, then all that would be left is to determine the right synergy between his or her components."

Audioengr, do you have stock in FedEx? UPS? :) Reason I ask is I cannot personally imagine the amount of cash *I* would have had to spend over the years shipping an endless variety of components in order to obtain perfect, ideal synergy between designs from different manufacturers from every corner of the globe. Tongue in cheek of course but no doubt FedEx and UPS certainly benefit from all this insane audio buying activity.... Doncha think?

To that regard, I would personally rather be paying the shipping costs on 1 pound cables vs. 50 pound components. Am I crazy?

Audioengr wrote: "In some cases also preamp-amp synergies are important"

Hmm... I cannot think of a single instance where preamp "synergy" is NOT important. It doesn't take an audio engineer to understand that resistance applied to the lowest level signal in an audio system and / or amplification of that very same low level signal could potentially do the most to alter that signal -- or does it?

So from your statement about preamps - I gather you don't view them as too important. What about source components? Are they important? Also you're forgetting what may in fact be the most significant "component" in any system - the room.

IMHO, cables are a god send - tone controls or not. I would rather place a cable in my system than undergo a 6 month construction project to correct the acoustics of my home.

Good idea, now there's one Everest missed in his acoustics book :-)

Why would it be so hard to look for component synergy? There are probably only a small number of components and speakers you would seriously consider anyway.

It's the cable voodoo as currently practiced that I find mystifying. Reading hundreds of posts trying to narrow down what someone else thought the character of cable x going from component y to component z sounded like in house z' with dedicated lines z'' and power conditioner z'''. But what's it going to sound like when you get it home? And how much money are you going to throw away doing this.

Seriously - cables have been getting better in the last few years. I would predict that there may be a convergence toward what Audioengr is saying; that cable ideas will stabilize around a few good ideas, and that neutral cables will feature prominently though not exclusively.

Have been following this thread for quite some time and I absolutley did not see the justification in attcking Steve for trying to get some feedback over synergy which is a paramount importance I see in mixing and matching Wires or synergy for use as tone controls.

How many times I have witnessed or read about others witnessing the factor of combining the correct components or wires which make or break a system is really to many to keep track of. I have been lucky in my quest over the years to only have used one amp that was realy a disaster whereas cables are another story. There is alot more examples of cables than components making or breaking a system in my reads.
Alot of times people will make the mistake of selling good components when all they had to do was switch wires. Real perplexing questuon and one that warrants futher investigation.

If I want tone controls I would have them on my Pre so I try to just have a synergy which to my ears aim for the truth of the components bringing out the areas of the recordings that I would not normally hear. If I cannot make out what the vocals are and hear the clash of Cymbals then I try something else till I hear what I know is there and it sounds natural.

Damn I never used Tone controls even when I had them with my Pre-Amps.

As stated I have nothing against AudioEng. starting this thread.Been very informative till I have had to go through post attacking him for asking posting a controversal topic which I have asked in several other post in different ways. If he were saying BUY MY CABLES! BECAUSE THEY ARE THE BEST! then It would warrent such opinions or opposition,but I have not seen that. Why then should the question of starting this thread even be considers.

JMO

Audioengr, you may have had an "illustrious" career in the "computer business" but your premise that audio cables are either neutral or coloured is just bunk. NO audio component, passive or otherwise, can be completely transparent. If you take two identical cables and alter just a single design parameter, e.g. conductor purity, in one of them, they'll sound different. I find these claims by manufacturers to neutrality, transparency, or whatever, to be arrogant in the extreme and have far more respect for those that let their products - and the MUSIC - speak for themselves. Whilst I'm not enamoured of all of his work, I think Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen has it right when he says that cable design is as much an art as a science (Mr Lee is, I understand, an ex-professional violinist).
Oh, and if Audioengr is really starting these threads for the benefit of us mere music lovers, perhaps he could nominate a few manufacturers whose cables perform at the same exalted level as his own?

"Oh, and if Audioengr is really starting these threads for the benefit of us mere music lovers, perhaps he could nominate a few manufacturers whose cables perform at the same exalted level as his own?"

I do not see he is promoting his wares. I do see other participants sharing their views though.

"NO audio component, passive or otherwise, can be completely transparent."

Exactly,but there is a place at which you can enjoy the place you get to in your system. No component will ever get to the true live event,but it's what illusion you think comes closest to it that matters to the owner in my opinion.

"If you take two identical cables and alter just a single design parameter, e.g. conductor purity, in one of them, they'll sound different."
Agree partially becasue there are those things which will not be audiable. IF you change some things they will not be noticed I think is what I am getting at. Purity is the reason why I am looking seriously at cryo processing.

I think Robert Lee of Acoustic Zen has it right when he says that cable design is as much an art as a science (Mr Lee is, I understand, an ex-professional violinist). Being a pro musician ahs nothing to do with making up wires except the fact that you would know what the real sound of a particular piece sounds like. There are to many variables involved in design and playback and synergy is one of them. If a Cable can reproduce Instrumental Music correct ,but tthen you play vocals and they are not true then it is a bad cable, in my system anyways.

A piece that can be considered SOTA has the ability to be more syngistic placed in any system it is inserted. This I think is the goal of the good designer. If AZ Cables can accomplish that then they are worthy of being SOTA.
Almost anything can be considered an ART BTW if it has be perfected over time IMO.

Just a few things I noticed.