The truth about interconnects - can you handle it?

I'm new to this hobby but in regards to the placebo effect, I can say that I only started my research after I heard differences from swapping cables on my system. The placebo effect only works when you have a preconceived benefit of a certain product (advil, etc.) I had none in regards to cable differences. I was running a generic Monster cable until a dealer lended me a pair of Siltech. The differences were more than obvious and that's how I ended up in this "miserable, bank-breaking, but somehow joyful" land of hi-fi.

oh, by the way, the artist tends to look for similarities, and the scientist look for differences. Which one are you?

Jchen--Your understanding of the placebo effect, at least as it applies to perception, is wrong. (It's actually wrong even as it applies to medicine--the placebo effect can work even when the doctor tells you the pill won't work.) Simply knowing that two cables are different can make them sound different to you. In studies of hearing perception, people who listen to the same thing report that it sounds different about half the time.

That doesn't mean that all cables sound the same. It just means that when they do sound different, it might be real, or it might be in your mind, and there's no way to know for sure--short of the sort of objective scientific test that will be pooh-poohed here, so let's not even get into that.

Now, you're free to say, "I don't think it's in my mind," and buy whatever cables sound best to you. Just don't fall into the trap of thinking you have to denigrate science to justify that. Nobody has to justify anything in this hobby.

The truth about interconnects - can you handle it?
Bomarc, I couldn't agree more on not degrinigating science. I don't think it's necessary to get into an argument of relative objective/subjective perception of reality. What I wanted to point out, though, and I'm definely leaning toward objective realism here, is that irregard to what my perception is telling me, there is an objective difference. whether or not I can sense it, and to what degree falls under relative subjectivity. This is where I think personal preferences come in. How each individual perceive that objective difference through their senses become subjective, which translates into personal taste. Of course I can be completely wrong, but my senses are telling me otherwise.

jchen,

I should thank you for pointing out objective realizm!

That approach should realy be applied not to only wires but to anything else you're purchasing including the very rest of audio-goods.