Cable vs. Electronics: biggest bang for the buck

What I have learned through personal experience is that without question cables are components and no less important than any other in the rig. For example, I went from MIT high end series, 330 shotguns to reference 350's and EVO's and the improvement was beyond significant, low level detail, bass, hearing so much further into the recording and most of all accurate tonality, sorry, sounds like a review...I've got very good components but not reference level but until I put in these cables I never heard what the rest of the system was capable of, and I've been through lots of cables, brands, etc. No doubt with my years of investment in components, yes that especially includes wire, I do have some knowledge of what works well together and that's the only way you will ever get that magical synergy unless your very lucky. It sounds like Nrchy is getting the same results with the Purist wire; eye opener, interesting hobby we have chosen wouldn't ya say...

Nrchy - it seems you just don't get it. I was referring to the statement made by Audioengr where he wrote,

"...are tempted to use inferior cables designs as "tone controls" to the get "sound" they are looking for."

What is superior and what is inferior are relative to the application in which they are being used and not always governed by measurement. If a cable noted as "inferior" sounds better than one deemed "superior", wouldn't that make the inferior cable superior in this instance? Guess that depends on what's important to you as a listener. To me - sound is what's important. I don't give a hoot what the electrical properties are...I only care that it sounds good.

There is a lot more to the sound of a cable than the electrical properties. Unfortunately at the level most of our systems are at, this usually equates to more expensive and hence perceived as "superior".

The PAD Dominus you tried is a great cable - sounds great! but I seriously doubt it has the best measurements of any cable out there. So does that make it inferior? Some would say yes because they believe that measurement and electrical properties are the silver bullet of audio. Likewise - very few (if any) cables that measure better than the Dominus will actually sound better.

Why do you suppose that is?

Bwhite wrote: "If a cable noted as "inferior" sounds better than one deemed "superior", wouldn't that make the inferior cable superior in this instance?"

Not usually. If there is a weak link an a system, "tone control" cables can often compensate, but you will never achieve the clarity and focus of a system where the cables sound like no cables at all.

The goal should be to tune your system first so that it sounds live and dynamic when the connectors are butted directly to one another (no cables at all). Only then can you determine which cables are actually superior. These superior cables that do not change the sound that was achieved when the connectors were butted together.

Audioengr - butting connectors together in a system is not possible. Any imaginary result or benefit of having no cables is pure speculation and therefore irrelevant.

There must a be conductor of some sort connecting the components together. Even in an integrated product, there is wire which connects each module. And we all know that speakers do not hook directly to the back of our amps.

Each component (good or bad) has a sonic signature. There is always a need for tone control of sorts to acheive the optimal results. Heck... each module within a component has a unique sonic signature which changes as a signal propogates through the component - are these tone controls too? If so are they bad? Should I imagine music as if there was no analog output stage or power supply in my CD player so I can get a better idea of what superior clarity and focus sounds like?

When I change the caps in my CD player or add a silver wound transformer to my preamp, am I just adding a tone control?

If we go back to an earlier post I made which said,

Its the "end result" or the final sonic signature of the component that really matters - how it gets there should be mostly irrelevant to the listener.

Then we can better understand my position that superior and inferior are relative to the application.

If the Linn CD12 CD player uses crappy wire internally but sounds awesome, is it a bad CD player? Would changing the crappy wire to "superior" wire inside the player actually improve the sound...? That's doubtful unless other things were changed to compensate for the addition of the "superior" wire.

Similarly if a system lacks midrange presence, weight or body it is not going to be fixed necessarily with a cable that measure good. It could... but it might not.

The best is simply what sounds the best, tone controls are everywhere and nothing is truly superior unless it sounds the best in the application in which its being used.

Okay.. I just went to a couple websites which I knew had Inductance and Capacitance specifications listed for their cables. Interesting enough, the cheapest cable in this list has the closest measurement to the most expensive - which is recognized as a "reference" cable and not typically considered inferior.

So what does it mean?

TMC Yellow Label ($300 1m pair)
Inductance 0.059 µH/ft
Capacitance 23.40 pF/ft

Empirical - Holophonic-2S ($419 1m pair)
Inductance .72µH
Capacitance 10.3pF

Nordost Valhalla ($3300 1m pair)
inductance 0.055uH/ft
capacitance 22.0pF/ft

Harmonic Tech Pro Silway ($359 1m pair)
Inductance 0.43 uH / ft
Capacitance 32 pF / ft