The implication being that no believers are technically astute. Clearly, not the case. How does one explain the many clearly "technically astute " individuals who are believers. It is true that there is a lot of hype; but that, in no way, suggests that it is ALL hype. To suggest otherwise is the worst example of lack of astuteness.
It is ALL hype. If two cables are appropriately designed for a given application there isn't any audible difference between them. Any technically astute person knows that frequency response is unaffected to within a tenth of a db and there's no added distortion. One can design cables improperly, and those cables may sound different because they are ineptly done, but that's not the case you're making, is it. THe case you're making is that two cables that transmit exactly the same signal by any measurement we can make sound different. That's irrational.
For example, how does an analog interconnect affect frequency response or distortion? Better yet, how does it affect sound-stage or how "clean" highs are? There aren't even theories for how this might occur. I suppose if you design in some sort of impedance mismatch, or perhaps specifically design a cable to have excessive capacitance this could happen, but that's inept design, and that's not what Rok2id or I am discussing.
There is no academic argument about this. There's no debate at all, because there is no basis for the cables-sound-different argument other than someone says so. The very same principles that underlie the design of our equipment are the same principles that are used for the case that all properly designed cables sound the same.
