Cables more hype than value?

Well said. I think I detected a little Aczelian influence.

Last night I reread his review of the Parasound A21 power amp. How refreshing to read a real review. I really miss his input. he was the last of a kind. The only thing between truth and the charlatans.

He quit his 'hip-boots' articles because he said the ENTIRE audio media industry was now corrupt, so there was no need to point of the voodoo priests, since they are all now selling snake oil.

I enjoy some of Aczel's writing immensely. Some of his writing, like the Biggest Lies, or the Zais-Atkinson article, are perhaps the best examples of writing in the audio press. I think Azcel's focus on science and engineering is very admirable. On the other hand, I'm not an unqualified follower of his. I think he is prone to unsupported assertions on points where *there are* measurable differences, or where personal opinions are indeed involved, and I think he could stand to improve in those areas. Like, for example, his assertion that the Linkwitz Orion is the best speaker one can buy, period. I've heard the Orion, it's a good speaker, a very good speaker, but I've heard better, and I think for Aczel to assert it's better than anything else is no more excusable based on his opinion than someone here saying their Audioquest speaker cable sounds better than 10ga stranded copper.

Are "properly designed" and "given application" escape clauses?

If so, then you've just described a cable made to order for a "specific" application.

Friend who are not into this hobby as much as I can hear the difference as well but don't consider it important enough to worry about it. That alone speaks volumes as I suspect that that is the underlying meme going on here.

All the best,
Nonoise

Are "properly designed" and "given application" escape clauses?

No, not at all. I'm just stating this caveat because you *can* improperly design a cable and make it sound different. You can make speakers cables that have too small a gauge for a given speaker's impedance, or the required cable length. You can make interconnects that have improper impedance, bad shields, poor insulators, or some weird geometry that increases inductance or capacitance beyond some reasonable trade-off of values.

For example, a speaker with a minimum impedance of less than 2 ohms that needs a twenty-five foot cable run is not going to be best served by 16 gauge cables - a 16 gauge cable in that scenario may indeed cause audible differences, and there won't be any mystery why. It'll be measurable.

I think Aczel says that there are no differences in wires that cannot be explained in terms of resistance, capacitance and inductance. His back issues contain an article showing how cables with different electrical characteristics caused very large and measurable differences in the frequency response based on the cable's interaction with the amp/speaker circuit. I know he once wrote that coat hangers are identical to the most expensive cables, but that statement seems inconsistent with his own article.

On amplifiers, he does say that amplifiers of a similar design, matched in levels and run below clipping are indistinguishable from each other in listening tests. He never said that all amps - tube and solid state, set and push-pull, all sound the same.

Okay.

One set of cables are designed to "fit" the requirements of an amp and a pair of speakers.
Said cable will not work as well with other amps and speakers since they are of different design and needs.
No one cable is good enough for all applications?
Did we just come full circle?

I have several sets of cables that sound different to anyone who would care to listen and all are well regarded, well made cables. So it seems that a cable that would fit the requirements of a given system can only be made one way and if anyone makes that particular cable, they should all sound the same.

That I understand but doesn't it stand to reason that there need be as many types of cable needed to satisfy the particular requirements of all the possible combinations of amps, speakers, length and gauge in order to get the best possible sound?

I don't mean to sound obtuse (though I've been accused of being stubborn) but I think we're all agreeing on this from different perspectives.

All the best,
Nonoise