Can someone explain how a cable makes a difference when the drivers are fed by hair thin copper? - Page 2

I think its more for the "bling-bling" effect than the actual sound itself.

Think about this: if the cable doesn't make a difference then why not use hair thin copper wire to the jack?

Cable in the context of analog does make a difference,
just that there is a point of diminishing returns that most audiophiles exceed for reasons of perception.

Now firstly, I think it is largely incorrect to think of sound having a singular weakest link responsible for all degradations in a chain. For example, having k701s hooked up to a laptop, the laptop amp is likely the weakest link. So we get an amp, say a headroom micro for this purpose, and some BJC Cabling. The weakest link now is the dac. Yet the amp is still underpowered for the k701s and adds its own issues into the chain, as well as the dac adding its issues, as well as the steel headband pass thru of the k701s, as well as etc.etc. etc. It is not one piece that causes sound abnormalities or influences, it is a summation of every piece of the chain.

This lends to the logic that if you can make everything in your chain (and though this is an impossibility in our world, so please just go with it for this example) not cause any degradations, than you are lowering the amount of influence in your chain, and thusly affecting the end sound, even though you have kept the transducer cabling the same. It is a matter of reducing the "bad", not necessarily removing it.
Another ideal that should be considered is the fact that there is no perfect piece of equipment. Every piece adds degradations and then removes degradations of its replaced piece in order to give it its specific tone and sound. This is why amps sound different, as do dacs, transducers, etc. It is not a matter of getting closer to the "original sound" or the perfect sound, there is no such thing, and there is no way to do that. Who is to say that every sound sounds the same to all of us, and I think the plethora of terms that audiophiles have generated to describe sound lends support to that.
As for the specific reasons of cabling sounding different, I think it is a matter of conductance, inductance, shielding, conductor material, dielectric material, capacitance, resistance, skin effect, mechanical resonance, geometry, etc. etc.
Dave

Not true!! The 18K and Platinum Rolexes with Diamonds, Emeralds and Sapphires keep much better time than the SS.

Surprised you didn't know that!

The Guy wearing those $150K Rolexes have the Guys wearing the SS working for them doing all the Heavy Lifting and work. The SS Rolexes get banged up, scratched, dropped, etc. Pretty soon they keep much worse time than the 18K Or Platinum Rolex that spends all it's time in the Back of a Rolls!


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To be or not to be.
It's the question.

Cables are really importants in the Audio setup, only if you have SOON a great setup.

I'm now in the process of testing[ with my ears] a number of cables. A rich friend of mine let me try out some silver high-end [$1400.00 USD] cables the other day. The first thing I noticed was how the connectors locked on my stuff. When I went for a listen though what I heard totally proved to me cables make a strong change. This time the change was drastic and very bad. These silver cables had no bottom-end, no bass at all. Yes you could hear alot of detail and because of no bass, high-end detail is really clear and 3D. My friends who have mega-buck systems use all diferent types of cables to tune the sound. Copper for the subs, silver for the tweeters, a mixture for the mids. I will still be looking for a middle ground in a headphone cable. The cables that go at the end of the system I would guess need to be thin because of the fact the headphone parts move in and out and the movement would be restricted by thick wires. The better the information gets up to that last area, the beter the sound. Maybe an electrical engineer could inform us that if the wire is two inches long inside of a chamber in could be that thin.

$400+ on any cable is unconscionable IMO. I believe the absolute cream of the crop in cables should be priced at no more than $200 or so -- and that's still kind of ridiculous. It blows my mind.

Well, it's different if the cable is pure silver. That can drive the cost up rather quickly.

Copper cables I think are a bit unfairly marked up, however.

Most EE's think we are a bunch of kooks!

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My speakers are the Senn HD 580's with 19 AWG copper wire. To me they are not hair thin copper wire feeding them. I understand the point. Sorry if the OP got a crummy set of speakers. A good set of RCA's, POWER, and speaker (headphone cables) make a difference to me. Get decent cables with some connectors like FURUTECH especially with some tube gear and these do make a difference to me. The great thing about this hobby is that you can tweek your gear infinately. If you don't want to that is fine too!

Your 580s still have the same wires he's talking about.

My thoughts on the topic are that, going back to the old quote, "the best cable is no cable". The point of having thicker, fancier connection cables is to try to eliminate any negativity in the link. The longer the cable run, the more chance of interference, so you're just safeguarding this by which cables you use.

When you get to the last point (the thin strand of voicecoil wire), your cables have done their work and now it's on to moving the cones. You won't get much interference for that cm or so.

You have to have a voice coil for this type of speaker to work. Just how they are made. My cables are DIY nothing fancy. Are you looking for something like a Martin Logan Electrostatic type of speaker?

I always liked this or a good read on speaker wire.Speaker Wire

The dimensions of the cable affect the resistivity of the cable, which can have an impact on the sound if it is too high. Making sure you have cables of adequate size is all that matters. Copper is copper; it doesn't change its physical properties when it recognizes its price tag. Find out what size your cables need to be and then buy the cheapest ones possible in that size.

Maybe, but even pure silver is only $14/oz, and until about a year ago it was only around $7/oz. How many ounces of silver could you need to make a 24 AWG 4 conductor 10 foot cable? 2? maybe 3? Lets say 4, which sounds absolutely absurd to me. So parts cost of $60. Still not approaching the hundreds or thousands by any stretch of the imagination.