From the cabley Heart Of Darkness:
http://www.head-fi.org/t/426508/sennheiser-hd800-appreciation-thread/6600#post_9139724
that's just completely ignorant, especially from an "engineer's" perspective. the debate is not about changing copper to gold or anything like that. but let's start there - from an *engineer's* perspective. you would agree that different metals have different sonic properties, no? electrons move through them and across them in different ways. i hope you would also agree that different gauges of round wire of any those metals have different sonic properties because of the different speeds at which the signal travels based on the surface area available to it. and I think you would agree - if you've ever heard them - that different shapes - like rectangular or square or triangle or ribbon shaped wires - also have different sonic properties because of the way electrons travel across those surfaces as well. i also think you would agree that if we took any combination of said metals, gauges and/or shapes and braided them or twisted them in a host of different geometries, this would also impart a sonic characteristic on the signal as the electrons travel across these different metals and gauges and shapes at different speeds and in different ways, interacting with the other electrons in waves created by the other conductors near to it or far from it, etc, etc. etc. all of the answers to these questions are YES and they are based in science and they are measurable. if you then took any combination of ALL these variables and were to measure the effect of putting them in contact with OTHER elements - other metals, plastics, liquids, gases, etc. - these would also affect the way the electrons move across the conductor. what you put it, in other words, is NOT what you get out. what you put in BECOMES what it travels through. then it comes out. this is science. engineering. whatever iron-clad rules you want to invoke. given all this, then, what is it that you don't understand about why cables matter? surely you would agree that tubes have sonic signatures? and capacitors? and resistors? different connectors? that's the problem with your argument. you assume electrons moving in some way independent of their medium. not possible. and once you say cables don't matter then you have to say NONE of the other methods for transporting electrons matter either - meaning optical readers, dac chips, stylii - none it changes the signal??
