Cables sound different as they move?
Gee, they must be constantly changing, considering the rotation of the earth and our expanding universe. Not to mention changes in size due to room temperature and if things are that delicate, then the sunspot count and level of cosmic background radiation must surely be at play, too.
If your ears are golden enough to hear the unmeasurable differences between cables, then surely the measurable channel imbalance in your amp must be driving you insane. Tell us, is the left or right channel louder? Because it is very unlikely that the channels are matched more than +/- 5%, unless you hand-built your amp, bought a lot of extra components and matched them between channels. I did this with a crossover in a pair of speakers. About 20 components and it cost a lot more and took hours to mirror the crossovers.
I doubt your gear is that carefully made. So is the left or right louder? It'd be easy to measure the difference between the two, but I imagine you don't need test gear to tell the difference with miraculous hearing that hears the unmeasurable.
Channel imbalance aside, it is remarkable that the cable believer crowd isn't hopping up and down with indignation when ordinary components drift in value after a few years of use.
Yes, even the most blessed and sacred Blackgate changes value after a few thousand hours of use. A .01uf cap might change into a .016uf cap.
I find it very odd that those with the most magical of hearing skills don't notice this. Why, if electrically identical copper and silver cables have "night and day" differences, then how come nobody notices when a 100 Ohm resistor turns into a 150 Ohm resistor?
Maybe the same voodoo that causes a cable to change frequency response without changing frequency response causes a 100 Ohm resistor that drifted to 150 Ohms to keep working like a 100 Ohm resistor when it is actually a 150 Ohm resistor.
And maybe I'll build a little box with a 5 Ohm resistor on one channel and a 6 Ohm resistor on the other. You wouldn't have any trouble telling those apart, right?
Also, many thanks for letting me know that not being able to "hear" a difference is mostly because I have terrible equipment. I had no idea. I'll leave the Omega 2, Mk. 1, HD-800, HP-2, K-1000, ESL-63s, and Response 2.5 clones out for trash collection since they are obviously no good.
This evening, I need to drop by the stables to feed my pet unicorn. After that, I have to visit my witch doctor to have a hex removed. Maybe we could also examine some chicken entrails to help me find a more expensive stereo that will make the differences apparent. It's just money after all and I must not have spent enough. $30,000 sounds better than $20,000. I know this is true because I used to be a bank teller during undergrad. Sometimes, in the vault, I'd hold $10,000 up to my ear. It did not sound as good as holding $20,000 to my ear. $50,000 sounded even better. And all of us tellers did this so I know it is true. Everyone could hear the difference between a stack of $10,000 and $20,000.