[Uncle Erik]

I'd sure like to see a lawsuit over cables. Discovery would be so much fun. The court could force manufacturers to reveal their "research" (assuming there is any) and possibly get a line on the margins. From what I've seen, manufacturers carefully tiptoe around claims that could get them in trouble. I'm sure they have lawyers vet the ad copy. That says something about their confidence in their own products, doesn't it?

 

[Currawong]

Uncle Erik,
 
Two things: All large companies that I know of have their advertisements vetted by legal departments where appropriate, and have people trained in consumer law who write them.
 
Second: You've repeated that nobody has measured differences between cables, when Nick_charles has.  Those measurements, however, were with cheap cables and the differences were below the threshold of human hearing.  I think it would be worthy to repeat his experiments with more expensive and DIY cables to see what the results are.  I agree that audio manufacturers, not just cable makers, tend to avoid measurements in many cases where they would be helpful.  I'm sure many don't really want anything out there that can't be refuted.   However, as we have seen where matters regarding other gear (especially digital) are discussed, many people tend to take a few facts and, ignorantly or otherwise, distort their relevance, so I do wonder if this is a factor as well to some degree.

 

[Uncle Erik]

The differences I refer to are audible ones. That has never been established.

I should clarify what I said about claims. Of course, the claims are vetted by all large companies. But with most products, valid claims are made. Look at things like Watts, power consumption, frequency response, etc. for amps and headphones. Cable manufacturers tiptoe around making any substantial claim whatsoever. They run on anecdote and puffery, so it might seem like they're saying something when the ad is actually content-free.

 

[Krav]

I agree with about 90% of what you said in this thread

.
 
The remaining 10% relate to the drastically changed rules of the game, the awareness of which is not yet universal among smaller manufacturers and retailers.
 
For instance, imagine someone considering buying Lexicon BluRay player right at this very moment. They start typing "lexicon blu" into the Google search box and - WHOOPS - auto-suggestion #4 comes up as "lexicon blu ray scam".
 
This is an example of how the public records that are not easy to delete are working these days. This is changing the culture of major international corporations in a big way. The days of cavalier marketing are over - that is, until the governments and big corporations subdue the freewheeling Internet. Enjoy it while you can ...
 
Quote:

People can conclude however they want, but unless people start suing each other it's just a lot of arguing.