The best ‘science’ I have seen brought to the table on ‘how power cables’ make an audiable difference is to to with their shielding and keeping their signal away from other (sensitive) electronics.
My mind has no argument against this logic.
(I like to pose as a fence sitter (a little) on cable debates, when actually i am fully in to them, having observed benefits provided over numerous occasions; some of my early experiences were with ‘less than ideal‘ (mid fi / not reference) electronic—, and needless to say that higher end kit brought vastly more improvement or change to be heard.
That being said, I have also bought cables that hindered more than they helped, and am sad for the industry for the markup that many manufacturers charge.
I was truly blown away the first time I heard Nordost (entry level) speaker cables back in the nineties; these were cables that had measured speed of transmission (as a percent of the ‘speed of light’), were engineered for NASA (with all sorts of stringent requirements), and made piano notes sound beautiful in a way that I have not heard since.
I do feel some cables make more sense than others to ‘get right’, and sadly that DOES extend to digital cables, no matter the arguments from people attempting to scientific in their understanding (who clearly think that 0’s and 1’s are transmitted as 0’s and 1’s and not a waveform)..
And just like we once thought the world was flat, or ‘the centre of the universe’, one day we might actually know something more..
Until that day I do my best to be scientific, have methods to reduce bias from obscuring the results, and trust my feet (not ears, as they can’t dance; although nor can my feet, arguably,: but if they are tapping its because my subconscious knows the sound is ‘musical’).
I do think all things in balance... but I wouldn’t complain if I had a lamborghini with budget road tyres. It’d still be a Lambo, it just wouldn’t give its’ best.
Having reference speakers and amps and preamps, and cables and transports means that ‘swapping DACs’ allows me to learn what the DAC is doing into a transparent system (objective compare). OF course room tuning and speaker placement and then listener expectation and lack of beer (or kahlua/tia maria/mr black/frangelico in a coffee) all effect the subjective sound...
I have found sometimes, in order to review kit, I have to have it on my head (playing into my head) for hours so that I can relax and enjoy what I am hearing.
I am not envious of the youtubers who do live feeds trying to objectively listen, or give subjective impressions of kit.. any level of stress could affect their experience, and if the Diablo was given as an example.. it took me nearly a month to break it in and learn some of its’ nuances. (like whether the mode switch is an impeadence change/ or what it does to change up the sound - ie I personally think the amp changes modes between AB (eco) to class A (normal) to ‘something else’ Turbo..) and that subtle differences can really matter in a review.
Whether cables matter for some reason is still a debatable topic, which is mad to anyone who has experienced some basic truths along the lines that ‘of course they do’ and madder to anyone who wants to believe that their budget sound system is as good as it can be...
At some point the adjustments we can make to a setup are limited, and the bang to buck ratio to implement change gets crazy.
For all the cheap tricks (like blutac under speakers) we get ‘skys the limit’ on cables, and obviously cables shouldn’t exceed 10% of the system cost (or else system improvements elsewhere will probably net better improvements)..
When shopping in the second hand market, I suppose we get what we can find when we can find it,.. and I have enjoyed quite a few great cables on clearance or second hand, and believe I have gotten bargains and ‘great value’ for the investment (in time and money).
A seven thousand dollar cable at half price would buy an entire high quality two channel setup though, in second hand price points- like my households’ dining table rig:
Castle Acoustics - Kendal (version one) speakers
fed from
Danish made Valve Mono blocks
fed from
Proceed AVP2 preamp
fed from
iFi Diablo DAC
fed from
Questyle QP1R / Denon high end CD player / Mac mini as transports
sitting on
High end power boards and
connected by
High end interconnects/cables
with subwoofers to taste...
That cable cost a whole sound system (that sounds ‘alright’).. true those parts were second hand bargains generally (hence why I bought them), but for it to make sense to me it would have to be into a reference rig like my old Sansui AU919 powering the Acoustic Research AR-LSTs..
the best thing about owning nice kit being able to use it whenever/ as needed, at which point it is ‘better to have it (and not need it)‘ than to ’need it (and not have it)’.
In that regard I have more hifi kit gathering dust than the value of my car or savings in the bank.
And cables in draws could put my kid through college... of course their resale would consist of me having to convince someone else that ‘cables matter’.
