[Vacheron]

Once you build your own cable you realize just how many lies go into cable marketing and how many suckers buy into it. That said snake oil has been bought and soldin various forms for 100s of years.

Count me as one who knows cables make no difference in sound quality. Monoprice is all you need.

 

[bigshot]

Listen, I'm just as shocked as you are and I really wasn't expecting to get the sonic improvements that I have received.

 
I'm willing to wager that you would be even more shocked and horrified if we told you why you thought you were hearing sonic improvements when you really weren't.

 

[bigshot]

Therefore, we will have no more subjective claims in this discussion.

 
Is that an order?

 

[dpastern]

Well, what an interesting thread.  
 
I personally believe cables make ZERO difference in SQ.  Unfortunately, false scientific techno babble psycho acoustic BS makes people think that they do.  Cable voodoo should be outlawed imho.  
 
Would I buy 3rd party cables?  Yes.  But NOT for SQ improvements.  Looks, build quality are the only Two things that would make me consider it, nothing else.  Would a pay a fortune?  Not in your life.  These cable companies know that they're snake oil.  Yet they persist in attempting to tell customers that there are SQ differences due to voodoo science BS.  The buggers should be done for fraud.  If you insist on say that cables make a difference SQ wise, pay up with measurable scientific evidence that proves the differences in repeatable tests.  
 
For some in here, patents make bugger all difference.  Hell, Microsoft patented a "sudo" command, 30 years after UNIX had started using it.  The USPTO granted Microsoft the patent too, despite prior art existing.  Did the USPTO do any research?  Nope.  The US government makes a crap load of money from granting patents, many many many of them being bogus.  Patent "examiners" also make a LOT of money for every patent that they approve.  The whole system is corrupt and serves to only benefit the very largest, powerful and rich companies.  
 
Dave
 
edited for typos and bad grammar.

 

[Mr Rick]

IMHO cables only sound different when they are attached to a different set of headphones.

 

[Linchpin]

Changing cables is purely a cosmetic change unless the cable is being replaced due to it being defective. That being said you'll never convince the guy that just shelled out hundreds of dollars on a single cable that there's no difference which is precisely what keeps all the cable makers in business and laughing all the way to the bank. Things like this are why this hobby will forever be drenched in snake oil and tainted by snake oil merchants. 
 
People buying pretty coloured pebbles for tons of money to hang on the back of their PC to collect EMI or somesuch a few years back and then still sticking by the product that was a proven fraud says it all really.

 

[Makarov Andrei]

Wild people! You ever heard sound great headphones replaced with cables?

 

[cjl]

  Wild people! You ever heard sound great headphones replaced with cables?

 
Cables don't make a bit of difference (assuming they aren't poorly designed - they should have negligible impedance through the audible frequency range, which is very easy to achieve). This has been proven in many blind tests of speakers (which takes care of the "just listen" argument quite nicely).

 

[Makarov Andrei]

   
Cables don't make a bit of difference (assuming they aren't poorly designed - they should have negligible impedance through the audible frequency range, which is very easy to achieve). This has been proven in many blind tests of speakers (which takes care of the "just listen" argument quite nicely).

Cool! ))
I have nothing to say, but the reality is the opposite of what you are talking about.

 

[Linchpin]

Placebo is a hell of a drug.

 

[cjl]

This is Sound Science. If you don't have evidence to go with your assertions, they really don't carry any weight.

 

[Makarov Andrei]

  This is Sound Science. If you don't have evidence to go with your assertions, they really don't carry any weight.

 

  Placebo is a hell of a drug.

This is a pointless conversation. (((
You were born with ears on your head, and they either hear or not. Scientific data has been entered in your head much later. Than you know music? Using what tools? Using graphs? Music is the hologram on the screen?

 

[cjl]

   
This is a pointless conversation. (((
You were born with ears on your head, and they either hear or not. Scientific data has been entered in your head much later. Than you know music? Using what tools? Using graphs? Music is the hologram on the screen?

We can test using nothing but people's ears. Double blind, fast-switch ABX testing is remarkably sensitive to subtle sonic differences, and it relies exclusively on hearing. It is, however, remarkably insensitive to imaginary sonic differences, which leads to some interesting results with a lot of audiophile nonsense.

 

[bigshot]

Trying random things out of ignorance is a very ineffective way to get a stereo that sounds really good. Just buying whatever is the most expensive works a little bit better, but it still doesn't work as well as understanding how sound reproduction works and putting that understanding to work building a sound system that kicks ass. If you are open to learning, you can end up with great sound at a reasonable cost. If you aren't open to learning, you keep making the same mistakes over and over and end up broke with a lousy sound system.

 

[Mr Rick]

I believe in 'magic cables'.  I'm just not so sure about the Easter Rabbit or the Tooth Fairy.