[gregorio]

Though an ABX switch for cables blind testing would be more expensive, since you will need two sets of cables, amp to switch, switch to speakers, increasing the budget for their choice of a $4800 cable.

Or just a very short cheap wide gauge cable from amp to switch and then the expensive one from switch to speakers. If that bothers any cable purists, they could just cut the expensive cables in half

G

 

[gregorio]

These tweaks are active as in: powered, then that would be an active cable.

How do you power a speaker cable? Obviously you can power the signal in the cable but isn’t that already being done by the amp?

G

 

[iFi audio]

How do you power a speaker cable? Obviously you can power the signal in the cable but isn’t that already being done by the amp?

I'm not sure how would you do that on a speaker cable, but one of our power cords features an active circuit that measures signal from the mains and artificially generates its oppositely phased wave to cancel noise, which in principle is similar to ANC in headphones.

 

[Chimmy9278]

I'm not sure how would you do that on a speaker cable, but one of our power cords features an active circuit that measures signal from the mains and artificially generates its oppositely phased wave to cancel noise, which in principle is similar to ANC in headphones.

I really did mean an interconnect cable that has components to adulterate the signal.

Putting a DC bias on the insulation, or an outer shield, serves no technical purpose at audio frequencies, and does NOT make the cable itself "active".

Indeed, I have seen cables that does this, but since Jay never told us what that cable is, we will never know if there are some “clever” engineering aside from active shielding on the cable that enabled him to guess correctly so many times. I used to term active merely to categorize any cables that have fancy things added to them rather than just carrying the signal.

 

[Chimmy9278]

Kevin Gilmore has already tried cryogenic audio set up, didn't help much.

This video is supposed to be ironic, right? He said later on it is placebo.

 

[gregorio]

This video is supposed to be ironic, right?

G

 

[iFi audio]

I really did mean an interconnect cable that has components to adulterate the signal.

I haven't yet seen such a cable that would feature an externally powered box with circuits designed to modify the signal, but who knows, maybe it exists.

 

[DougD]

There are a ton of blind studies that have hilarious results, like the test between a high end audio cable and a coat hanger that no one could pass or the guy who promised a $10,000 prize to anyone who could identify which amplifier was playing 12/12 times (a few thousand audiophiles have taken the test and failed).

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/testing-audiophile-claims-and-myths.486598/

A good one is the "legendary study that embarrassed wine experts" where a guy had 54 wine tasting students taste test a red and white wine. A week later he took the same white wine and dyed half of it red with tasteless food coloring. The students then described the dyed white wine the same as they did the red wine a week earlier, which was completely different than how they described the undyed white.

https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infamous_study_on_wine_tasting.html

So...the tastes that wine experts are tasting are mostly based on the color of the wine, not the actual taste. A similar thing to tasting also happens with hearing.

In many ways, the human brain is not a reliable measurement instrument for objective testing. It really is hardwired to do just the opposite, to allow prior experiences to influence current decisions. So we get probability-based decisions, but made faster. Which is useful for survival. (That's my simplistic summary of some of Daniel Kahneman's work.) The brain has learned that red wine has certain characteristics different than white wine, and it's hard to get the brain to ignore that.

And that's also why it is difficult to design and do a truly blind A-B test immune from potential bias. (I didn't want to spend 38 minutes watching the cable-test video, so I don't know exactly how they set up that test.)

 

[iFi audio]

And that's also why it is difficult to design and do a truly blind A-B test immune from potential bias.

Any such comparisons are quite exhaustive and that also makes them difficult.

 

[bigshot]

It depends on your purpose. If you’re looking to submit for peer review, you need to cover all your bases. But if you aren’t a research scientist, any controls are better than no controls at all.

But with most of the things that are argued in Head Fi, it’s pointless because the science behind it has most likely already been worked out by the AES and others.

 

[iFi audio]

AES

I've just googled that and found Advanced Encryption Standard, but that's probably not what you had in mind ?

 

[sander99]

@iFi audio: audio engineering society

 

[bigshot]

Sorry, I try to avoid acronyms. Sometimes I slip up. Here you go... https://aes2.org

 

[iFi audio]

@iFi audio: audio engineering society

Thanks, I feel this much smarter already

 

[gregorio]

I've just googled that and found Advanced Encryption Standard, but that's probably not what you had in mind?

I take it you’re joking?