I agree with your observations...
Excessive generalizations are often a disservice for several reasons.
First, simply because they're sometimes wrong, which can cause errors to occur, and can lead to bad decisions.
And, second, because, when they're found to be wrong, they tend to raise doubt about the validity of science in general.
"Peanuts are NOT poisonous"; tell that to my buddy who's allergic to peanuts.
"All speaker wires sound the same"; except that, if you attach a set of Vampire Wires to a Threshold 400b amplifier, it will blow its fuse.
It's more accurate to say: "Peanuts are healthy for most people, except for the few who happen to be allergic to them".
And to say: "Most normal modern amplifiers don't sound any different with different speaker cables - unless there's something really odd about the cables".
I might even go a bit further on that last one.....
"Most modern amplifiers have a relatively low output impedance, and are relatively insensitive to the amounts of capacitance and inductance found in a typical piece of wire."
"Therefore, with most modern amplifiers, most speaker wires, made with regular wire, and having typical amounts of capacitance and inductance, all sound the same".
Interconnect cables are even more entertaining...... with both sides acting more like sports fans than either scientists or intelligent humans in general.
- The capacitance of MOST interconnect cables falls into a certain range.
- MOST modern preamps have a very low output impedance; and will sound the same when connected to an amplifier using interconnects whose capacitance falls within that range.
(I consider a preamp with a high output impedance to be "badly designed" - but that's just my opinion. Most people would agree with me today; in 1950 most would not.)
- MANY vintage tube preamps had a much higher output impedance; and their frequency response WILL vary significantly depending on the capacitance of your cables.
- MANY modern passive preamps share this characteristic, and their frequency response WILL also vary significantly depending on the capacitance of your cables.
- And, finally, moving magnet phono cartidges are usually sensitive to cable capacitance, and their frequency response WILL also vary significantly due to cable capacitance.
Therefore, if you make a generalization about interconnect cables sounding the same, without properly qualifying it, then you are spreading false information.
(Your claim may help more people than it hurts - but it could be more helpful, to more people, if you qualified it more carefully.)
If the purpose of this thread is to discuss "testing audiophile myths"........
Then the validity of claims in both directions is surely fair game.......
Thanks for that info and context.
I do think Sound Science has value, and I do see much nonsense spewed in other parts of the forum. I don't talk about that latter much here, but I do talk it about it there - at least until they tell me I need to stop.
If I come across as too outspoken in Sound Science, it's because some things here have really surprised me, particularly the rigidity of some views. But if people are quite sure of their beliefs, I suppose that comes with the territory. I'm more of a 'degree of belief' person, rather than a certainty person. Don't get me wrong, I'd prefer certainty, but if we're truly skeptical, certainty is difficult and perhaps impossible to achieve.
If you take the 'average' what's said around here, I suspect that it's not too far from the truth, and there's probably more common ground than the debates suggest. IMO, it's when we take extreme positions - DACs never make any audible difference, cables and DACs make a huge difference, etc. - that we're probably off the mark.
I'm all for testing, but when the measuring device is the human mind, I think there are a lot more complications than when testing only involves objective measurements. For example, when I did my own blind testing and asked whether I can hear a difference between A and B, or can pick whether it's A or B, the answer was more often "I'm not sure" rather than Yes or No. A while back, I myself challenged some audiophiles to do blind testing to support their claim that expensive cables made a worthwhile difference. But after I did my own blind testing, I realized that it's not quite that simple.
Anyway, I've found the discussion to be stimulating, and will try to avoid making statements which unnecessarily aggravate or offend anyone. If I go out of bounds, don't hesitate to let me know (I've been a moderator also, and know it's not always an easy job).