The reason why this thread came about was because I wanted to start DIYing cables, with half a thought on expanding to sell some and make a small profit. I bought various cables and connections off ebay and soldering kit off ebay. Amazon and from a hardware shop and taught myself to solder using videos off You Tube. I called myself 'Out of this World Audio' and gave each cable a space themed name. (I even stuck a couple of posts on this forum's Head Gear section section and I have responses. They now get directed to the same cables I made, which can be bought now on ebay by people who have gone ahead to sell their cables).
I sent my cables to members of another forum (What Hifi) and even a manufacturer and got favourable reviews. But, during this time I was swapping cables left right and centre and felt that really, there was no difference at all between mine and other audiophile and stock cables I already had.
So I googled cable testing and quickly found blind tests and realised that there is a lot of blind tests out there, and not just cables. Having participated in many a cable debate on another forum as a pro cable believer, I was overwhelmed by the evidence that blind testing showed, there is no audible difference between cables.
With regards to other parts of the hifi chain, I remember a big debate about how amps could sound the same, if equalised, which I thought was a ridiculous thing to do. But finding that the difference between amps is there, but it is usually minimal was also quite a revelation. The same was true of codecs and bit rates. I have not bothered with codec/bit rate blind tests as there are so many on the internet. But one thing is clear, people can tell between the extremes, but often prefer the 'poor quality' sounding MP3 or low bit rate. What! They should prefer the high quality Ogg Vorbis and lossless bit rates! But it just goes to show what happens when you just listen. The brain takes over and hifi is no longer what you would expect it to be, according to audiophiles anyway.
So, after all of that my cable enterprise came to a halt. It cost me £70 in total, including the soldering kit, and I can now solder, have my own wonderful cables (that sound better than any other cable has ever sounded
and my knowledge of electronics has improved, so it was not a waste.
I decided to put together all of the blind tests that I had found into a thread and share. There are so many cable debate threads that go in circles because people ask for proof, but debate who should provide it rather than just going out and finding it. Well, I had found it and I could not find another example on a forum of such a thread. So I put it together and published on the What Hifi Forum. Within about an hour it had been deleted! The b*****ds had deleted the whole thing and I was referred to their vague house rules with no change of an appeal!
So, I put the whole thing together again and posted it here as at least in Sound Science you are allowed to debate such issues. But only Sound Science mind, there is no asking for proof or mentioning tests elsewhere on the forum so as not to upset intolerant audiophiles.
It was nice to see a similar list has appeared on Hydrogenaudio forum courtesy of a member here Pia2000, from which I have added to here. At least such will make life easier for those who do want to see the evidence.