On Sun, 10 Feb 2008 07:53:33 -0800, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article <fon6lt01bbe@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):
> "Greg Wormald" <greg.wormald@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
> news:folrst02p34@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>> The very set-up of much ABX testing (which is most often
>> short segments of music quickly switched), cannot test
>> for what most music lovers are seeking--long term
>> enjoyment of music listening.
>
> This is a false claim that I've heard on and off for about 30 years,
now.
>
> In fact people have been doing long term ABX tests for about 30 years.
The
> origional ABX Comparator product, had special features to allow tests to
> survive power outages, in sup****t of long term tests.
>
> One of the things that long term ABX tests show is that audiophile
mythology
> about long term testing is just that, audiophile mythology.
>
>> A goodly number of years
>> ago I ABX blind tested some interconnects, and then chose
>> the ones I preferred. Three months later I realised I was
>> not listening as much or enjoying it at the level I was
>> previously. I found myself turning the music down or off.
>> When I went back to my old interconnects my listening
>> increased to it's previous levels of enjoyment.
>
> AFAIK nobody has ever shown that interconnects can be distinguished
> sonically using any reliable listening test methodology, unless they
were so
> bad that they cause non-trival frequency response variations. And, if
> interconnects are so bad that they cause non-trivial frequency response
> variations, they are by definition, defective.
>
This is correct. At audio frequencies, signal levels, and source
impedances,
wire is wire. Now, perhaps at microwave frequencies, the size, composition
and routing of cables makes a difference, but from 20 Hz to 20KHz it
matters
not one whit unless you are running extremely long runs (like 30 ft or
more)
of coax carrying a line-level signal, then one might experience some small
amount of high-frequency roll-off, but this is not what we're talking
about,
here.
Try this. Take a 1-meter length of Radio Shack coax, solder some cheap
tin-plated RCA plugs on each end and use it for one channel of a run from,
say, your CD player to your amplifier (or preamp) and use a 1-meter length
of
Nordost Valhalla (at $4000/meter) or any other "high-priced spread" for
the
other channel. I DEFY you to hear any difference whatsoever between the
two
channels (all else being equal). Cables are s**** oil pure and simple.
There
is simply no known characteristics of physics, electronics, or music that
would cause any two interconnects to have any sound whatsoever. My rule of
thumb is to buy cables on build quality for reliability and don't spend
another penny above what is necessary to get decent, gas tight connections
at
the cable/component interface, and adequate strain relief.
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