Re: Cables again. For Arny, et al.

On Fri, 15 Feb 2008 15:39:01 -0800, Greg Wormald wrote
(in article <fp57ql019k9@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>):

> In my opinion, some cables do make a difference. Whether they have been 
> deliberately (or accidentally) engineered to make a difference I don't 
> know. I do know that several times I have been able to hear 
> differences--sometimes in short ABX tests, and sometimes over longer 
> trials.
> 
> I also know that there are more things in physics and in the perception 
> of music (which comes under the heading of psychology and would include 
> both conscious processes and unconscious processes), and in the 
> interaction of physics and psychology, that are not covered in 
> engineering or in psychology!--I can't comment about physics.
> 
> I can't be bothered arguing with those who deny it's possible. They live

> in a very constrained world and it is not one I want to share. I have a 
> tendency to enjoy Clarke's First Law: "When a distinguished but elderly 
> scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly 
> right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably 
> wrong." (In Clarke's view 'elderly' means over 30.)
> 
> Greg

Well, The thing is that conductors follow some very fundamental rules of 
signal carrying and they all relate to bandwidth and the source and 
destination impedances of the equipment at each end of the signal carrying

cable. The audio bandwidth, as an electrical signal, is quite narrow and
very 
low frequency as AC electrical signals go. Even if we "push the envelope"
out 
to 50K instead of 20, we're dealing here, with an electrically very 
undemanding bandwidth. Things like skin effect, capacitive and inductive 
reactance and simple DC resistance just aren't that great of a factor at 
audio frequencies - especially over runs of less than 50 ft with modern 
equipment and it's low output impedances and high input impedances. 
Basically, there are no characteristics that I'm aware of that could
affect 
the sound of an interconnect unless, as I said elsewhere, the
interconnects 
were deliberately designed to act as filters, then, given the
characteristics 
of the VALUES of the capacitance and inductance needed to affect the sound
at 
frequencies lower than about 15 KHz, would have to be so large that cable 
characteristics alone couldn't be engineered to produce them. Actual 
resistors, inductors and capacitors would have to be added to the cable.
And 
unless the cable in question has some bulge in it somewhere, or a box
molded 
into it, this is unlikely to be what's going on.