Cables: Speaker and RCA Types

Captain Coconut wrote:Yes, but science can be entertaining.

Yeah, but not as entertaining as audio fetishism.

Captain Coconut wrote:Yes, but science can be entertaining.

Absolutely! And I agree with your earlier comment about having a healthy dose of skepticism. But science works best when it's tested. And while many of those factors you mentioned may very well be important, if all anyone is doing is talking about how something can't work or won't work then science isn't being done. I've always promoted the idea that one should listen for themselves and if possible have others do it to. But one must also recognize the limitations of a test. Whatever results may come about isn't the end of the discussion. Science hasn't accounted for everything yet.

One should also be very mindful of bias. And testing should control for that. But in the end what we hear is subjective because none of us has the same hearing. And while cables may indeed be a form of tone control similar to the varying effects of vacuum tubes, the purpose of said devices is to bring us closer to the music we love. I think it's fair to say what may work for me may not work for you and vice versa. Some people prefer solid state if only for the convenience factor. To each their own.

We may have to agree to disagree on cables and I'm ok with that. Just don't assume I haven't done my homework.

DarthBubba wrote:Yeah, but not as entertaining as audio fetishism.

Well, we are on a DIY audio forum. The hobby itself is kind of a fetish. Just ask anyone who's not into this stuff.

corndog71 wrote: Science hasn't accounted for everything yet.

And not to forget, science and the physical properties of our universe were changed significantly in Fringe, Season Five. Damn you Walter! Damn you all to hell!!!



Anyway ... I can attest to wire making a difference. Reran all the old zipcord I had snaking thru the walls since way back when. Used Belden zero oxy twisted and shield wrapped. Much cleaner and more power making it to the speakers, especially on the longer runs, a lot of it due to the wire blocking all the electrical weirdness and interference the signal would have been otherwise exposed to. I'd give it a "thumbs up" if I could find the right emoticon here.

The Belden was something like 40 cents a foot if I remember right. That was a few years back.

After building a variation of the TNT audio UBYTE-2 cable, I could not help but reply here. After putting around 1000-1500 hrs on my new SP-14, I was very pleased with the way my system sounded. I was satisfied that everything had burned in sufficiently and very happy overall. For the last 3 or so years, I had been using braided CAT5E speaker cables as well as innerconnects. I decided to go ahead and give the UBYTE-2's a shot. I had a problem finding coax which had copper foil, braid and center conductor, so I went with Terra Labs RG-223U which has a silver plated double braid and silver plated center conductor. Mine are almost the exact TNT recipe, only I swept the center conductors over, whereas they 90 them over twice, creating a stressed connection. Do I know what the parameters of these cables are? No. Do they sound better than the CAT5E cables? HELL YES!! I can say that confidently because several other sets of ears agree, and they are NOT audio inclined people. I would love to learn how to measure them and report the findings. The midrange is clearly the best part. Complicated passages of heavy rock music now sound infinitely clear and detailed, whereas with the CAT5E cables, those same passages seemed to "fall apart" when pushed hard. That is not the case anymore. Jazz and easy listening vocals are incredible. The cable was $1.65/ft. and I built a stereo bi-wire set, heat shrink, connectors and all for right at $100. BTW, I have never bought into the idea that cables made any real difference until now, but that may be due to the quality of components I owned in the past. I work on the nuts and bolts of the cellular communications system nation wide for a living, and although there is the rare occasion where they require "Cheetah" cable or "Telco-flex" for their DC power systems, it has never gotten much crazier than that, so I've never had a reason to give cables a second thought. That is, until now.