[Eeyore]

nebulax wrote:

Eeyore wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote:
Eeyore wrote:
Scott Dorsey wrote:

Well, I have heard differences between wires,

That weren't speaker cables or high capacitance interconnects ?

Well, in some cases they were very long microphone cables with ribbon
mike sources, where the cable reactance WAS becoming a problem.

How long were those mic cables ?

But in other cases I have heard weirdness that I cannot explain. I can
tell the difference between an 18ga solid core and an 18ga stranded
speaker cable. Makes no sense at all, but it was there.

Intruiging.

I can believe someone might hear a difference between a non-copper cable
like the silver cable, and I can believe it might be due to rectification
effects.

Well, it won't be the additional conductivity of the silver since that's just a
thin plating.

I know that I can hear a difference between copper-clad-steel
RG-174 and similar copper cable. I am pretty sure that is due to junction
issues.

Copper clad steel will have significantly higher resistance than steel of
course. Your contacts would have to be fairly dirty for rectification to kick
in, I'll venture.


All sorts of variables in cable makeup can affect things like
resistance, capacitance,

Inductance.


high frequency roll-off, etc. Sometimes, they
aren't changes you want to happen (dirty contacts), but in other cases
it can be an intentional aim at getting a certain sound.

Yet in a normal interconnect situation with sensible cable lengths with a low
impedance source (say 100 ohms) and a high/bridging input impedance on the
receiving end (as per modern equipment practice for the last 30+ years) none of these
paremeters should ever be significant enough to affect what's audible.

Loudspeaker cables are quite a different ball game on account of the low impedance
load.


Unfortunately, this all just makes the water more muddy as to what is
'neutral sound'. And sadly, some of the most neutral sounding cables
are also the most expensive. I guess what I'm looking for is an
inexpensive cable that makes as few changes to the signal as possible,
but doesn't cost $1000 a foot!

No interconnect cable should make any audible changes to the sound in normal typical
usage. Belief that they do is unquestionably due to the limitations and unreliability
of human hearing plus certain psychological factors.

Graham