Mark Wilkinson wrote in
news:wTt9b.467714$o%2.207687@sccrnsc02:

In article ivn9b.463174$Ho3.74971@sccrnsc03, Lou Anschuetz says...

(Nousaine) wrote in
.net:

Lou Anschuetz wrote:

...snips to specific content .....
So YOU hear speaker cables? Why not take a cable with 'sound' and
compare it to zip cord in a bias controlled listening test and tell
us what you find?
Let me relate one extreme example. I used to use zip cord on my
speakers (McCormack DNA 1 Deluxe to Apogee Slant 6). They sounded
"OK." On the advice of many folks I purchased some moderately
priced real speaker cables of the same length (and same gauge
as it turns out). It turned out that with 2 different SPL
meters there was a *measureable* difference. With the zip cord
sound was down 6 dB below 50hz compared to high-end cable.
I can reproduce this at will.


Sorry, this just plain isn't possible -- unless you are telling me
the "high-end cable" had a 6db attenuating high shelving filter,
hinged somewhere around 50hz, built into it. I can't believe anyone
would build such a gimmick. Please give more more info as to how you
tested.

Once again - I agree with you in principle. (I try to only
cite weird examples since all others are dismissed

Zip cord - same length as named-cable, same gauge as named-cable.

Put on zip cord, walk down the frequencies with a test CD
(the Stereophile works fine here). Using either A fast or
C slow, see what (relative) dB ratings you see. This is *not*
a cliff effect of course, but a gradual curve.

As you lower the frequency, the dB ratings stay higher with the
named cable (in both A & C, but varying in amounts).

Test again as this cannot be possible (I agree). Same thing.

I'm not so foolish as to believe there is something other
worldly going on - but there is some reactance to the stranded
zip cable (now serving duty quite nicely as extension cords

Maybe it's a flaw in the zip cords (my preferred explanation
actually) but the effect happens.

This absolutely comes back to what I've said repeatedly, there
is a "house" sound to speaker cables that is probably not due to
some magic engineering, but either some flawed engineering or
some error in manufacturing that is common from various cabling
supply house. I tend to think such flaws more often than not
are in material content and/or insulation properties. Certainly
the named cable used twisting, while the zip cord does not.
Maybe there is some EMI, RFI, EFI effect in my house that is
undiagnosed. I'm told by many that these things should not
effect the sound, but in this case something is clearly
affecting the performance (even if not the sound). In my
case maybe I'm just lucky to have picked a twisted pair
speaker cable that happens to eliminate some effect. But,
there is a reason why speaker cable folks do research (even
if some of it results in bizarre unlikely explanations

I'm betting though that such effects - even when much smaller -
occur during testing and some design is implemented that by
good fortune fixes the flaw. The problem is that we are looking
to explain things when each individual item is small and out
at an asymptote. Sales guys then jump in and latch on to some
theoretical, if unlikely, explanation instead of letting the
company admit that they found it by accident and folks seem
to like it But, being unable to explain it doesn't mean
it is unexplicable - just sometimes difficult to explain.

I'm willing to go through life allowing for things I don't
understand - but am willing to learn about.
--
Lou Anschuetz,
Network Manager, CMU, ECE Dept.