[atledreier]

Well, finally a good cable discussion on HTS!

The fact is that no properly conducted blind test has revealed any significant positive result about audible difference in cables. Most if not all participants in the same tests can clearly hear a difference when they know there is one. Placebo is a powerful tool for esotheric cable companies...

I know I can hear a difference when I know cables have changed. I suspected placebo, and conducted a blind test with a few mates. No difference. This led me to do another blind test on power amplifiers. I have my Denon AVR 4308 receiver hooked up to my Dali Euphonia speakers. I used to have a NAD M25 power amp in between, but after being unable to tell if it was hooked up or not, I sold it and bought a 1080p projector and larger screen. Best investment I ever did.

Good enough is good enough...

 

[atledreier]

Yep. We did a fairly extensive ABX test. One guy switched, one guy recorded, three guys listened. We had two different cables, one Tara Labs Air 1 set ($4200), and one cheap QED cable of equal length (2x3m). Cables were switched every time, even if the same cable was put back. We used banana connectors for both ends for fast switching (the TL comes with screw-on terminals so you can choose banana or spades. We used the supplied bananaplugs.).

I don't have the actual spreadsheet here, but I think the 'best' result was 67% correct, well in the 'random result' bracket.

 

[atledreier]

I've done measurements with pretty cheap common wire, and compared with high-end speaker wire (Tara Labs Air2). Switching the wires showed no difference, moving the microphone a few mm quelded significant change in frequency response.... I'll dig up the measurements if anyone is interested.