If I had to guess at what the difference is between a better performing cable and an inferior cable, for instance the Belden 1800f vs Monster cable or Whirlwind as the inferior cable, it would be a combination of frequency response and distortion. The more accurate the playback equipment and room, the more influential small amounts of distortion or frequency irregularities will impact the overall sound.
What I have found as that I have upgraded my system, new flaws that were imperceptible (or masked by bigger problems) before are found and become more difficult to solve. For instance, upgrading to a more expensive cd player or DAC like the SB3 to the Transporter is a fairly easy change to make, it just requires additional funds and the knowledge or experimentation to determine which of the more expensive CD units are worth it. Some companies are marketing based, others are engineering based and if I'm spending a large amount of money on audio gear, I'd rather buy one where the funds have gone into engineering. However, once you have high performance from your amps, speakers, and source, and improved room acoustics, the cabling and power while making less noticeable or less cost efficient differences in the beginning, now must be focused on to improve the level of the system. Just as acousticians discuss improving the acoustics so that the room can handle higher levels of spl without adding acoustic distortion, as you listen at higher volumes the impact of distortion and coloration by cables becomes readily apparent. I'm not familiar with the measurements for distortion. Can they measure the full frequency spectrum? If there is an analog form of jitter induced by cabling that increases harshness on transients and clouds the audio information by creating random electronic micro-echoes of the signal due to timing irregularities of the signal, would this be measured by today's distortion test? I'd like to volunteer my system for testing if anyone else in the San Francisco Bay Area would like to conduct these electrical tests or even double blind testing. The ATC speakers I use are known for their exceptionally low distortion and uniquely precise accuracy and imaging, among other engineering advances, and are used by top mastering engineers, recording engineers, movie scoring stages, composers, and performers. I'm including this as both a shameless plug (I'm in the process of opening a showroom) and because I think they are unique at highlighting sonic differences in things like cables. Speakers are only as good as the information you feed them and the room they are in, and you will never be able to hear what your speakers can't recreate accurately. _________________________________________________ Transporter -> ATC SCA2 -> ATC SCM100ASLT Ayre C5xe -> ATC SCA2 -> ATC SCM100ASLT -- musiklov3r ------------------------------------------------------------------------ musiklov3r's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=13166 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=38902 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/lists/listinfo/audiophiles
