What’s in a Wire?
The cable controversy and an aesthetic argument for nice cables
These cables (above) are two examples of “nice” cables, as opposed to these:
Here are the “nice” cables with an AudioQuest RCA-to-3.5-mm adapter:
As soon as I plugged the cables in, I thought the music sounded more beautiful. It sounded more beautiful. I’m not making any technical claims about the cables. It’s kind of like having a stylish car. It can be more fun to drive, though a less stylish car might have more horsepower or better acceleration off the line (and right about there is the end of my car knowledge). Part of the point of having nice cables is adding to the aesthetics of a sound system. One way to add to sound system aesthetics is to improve technical specs of an amplifier (though these numbers remain crude measurements of technical performance and are not measures of how good or how beautiful music played through the device will sound.
A beautiful looking power amplifier might sound better to me than one that looks like a botched attempt at a concept car. A big part of putting together a sound system is finding gear that works *for the individual*. Different people’s ears are shaped differently. Recordings have been made of music as it sounds from inside different people’s ears. Taking one recording from one person, and playing it for another person results in the other person reporting a bad listening experience. The equipment used in both cases may measure the same, but different people do not hear it the same.
We aren’t treating dangerous infections with placebos when we put together an audio system; I see no harm in using the placebo effect to make music seem to sound better—to sound better to that person, full stop. If one system sounds better to me, what do ideologies about what audiophile sound should be, and what measurements are necessary to get it, have to do with anything? I’m not saying anyone needs to go into debt to buy thousand-dollar cables. I’m mostly arguing for having “nice” equipment, including cables. It’s possible for beautiful sound to come from an ugly machine; but all other things being equal, I think an aesthetically beautiful machine will sound better than an ugly one.
Blinded testing doesn’t enter into it. We don’t blind ourselves to what our equipment looks and feels like, or even smells like. I may close my eyes and the thought of these silvery, beautiful cables—which certainly did not cost thousands of dollars—may add to the beauty of the sound. And it isn’t as if nicer cables hurt the sound. I think the view that measurements tell us all or even most of what we need to know about good sound is like the erroneous dogma that cooking is”just chemistry.” Neither is true in the slightest. So go ahead and buy a lovely cable instead of the generic, less lovely one. You aren’t hurting me by doing it! 😸
Love cables too haha! I can't do without my wired Sony headphones, and on certain tracks the sound is clearly better!
But even though I listen to music mostly through headphones I can imagine that a good cable adds only good stuff to the listening experience