Do 'boutique' cables make a difference?

[Marco]

People differ in their skills, often academics can't even switch on the lights without electrocuting themselves where engineers may have trouble stringing words together.

It seems to me that people like to believe magical properties of things they don't understand and that this exasperates those that do. You're no Scientist so may like to believe some effect exists that they don't understand and obviously that's true but it's not of hi fi cables.

You may not be aware that Mart,the other half of AVI is a clever Scientist and engineer with a very successful career in Defence Avionics before he left to form Kelvin Labs and then AVI. One of the research projects he carried out was signal transmission of highly accurate signals in a very noisy electrical environment, namely a modern Jet fighter. He really is a cable expert and if he tells me cables don't make a difference unless something totally unsuitable is used when the effect will be negative, I believe him.

I'm sorry and if this starts a war I'm off!

Rest assured there won't be any "war" here!

You make some good and valid points. Perhaps we should move the last few posts here on cables to another thread where a fresh discussion can be started? I think that would be useful to keep the OP's thread on-topic and to facilitate relevant discussion

Marco.

[Marco]

Well, a cable can ONLY influence a system by detracting from the signal, it can never add anything, simply reveal more. A completely unsuitable cable will detract but a suitable one won't, it's as simple as that.

Absolutely, Rob - I totally agree.

A 'completely unsuitable' cable will sound worse than one which is 'more suitable' simply because of the signal degradation you mention, therefore there are differences...

Another thread looms, me thinks!

Marco.

[Filterlab]

Absolutely, Rob - I totally agree.

A 'completely unsuitable' cable will sound worse than one which is 'more suitable' simply because of the signal degradation you mention, therefore there are differences...

Another thread looms, me thinks!

Marco.

Indeed, and the 'more' suitable a cable is, the more musical information will be recovered.

Are you going to start it?

[Marco]

LOL. Anyone for another "Do cables make a difference?" thread?

Marco.

[sastusbulbas]

Yes, if anyone is open for this discussion it would be polite to relocate the relevant posts elsewhere and keep Ashleys thread clean and relevant to the subject.

[Steve Toy]

No.

[Marco]

No you're not open to the discussion of cables or no you don't want to keep the OP's thread clean and relevant?

I guess, with regard to cable debates, it's all been done to death before. I still have high hopes of converting Ashley to the 'dark side', though...

Marco.

[Steve Toy]

I do want this thread to remain on topic.

[Steve Toy]

I guess, with regard to cable debates, it's all been done to death before. I still have high hopes of converting Ashley to the 'dark side', though...

I don't fancy your chances. I think Ashley's notions of accuracy are fanciful and absolutist. They are also completely at odds with the essence of The Art of Sound.

He's entitled to his opinion and I've no problem with it being expressed here. I may look at splitting this thread though.

I agree with the sentiment " no hear no buy." Anyone who buys any hi-fi without listening to it first is a fool.

Ashley, you would do well to get your ADM9s out to (more) dealers so they can be heard. The ears really are the final arbiter. No matter how perfect the measurements may be, if any piece of hi-fi fails to connect the listener with the music on an emotional as well as cerebral level it fails full stop.

[Marco]

Steve,

At the end of the day, Ashley will do his 'thang' the same as we'll do ours...

I'm trying to keep the cable side of the discussion light-hearted and don't want it to get too 'heavy'

I think I'll move the off-topic posts here to a new thread, and see how it develops

Marco.