Originally Posted by
Barry
LOL - nobody pissed on my cornflakes! Actually, I don't eat cornflakes; breakfast today was muesli with Greek yogurt, toast and Mocca coffee.
But I digress. Yes, I did read the 'blurb' by Ghost Cable, and interesting reading it makes. First of all, they make the correct statement that cables have no (intrinsic) sound of their own but do possess electrical properties (line resistance and capacitance, etc.) which interact with those of the items between which they connect.
They then go on to say that their cables have found favour with guitarists who like the way the cables affect the sound of their guitars. This is entirely understandable as the pickups of electric guitars have a high resistance (anywhere between 5K and 20K), so the cable capacitance will affect the high-frequency roll-off. Indeed I have seen vendors selling cable having a range of line capacitances, so the user can choose one which best provides the sound he seeks.
The important thing to note is that the guitar, cable, and amplifier constitute an instrument; the cable being as important to the overall sound as much as the choice of strings. Ghost Cables then say their cables have also found favour with recording studios where recording, mixing, editing, and re-mastering are done. All of these activities affect the overall sound and as such create the final sound, so it could be argued they too are instrumental. Once the final tape is made for the production of CDs and LPs, the 'sound' has been fixed.
When it comes to the reproduction of CDs or LPs, what is required is that all of the reproducing equipment should be as neutral as possible, including all the cables and interconnects. In the case of the cables, this is not hard to achieve as the impedance of the source will be low (very low, a few Ohms for solid-state gear, and about 1kOhm for valved gear), so any high-frequency interaction will be small, often beyond the upper hearing limit. So Ghost Cables need have no advantage over any other quality cable; and the diagram showing their construction looks no different from that of other manufacturers such as Klotz, Van Damme, Mogami etc. The use of an isolated carbonised nylon braid as an RFI shield is not really effective: it would have been better to have used a semi-conducting sheath [I]in contact[I] with the outer braid.
So yes, a well-made cable which will perform well, but essentially little different from the competition when used for sound reproduction. The chat about cable directionality and 'burn-in' is nonsense but does no harm.
If you are pleased with your Ghost Cables Gary then good for you - enjoy them. As regards the ratio of interconnect to equipment pricing - I don't really have an opinion, save to say that whilst my preamps, CDPs and power amps each cost thousands, I still prefer to make up my own cables which probably only cost no more than £20 for a set.
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