Quote Originally Posted by Toga
I'm politely asking what possible help knowing the appearance, provenance, and price of cables you are listening to would be in discovering anything about their sound. I would think you would be excited, thrilled, curious about your own perceptions, and constantly challenging your own assumptions. .
I don't recall ever saying that appearance, provenance or price made any difference. In fact, my experience is just the opposite in many cases.

As for my assumptions, if they're not based on experience, I agree they should be challenged and I do so when possible and necessary or at least when it might prove interesting. If I base something on experience, I usually trust those experiences. In this case, I'm doing this experiment because of something Monstrous Mike posted. He wrote that once we understand and can measure how different cables can sound different, we can then use that information to design better cables. I'm simply doing my part to promote scientific study.

Ok, to be honest, nothing I do or test is going to do anything for science. So another motivator is that I find it hard to believe that there is a group of people that believe that all cables or amps sound essentially the same or at least, can't be discerned in normal use. With so many seemingly intelligent people believing that way, it's hard to simply laugh it off because my beliefs differ. So I'm going into this experiment with an open mind. I don't think it will solve anything for anybody but it might result in a need for further testing ... for me, at least!