hermanv - I was snooping around and found the thread started by musicoverall posted on 03-22-2005 and was impressed with your responses on that thread since it directly reflects my attitude toward this subject.

I have to say that the knowledge from some members on both sides of this debate were impressive, however I too am of the camp that wire does sound different, but can't explain it.

My experience is that wire changes the transparency of the soundstage and the focus of the imagery (the images have better form in space). I also agree that that a tone control cannot duplicate what the wire does.

While I was reading the thread, it occured to me that I got the same effect from room treatment. There was reduced smearing of the image which I percieved as greater transparency. In addition, I could hear some things that were previously masked. This made me wonder if that is what the wires were doing electrically. Since room treatment reduces reflection, perhaps there are reflections in the wires we use that produce this effect. Of course, if these reflections are occuring are they measurable?

This is just a thought, perhaps not a good one, but the way I see it, wire does sound different and the tests that we now perform on wire doesn't support my position. Maybe we aren't doing the correct tests?

One other thing...

Double blind tests are not valid for several reasons. First, everyone that claims to hear differences in wire do so on their home system at their leisure. They are familiar with the sound of their system, are not under pressure to perform, and there are no time limits. DBT's are normally done on someone elses system, with someone elses wire, and there is pressure to get it right.

So, how could we improve on the DBT? Simple! Take two wires that someone already has experiance with and claims that they do sound different and disguise them to look identical, except for color. Give them to that person and let them decide which is which in their home system at their own leisure. This would eliminate all the variables that a normal DBT imparts on the test.