The Great Cable Debate -- Reloaded

[E-Stat]

Secondly, there is a general assertion by some that there are audible properties of a cable that cannot possibly be measured by electronic test equipment.

I think you are misstating the objection. I believe the problem is not so much that the audible differences cannot be measured, but rather the current testing methodology does not adequately duplicate the environment in which the cables are used. I find this situation no different than that of THD analysis in the 70s. Thirty years ago, I took my AR integrated amp to the McIntosh clinic where I was presented with an impressive looking harmonic distortion plot of the amp. Based on the results, Gordo Gow and Julian Hirsch would conclude that this amp was a very low distortion amp indeed. The test equipment wasn't lying, was it? Of course not. Sonically, however, the AR amp proved to be a disaster in the real world. We have since learned much about dynamic sorts of distortion such as crossover notch and transient intermodulation distortion, neither of which would ever be revealed with such tests. I'll take a "higher distortion" Pass Labs amp over a Crown DC-300A any day.

Perhaps us (sic) engineers are delinquent in our explanation as to why all these people hear different sounds when listening to different cables.

Amen, brother.

It could be that we haven't invented the right scientific test equipment but I doubt that.

Or, choice "B", we haven't invented the right scientific tests that measure the components as a system reproducing dynamic musical content. You can make any pickup measure the same lateral G cornering response as a Ferrari, but you will find substantial differences in dynamic behavior.

rw