Quote Originally Posted by Chuck
The author makes the assertion that the electrical characteristics of the wire, amp, and loudspeaker, will determine the ultimate performance, and then proceeds to measure the electrical characteristics, along with their effects on the performance. If the assertion is true, then his measurements are sufficient. As a result I think your question is actually aimed at his assertion rather than his measurements. Aren't you really asking if there isn't more to cables than just the electrical parameters?

Certainly there are many alternate ways to measure just about anything, and it only makes sense to use the appropriate tool for the job. If we had reason to believe that commonly used speaker wire configurations are distorting the signal in some way not revealed by conventional static measurements then it would make since to investigate further. It is rare to see anything in the complex transfer function of a circuit that isn't predicted by the electrical parameters. When it does happen it just means that we've overlooked some parameter. If you're asking if I'd have done things differently, the answer is a resounding YES. After going to all the trouble to set up the equipment for the test I'd certainly have run and recorded MLS tests for later analysis, and I'd have measured the complex transfer function of every wire/speaker/amp combination. I would not, however, expect any of these tests to show anything that wasn't indicated by relevant electrical parameters. In other words, I think electricity obeys the laws of physics. We sometimes overlook factors in our circuit analysis, so I tend to over-do my own measurements. The author is probably much smarter than myself in this respect.

Phil, did you notice that none of his measurements showed as much as a full dB of loss at 20k, and never enough phase (temporal) shift to be suspect? Do you know of anyone, other than me, who has measured a wire induced anomaly greater in magnitude than what is presented in this JAES paper? I've measured 2dB at 14k, but can you point to ANY other tests of ANY kind that that show greater problems in typical wire configurations? I'm not aware of any, so if they exist I'd appreciate a few links.

What exactly do you think the author (and the AES peer review) overlooked?
No Chuck, I'm asking exactly what I asked and I didn't mention his assertion. Again, I'm asking whether conducting a test under similar conditions, but measuring distortion characteristics of the waveform, including temporal distortion, could possibly have yeilded different results? Stated another way, is it possible to extrapolate from his tests that measurement of waveform distortion would show nothing of use that was not shown in his test? I think what you are saying is that there is no need to measure waveform distortion. Somehow, though, that doesn't make intuitive sense to me.

What do I think they overlooked? Possibly waveform distortion. That's why I asked the question. Why do you have to turn that question into something it is not. That's a Jon Risch trick, who would far rather discuss naysayers and yeasayers than technical issues..