Propeller Head Plaza: Ok, Jim I did by E-Stat Technical and scientific discussion of amps, cables and other topics.

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Posted by E-Stat ( A ) on April 12, 2003 at 07:30:10

In Reply to: Read the linked article again. posted by jj on April 11, 2003 at 18:12:07:

Aside from miscellaneous and simplistic ramblings, it mentioned five different articles or tests regarding cables. Let's look at each one.

"What About Wires Longer Than 50 Feet?"

It references work done by Edgar Villchur titled "Speaker cables: Measurements Vs Psycho-acoustic data". Here's the gripping conclusion:

The psycho-acoustic data shows that for pure tones at 16kHz the smallest average detectable difference in level is 3.05 dB.

Further it mentions another article titled "Level Discrimination As a Function of Level for Tones from 0.25 to 16khz" authored by Florentine, Buns, and Mason. What then is a tone?

tone, n. [ME. ton, tone ; OFr. ton , from L. tonus , a sound, from Gr. tonos , a stretching, a tone.]

8. in music and acoustics, (a) a sound that is distinct and identifiable by its regularity of vibration, or constant pitch, and that may be put into harmonic relation with other such sounds. (b) the simple and fundamental tone of a musical sound as distinguished from its overtones.

In other words, static.

Gordon Gow’s Speaker Wire Listening Test

Here Gordo used a speaker cable demonstration to show there was no listening difference between “these wires” and plain line cord. He compared a fifty foot length of line cord to Monster cable (12 gauge line cord) using a POS switch box with unspecified Mac equipment. To what did the participants in the test listen? It does not say. Evidently, such details were not considered important.

What does this prove? That one can likely not hear any difference between unusually long and mediocre wires through merely good electronics. I find it amusing that while the excessive length was used presumably to accentuate the results, it merely dumbs down the overall resolution capability of the test system.

Stereo Review Dares to Tell the Truth (1983)

This references an article by Larry Greenhill titled ”Speaker Cables: Can You Hear a Difference?”. Similar to the Gow test, it compared 16 gauge wire to 24 gauge wire. We have yet another case of debating the audibility of mediocre audio gear from two decades ago. I’m sure glad I didn’t have to listen to their test system for fifty hours! :)

Stereo Review Gets More Conservative (1990)

This references an article by R.A. Greiner published in an 1980 AES paper but offers no content.

An Honest Answer from Sound and Vision (2001)

When asked about the sonically rigorous demands of which wire to use through the attic or under the house, Ian Masters replies with this:

I've taken several comparative listening sessions over the years, and the sort of wire you want to use involves no sonic degradation that I (or anybody else in the tests) could hear. You could even wire the whole distance from amp to speakers using 12-gauge…

More adventures in mediocrity. This linked article provides a sum total of zero studies that refute the notion that a trained listener can discern audible differences between cables when listening to musical content on a high resolution audio system.

rw

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