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IF...wires sound different....

...it is because they are an element in a network which consists of the source, the connecting wire, and the load. The source and load can be the phono cartridge and the preamp. The preamp and the power amp. The power am and the speakers. How the network performs depends on all three. Change one and all other bets are off. Can performance be predicted? Yes, we can have all the tools to know how wire affects a network. We have extensive mathematical models which correlate well with real world experience. Normally, the source and load are designed to make them relatively insensitive to each other and to a suitable connecting wire. This is why we like the source impedence very low compared to the load impedence and the wire impedence low too. The wire industry (the real one, not the audiophile one) is believe it or not, not stupid. They set the standards decades ago knowing how to meet the requirements of this and many other applications. But there is a market for people who don't know this and will pay for products intended to do just the opposite, to affect performance deliberately. How will it affect it? To predict, you'd need to know the exact electrical characteristics of the source, the load, and the wire, something you will likely not find for most equipment and most audiphiles wouldn't know how to use if they did. So it boils down to endless trial and error because what may work well for some people in some systems my work poorly for others. So enjoy yourself, you've got a lifetime of experimenting ahead of you and whatever you find that you think you like there will always be someone around the pike with a better one you just have to try.

As for the pseudo scientists who have lots of equipment and time on their hands who believe in this nonsense, they can also spend the rest of their lives looking for those invisible ghosts finding one hair brained theory after another to explain the differences they can't prove.

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