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RE: If Wires Have Unique Sonic Characteristics Why Aren't They Revealed In LCR Measurements?

Hi Jon

As a researcher, it would seem that measuring what the cable does and then working backwards to the causes makes sense too.
More importantly since “everything” has an impact, the real issue is how large is the effect relatively speaking, for example at bass frequencies, for a 10 foot speaker cable, skin effect is present but totally irrelevant in it’s magnitude (no detectable difference with and without).
Many things about cables are critical in system design at tens or hundreds of MHz but are normally nugatory in the audio range.

A signal or speaker cable can either alter the signal resulting in a difference from one end to the other OR the cables properties can effect the thing at either end, such as a high parallel C rolling off the high end if the source Z is high enough, acting like an antenna driving the amplifier output stage etc.

If the cable were altering the signal, then this cannot have happened without changing the signal in some way and a proper two port measurement would reveal this.
Since it is easy to use any music as the test signal for some tests, this would seem to be an attractive approach.

If one can’t find audio electronics which isn’t substantively effected by cable loading, what does that say?

Lastly, I am skeptical of one statement as is;

“we can hear things in the music signal that are on the order of -90 dB and lower from full level, this is 0.0032% and below.”

Working with loudspeakers, I would ask what can you listen to, that has it’s own coloration well below this level?

Where can you listen to music that would allow a 90 dB difference between the noise floor masking and peak level?

What musical recordings would allow this level of acuity and what level of performance can one expect from a perfect CD at –90dB from 0dB ?

At least with distortion, ones ears are most sensitive to distortion (able to hear a difference between with and without) when one has a pure tone against a silent background.
When one has music, the self-masking typically hides harmonic distortion to a much higher level and as the masking / hearing sensitivity curves suggest, one is even less sensitive to distortion components which fall above 4-5KHz.

Best,
Tom Danley



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