The Cable Influences in a Nutshell

By Keijo Tanskanen

Still, there is a lot of arguing about influences of the cables in audio systems. I just don't understand that and believe that it is more about being right than about having an objective view of the issue. In general, there are two extremities of these discussions: "The cables never have listenable influences on audio if they are not broken" and "The cables always have a significant influence on audio". In my opinion, the both claims are wrong, and from this, I have both experimental and scientific proofs.

The scientific basis

Firstly, the cables do have measurable effects on the audio, but often they are so low in level that they are not recognizable by common human listeners. The measurable parameters are:

1. The amplitude differences between the dot frequencies (the amplitude differences of the frequency response).

2. The phase difference between the dot frequencies (the phase information of the frequency response).

3. Signal to noise ratio in the audio bandwidth, which is dependent on the filtration of the radio frequencies (RF). Typically, listening environment has significant RF noise spectrum, which, by the help of equipment, may cause modulated side bands into the audio range.

It is as simple as that. However, there are important requirements for the measuring protocol.

4. One must measure these parameters when the cables are connected to their associated impedances! Why? A cable impedance is a part of a total circuitry, which consists of an output impedance of the source, a cable impedance, and an input impedance of the destination. Measuring only a cable impedance gives insufficient results and does not reveal more complex changes in the bandwidth, which are not very high in level, but nevertheless meaningful. This in its turn leads to talks of a system dependency, which really seems to play an important role for the final cable influences.

5. The measurements must be done in extremely low signal levels and in extremely high signal levels, just because of possible dirt particles of contacts and joints, possible insufficient conductive area of wires and possible insufficient contact area of connectors. All of these may cause changes of impedance in certain circumstances!

Personal Experiences

My personal experiences confirm the previously mentioned theoretical basis. I have heard significant sonic differences between the interconnects and loudspeaker cables, but they have been quite strongly dependent on the surrounding equipment and also quality of it.

One of the first strong experiences of mine relate to balanced silver cables. I had high quality basic silver interconnects and Siltech Forbes Lake interconnects. The sonic difference between these cables was surprisingly big - the sound with Forbes Lake was much richer, more revealing and had more bass! If I remember correctly, the companion equipment was Audio Aero Capitole mkII CD player and Gamut D200 amplifier. These sonic differences were even so big that I had the courage to ask one of my more sceptic friend to listen to them. Well, he was totally surprised and was at least partially forced to change his attitudes towards the cable effects!

Another interesting experience concerned very expensive Transparent's Reference MM2 (one step lower than Opus) and more affordable Reference XL loudspeaker cables. Firstly, we (there were several experienced listeners) listened to sonic differences in my system, which consisted of Audionet Amp II Max amps and Wilson Watt Puppy 7 loudspeakers. We all agreed that the system with the Reference MM2 delivered slightly smoother and resolving sound. Then, we listened to the effects of the same loudspeaker cables in my friend's listening room, which was much bigger than mine and had Burmester B100 loudspeakers. However, the power amps were the same Audionet models. In this case, we had difficulties to notice differences! If there were differences, they were more or less outside our hearing abilities or were masked by the extra time which was needed for the cable change and placing the loudspeakers exactly into the same places as they were before the cable change (Burmester B100's cable terminals are awkwardly on the bottom of the loudspeaker).

Conclusion

If the cable influences -- which really can be measured -- are subtle enough, the quality of the used audio system and hearing of listener will play a crucial role as well. So, we are again against system dependency, but also against listener dependency. Therefore, the final results, listenable or not, or significant or not significant, are always case dependent!