Anyone who’s a true audiophile is not going to be able to hear the difference past the age of 25, anyway, assuming any of this stuff makes the slightest diff.
As a half-deaf over 40, I speak from personal experience.
So far, the discussion here has been mostly about the speaker cable. I’m interested in the story behind the expensive power cables. How do they justify that?
Have an audiophile nut for a roommate right now. Short list of things he admits to wasting money on (and swears they all work)
- Demagnetizer for CD’s
- Solid gold replacement wall outlet
- Inverted solid brass cones to reduce vibration
- $1000/ft Interconnects
- Very expensive 8 gauge (I think) power cable
- $100/ft solid core speaker cable that can’t be bigger than 18 gauge
- Component “Burn In” CDs
- Absurdly expensive rack with special isolation shelves
- Vortex intake airflow improver for his Hyundai (not audio, but come on….)
The cable wars are some of the longest running and most vehement in the hi-fi world. I have done extensive research looking for any scientific evidence whatsoever that ANYONE can reliably hear the difference (in ABX or similar testing) between grades or brands of cables. After a year on and off of looking, I found absolutely nothing. I did, however, find a great many tests that supported the opposite.
There are a few factors to be aware of. First, for interconnects (fancy name for RCA cables) you have to worry about corrosion. Luckily, Radio Shack gold cables are only like 6 bucks.
Second, with Speakers, you do have to consider gauge. I have high current speakers, so I go with 14 gauge home depot speaker cable. ($12 for 24 feet)
IMHO, the most important factors in home audio are (in order)
- Speaker Quality
- Speaker Placement
- Quality of Recording
- Room Design
- Listening Position
- Clean Ears
- Amp that wont clip at high volume
- Good CD Player (SACD does sound a bit better)
- Room Isolation
- Speaker wire gauge
- Phase of the moon
- State of the union
- Butterfly flapping in India
- Humidity
- Speaker Wire Brand
- Interconnect Brand
- Type of Power Cable
- Magnetization of CDs
Sorry, Q.E.D.. Should have been more explicit. I believe that all of these are complete BS, including the power cable.
Yes, I believe you understand this too. I was mostly pointing it out for the more credible folks out there.
Credible? Not Credulous?
Errr…yes, credulous. Shush.
A guitar cable may be directional, so that the outer-most conductor (the one that, I assume, picks up radio interference) is only grounded at one end.
I should be able to tell you why that reduces noise in the system, but I’m sure someone more clever than I would be able to.
Hmmm, never actually examined a guitar cable close up. Are the connectors themselves any different? Has anyone tried swapping ends (don’t get naughty) and tested the effect?
After reading this thread on a guitar message board, most of the posters (admittedly, they probably are not all members of IEEE ) seem to think they are used to manage RF interference.
Upon preview:
I think the only directional guitar cables are the more expensive ones. I can’t imagine a “normal” guitar cable would be any different from any other 1/4" mono audio cable, but I haven’t opened one up either.
Did some research on Guitar Cables. Appears as if the “Directional” claim is the exact same they use for normal RCA cables. Basically, the theory is that the copper molecules are aligned in such a way that electrons will flow more freely in one direction. Funny, they never mentioned this in my EE classes.
The only difference between guitar cables seems to be balanced and unbalanced. Balanced means you have two sends and a shield, unbalanced means you have one send and a shield. Either way, both ends are identical.
tastycorn, just to nitpick, in a balanced line, both of the sends are used for carying a singal mono signal. Not that I’m making any judgements about your knowledge, this is just for the beneift of our home viewers as you were a bit sparse in your post. Some people might assume from the “two sends” bit that you meant “two channels.”
“Boyo Jim” said:
“Speaker cables are not marked for direction. The OP’s assumption is wrong”
“Tamerlane’s” Audioquest Type 4 most certainly is, as is most cable aimed at audiophiles…
askol You are absolutely correct. Thank you for clarifying.
Stereo guitar cables would be awesome though. Just think of the imaging. 
I’m sorry, I should have included the following exception: some cable makers use bullshit pseudoscience to justify marking their speaker cables for direction. There is no basis in reality for doing so, however.
Yeah that’s what I mean, exactly. One end is marked “amp” and the other “guitar”. Plugs at each end are 1/4 inch jacks. Specific guitar cable I’m talking about is mid range Fender. It’s high quality directional flow of electrons 
does not seem to be used as a marketing push, so I figured it actually works better that way. If you plug them in the “wrong” way then everything works fine, but then guitarists can be incredibly anal about gear, some may “hear” a difference.
This might be the McIntosh engineer’s page to which something clever was referring.
I used to be an audiophile too until I wised up. There’s just too much BS in the high-end audio world.
Honestly, if you spend $300 on speaker cables, they have to sound good just to justify the money you spend.
Wonder if anybody knows if there are some double-blind tests conducted on expensive v. cheap cables. For sure, high-end audiophile mags would have done them, wouldn’t they ?
There was an article in Audiophile magazine (I think that was the actual name of the magazine) that asked their staff to describe a “cost is no object” rig. Someone went so far as to specify their own power generator, etc., etc.
It seems totally silly to try to spend money on a special power cord, if you understand what the wiring looks like from your wall socket back to the power grid. The path from the wall socket to your equipment is the least of the problems.