Audio & Speaker Cables
High-end audio cables are intended to improve the sound quality of high-fidelity audio systems. Since the audio signal passes through cables on its way from the source to the amplifier, or from the amplifier to the speakers, the cables will affect that signal. more...
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Because audio cables possess known and measurable electrical properties, they will always alter the audio signal some amount. The amount of change will depend upon the design and materials of the cables, the electrical properties of the components on either side of the cables, and the length of the cables.
Controversy
There is controversy surrounding the impact that cables have on audio systems. While it is a fact that cables change the audio signal, the audibility of the changes is questioned by many.
On one side of the controversy are some cable manufacturers who are willing to provide evidence of the impact that their cables make. The frequency response plot shown by this cable manufacturer is a direct measurement of the difference that cables can make in the playback of a system. The large high frequency roll-off of the audio signal can be explained by the reactance of the cables used in the system. Reactance is an electrical engineering phenomenon that is a product of energy absorption caused by capacitance and inductance. In short, the reactance of cables will cause them to absorb energy from the audio signal, causing attenuation.
On the other side of the controversy are claims that indicate that even among audiophiles, in a double blind test it is difficult or impossible to distinguish extremely expensive, exotic speaker cables from ordinary lamp cords or budget 12awg copper speaker wire.
It should be noted as potential anecdotal evidence that the audio cable industry has grown substantially over the last 20 years as customers purchase more and more high-end audio cables with the goal of improving their audio systems. In addition, virtually all major high-fidelity audio publications regularly review audio cables for their sonic attributes.
Digital Cables
One of the more contentious areas is in digital cable design, with high end cables being sold with claims of "distortion-free signal transfer" . Some have argued that since digital data transfers incoperate error correction then any cable that is capable of transferring bits should provide distortion free signals. The bit rates (approximately 1MBit/s) and distance travelled are considerably lower than for other data transfer technologies such as gigabit ethernet.
It has been suggested that because the timing signal is sent as an analogue signal that if the wave is distorted by an incorrectly specified cable the incoming bits may be assigned to the wrong time bin, thereby distorting the sound. However, provided it is industry standard 75 Ohm cable then there remains considerable controversy over whether a high end cable provides any improvement over an entry-level $3 cable.
Read more at Wikipedia.org
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