I was going to deconstruct this
I'll take a stab at it while waiting for a backup to complete.
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Can EMI be measured in the signal path?
Why not? Put a meter on it.
But cable manufacturers can make specific measurements that allow them to offer incremental grading of their cable offering and every high end cable maker does it.
Is that what they do, or what they infer that they do?
So what are they measuring?
We don't know because they don't tell us, as you remind us in the last line of your post (see below).
Also grounding devices are now the new rage.
No raging here at Neverland East.
but they do not intersect the signal path directly.
Well, when ground intersects the signal - in my experience - it's goodbye signal.
But both cables and grounding devices have the same characteristics as far as burn in and affecting audio quality...what do they have in common?
They do?
In common? I give up. I'm ill-informed, sometimes, I admit it.
Ground is sometimes referred to as "common". Is that the answer?
Most modern equipment will produce a excellent square wave.
Depends on the gear and the load.
but why do they tend to sound different in both sound quality and imaging?
Because it depends on the gear and the load and, generally speaking, speakers don't do square waves worth worrying about. When you contemplate analyzing imaging, that adds a whole new barrel of monkeys to the equation.
But equipment can exhibit a quality called synergy.
Maybe seems that way, or, yes, in the general sense that the pieces are complementary in performing a task (making sound) that neither can accomplish alone.
so what does all this have in common....grounding.
You got me on that one!
Do you think cable manufacturers would broadcast what actually they measure that enables them to market the cables with gradient accuracy? Much less the whole high end industry?
It might be detrimental to their profit margins.
On the other hand, real Cable manufacturers do give some specs:
http://www.belden.com/techdatas/english/1192A.pdf
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