Hi everyone,
I recently came across a video making several bold claims about how cables and timing affect audio perception, and I couldn’t help but approach these assertions with a critical eye. While the video was full of fascinating details about the complexity of the human auditory system, I believe some of the arguments presented stretched beyond what science or logic supports. If you watch the comments there is a lot of people that believe that they finally can dismiss the "measurement-only" crowd because of his claims. I’d like to dissect a few points and hear your thoughts:
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I’m not here to dismiss subjective enjoyment—if someone believes their $1,000 cable improves their experience, more power to them. However, presenting these ideas as rooted in science without robust evidence feels misleading at best. I’d love to hear your take on these claims, particularly if you’ve encountered any rigorous testing or data that contradicts the overwhelming body of evidence against them.
Looking forward to the discussion!
I recently came across a video making several bold claims about how cables and timing affect audio perception, and I couldn’t help but approach these assertions with a critical eye. While the video was full of fascinating details about the complexity of the human auditory system, I believe some of the arguments presented stretched beyond what science or logic supports. If you watch the comments there is a lot of people that believe that they finally can dismiss the "measurement-only" crowd because of his claims. I’d like to dissect a few points and hear your thoughts:
- Cables Causing "Timing Smearing":
The video suggested that cables, due to their capacitance, resistance, and inductance, could "hold onto" signals and release them slower, causing timing smearing that would degrade sound quality. This claim seems highly questionable. The electrical signal in a cable moves orders of magnitude faster than anything we could perceive, so how would such minuscule timing differences have any meaningful impact? - Masking Due to Prolonged Signals:
Another claim was that timing errors from components or cables could lead to quieter details being masked by prolonged louder signals. While masking is a real psychoacoustic phenomenon, attributing it to components like cables seems dubious. Wouldn’t any such effects be far below the threshold of perception, especially with modern, well-designed systems? It feels like a leap to blame cables for this without concrete evidence. - Audible Differences Despite Identical Measurements:
The argument that two systems measuring identically in frequency response and distortion could sound drastically different because of timing accuracy also raises eyebrows. It’s difficult not to see this as a typical example of confirmation bias or expectation influencing subjective perception. - The Persistent Mythology Around Cables:
This brings me to the broader issue of why the audiophile world continues to cling to unsubstantiated claims about cables. Despite decades of evidence debunking the supposed "transformative" effects of exotic cables, why do such ideas persist? Is it simply a case of clever marketing, or does the subjective nature of audio make it easy to exploit confirmation bias?
Link removed by Moderation. We are not going to promote this type of content and provide a platform to drive more views to this source video.
I’m not here to dismiss subjective enjoyment—if someone believes their $1,000 cable improves their experience, more power to them. However, presenting these ideas as rooted in science without robust evidence feels misleading at best. I’d love to hear your take on these claims, particularly if you’ve encountered any rigorous testing or data that contradicts the overwhelming body of evidence against them.
Looking forward to the discussion!
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