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Claims About Cables and Timing

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Dako

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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:
  1. 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?
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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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why do such ideas persist?

It can be profitable, via ClickBait or Sales, I suppose.

You looked at it, so he scored there.
 
I didn't watch the video so thanks for the summary.

100% NONSENSE!!!


This kind of thing is not unusual. Most of the "audiophile community" is nuts! This is one of the few rational-scientific sources of information.

Of course, there is the possibility of defective cables, or inappropriate or inadequate cables for the application.

James Randi (RIP) once made a $1 Million cable challenge. (It happened to be speaker cables.)

Audiophoolery.

What is a blind ABX test?.
 
I didn't watch the video so thanks for the summary.

100% NONSENSE!!!

This kind of thing is not unusual. Most of the "audiophile community" is nuts! This is one of the few rational-scientific sources of information.

Of course, there is the possibility of defective cables, or inappropriate or inadequate cables for the application.

James Randi (RIP) once made a $1 Million cable challenge. (It happened to be speaker cables.)

Audiophoolery.

What is a blind ABX test?.
It’s fascinating how subjectivists in the audiophile world often dismiss scientific reasoning—until it happens to confirm their beliefs. When an argument or study supports the idea that expensive cables or components improve sound, suddenly they’re eager to engage with "science." Yet, when decades of rigorous testing show these effects are inaudible, they seem immune to the very evidence they claim to respect.
 
That's a real thing at the one light year distance. If you want good time domain get fast high linear X max closed back speakers, stay at 10" diameter as max and work on the space a lot. And even if you don't you will get used to one even if it's bad that you're room produces.
 
Passion for Sound claims a lot of things.




Not sure if everybody who claims things should get this much attention here.
 
The best lies have a kernel of truth. Phase distortion ("smearing") due to the cable material or design is a thing. But AFAIK it's really only relevant at microwave (GHz) frequencies. The idea that cables could cause audible masking this way is absurd. We're talking about nanosecond scale delays, I think. Nobody can hear that.
 
Seattle has a great engineer and expert on hearing. You can look up his talks and papers. I'm not sure if it was the linked lecture below or another, but he has discussed the frequency and time capabilities of our hearing in relation to audio equipment science.

TL : DR the original video for this topic is is nonsense.

 
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This subject has been discussed and debunked many many times before. Without new Scientific data to prove otherwise we are not going to constantly rehash the same old false claims.

Removed the Video link as we are not here to provide a platform to drive views to videos like this.
 
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