Well, hold on there before you blow a gasket... I will show you why they matter.
I was comparing a couple of high end DACs and I could hear a distinct difference between them. Well, that's not supposed to happen. A subtle difference in their filters maybe, but this wasn't subtle. I set up a very carefully controlled ABX test and compared the two DACs. We were able to be differentiate between the two DACs 16 out of 20 times. Hmm...
I shipped the DAC that sounded "less good" back to the factory for QC evaluation and it was deemed to be in spec. Then I had it tested by someone else and it came back with an excellent bill of health. After these objective evaluations the DAC was returned to me and I compared it again with the other DAC and it still sounded sub-par.
I played several test tracks including one that had several examples of the channels being in and out of phase. Bingo, the "lesser" DAC was out of phase. Since it had been tested by two different individuals I thought it must be in my playback chain. I tested my factory terminated XLR cables and sure enough one of the channels had pins 2 and 3 reversed.
So, don't ever say that cables don't matter... they do!
I was comparing a couple of high end DACs and I could hear a distinct difference between them. Well, that's not supposed to happen. A subtle difference in their filters maybe, but this wasn't subtle. I set up a very carefully controlled ABX test and compared the two DACs. We were able to be differentiate between the two DACs 16 out of 20 times. Hmm...
I shipped the DAC that sounded "less good" back to the factory for QC evaluation and it was deemed to be in spec. Then I had it tested by someone else and it came back with an excellent bill of health. After these objective evaluations the DAC was returned to me and I compared it again with the other DAC and it still sounded sub-par.
I played several test tracks including one that had several examples of the channels being in and out of phase. Bingo, the "lesser" DAC was out of phase. Since it had been tested by two different individuals I thought it must be in my playback chain. I tested my factory terminated XLR cables and sure enough one of the channels had pins 2 and 3 reversed.
So, don't ever say that cables don't matter... they do!
