Transparency in sound explanation?

[Killingbeans]

4 different situations: 1Without ricable cable ; 2 Only with power cable ; Power cable and signal ; Power cable, signal and power supply.

Did he find that the power cable made a difference? If so it would defy all logic and common sense. It can only happen if the error of margin is large enough to completely drown the actual data, and it should be enough to disregard the test altogether.

And as Blumlein 88 says, using an SPL meter on a speaker for testing interconnects is not very reliable to begin with.

 

[JohnBooty]

Anyway i don't get the point of you 3-5 guys who tell me that a 200€ cable is like a 20-40€ ones, and what are your bases..

Speaker cables can change the sound very slightly. After all, you could vary impedance/inductance/capacitance anywhere in the analog signal chain and get a little variance in phase and frequency response... that's what passive crossovers do... they're just a bunch of resistors, inductors, and capacitors after all. =)

“Turns out Devantier was right — I could measure this. As you can see in the chart, the results with the two 12-ga cables were only subtly different. The biggest change was a boost of maximum +0.4 dB between 4.3 and 6.8 kHz. Is this audible? Maybe. Would you care? Probably not. To put it in perspective, that’s about 20 to 30 percent of the change I typically measure when I test a speaker with and without its grille.”​

(I suspect some overpriced cable manufacturers actually take it farther than +/- 0.4dB, but that's only a suspicion)

https://thewirecutter.com/reviews/the-best-speaker-cable/

As the article says, that doesn't mean expensive cable is better. Buying expensive speaker cable to tweak your sound by half a dB here or there is insane. There are better ways to do that. Stick to pure copper and as long as you're not doing overly long runs with puny gauge wire you're fine with affordable cable from Amazon, Monoprice, or even a hacked up extension cord from Home Depot.

 

[Blumlein 88]

As the article says, that doesn't mean expensive cable is better. Buying expensive speaker cable to tweak your sound by half a dB here or there is insane. There are better ways to do that. Stick to pure copper and as long as you're not doing overly long runs with puny gauge wire you're fine with affordable cable from Amazon, Monoprice, or even a hacked up extension cord from Home Depot.

Do you prefer the basic orange extension cord or maybe the yellow or yellow/black combo? Have you tried the beautiful pink they have? Think it would have a higher WAF?

 

[RayDunzl]

Just get some 2AWG THHN at the store and be done. I got mine from the scrap pile.

Those are 1/2"/13mm nuts for scale.

 

[mitchco]

Ray "Busbar" Dunzl

 

[JohnBooty]

Do you prefer the basic orange extension cord or maybe the yellow or yellow/black combo? Have you tried the beautiful pink they have? Think it would have a higher WAF?

WAF is important but mostly, I want stronger bass so I buy my cable from the hardware store because it has better Lowes

 

[bravomail]

transparent in vision/optics - the one thru which you can see other, non transparent objects.
so, for sound - it is the sound thru which you can hear some other sound.
based on this definition all audio equipment produces transparent sound.
Except for closed back noise cancelling headphones - those are the worst, non-transparent, ugly devices.

 

[NightFlight]

I always thought that when the term transparency is applied to speakers, it means the equipment chain and speakers become transparent - in the sense the soundstage not hanging around the speakers. Alternately, perfectly transparent speakers would not impart any sound or constraint of their own. A way to describe speakers when they pull off their disappearing trick. If you close your eyes/listen in a dark room you should not get spatial cues as to where the speakers are.

 

[Katji]

"Transparent" means high fidelity [faithfulness] to the source/program material. As in, the devices in the path/process do not add distortion/noise. iow, audio interface device/s, DAC, amplifier/s. ...Speakers...well...