@keith_correa
Very well put sir.
My 2 cents. Sorry for the long post.
There are two statements that defies logic for me in audio:
1. Manufacturers stating our solid state amp is closest to tube like sound.
2. The advt. jargon or the hifi reviews which states this cable, amp, DAC etc reproduces the original music as created in the studio.
How does one know the original studio character of the music (I doubt even the music director can recall it to perfection). The only way to get an original mix is a studio release, but even that does not guarantee if that was how it sounded in the studio.
The only way to know if a system can reproduce perfect music is to hear with pink noise which has uniform SPL over the auditory band. I wonder how many can do that, so pink noise is more a measuring tool.
That is why I personally have a collection of tracks with a manual that gives the position of the instruments, the loudness ratio between instruments etc.
I stick to a select few songs that I am attuned to, to assess a system for staging, imaging and depth. Most decent systems can do the above physical characteristics reasonably well as that is how the mixing was done in those recordings.
The differences that one hears are mainly in presentation which is mostly the character of mainly the speaker, its positioning and to some extent DAC, pre and amp aswell, to accentuate certain frequencies.
I am not coming here to room response at all as that can be corrected, but not the character of the component. A bright speaker will present a bright presentation unless it is tweaked.
Like the popular American terms West Coast and East Coast Sounds....one attuned to smooth delivery and the other dynamic and in your face presentation.
With speakers, I can understand sound character being modified by design as that is what we ultimately listen to.
But with other components like DAC, pre and amp, it should ideally be neutral to reproduce the original character of the music.
That is why I wince when companies state their solid state amp is engineered to sound like a tube amp. I personally don't want my amp or any other component in the chain to add any character to music.
Yes, amplifiers have a presentation based on its Class....Class A, B, AB, T and now the latest in thing the Class D. Class A sounds the best but at a great loss of energy due to its gross inefficiency and size as power demand goes up. Class D has now come a long way due to its efficiency and compactness.
I have read many a times that in a properly configured system with proper room treatment, the change of cables should bring the most glaring changes.
I have to disagree. If the cables are of reasonably good quality, which means their audio affecting characters like capacitance, resistance etc. are well within the tolerance limit, the cable changes should have the least effect.
The duty of cables are to pass on information from one component to the other without loss in signal strength and not allowing extraneous signals like noise if any to pass thorough.
But in a properly configured system, the system noise is well taken care at the power input stage and the components would have in built circuitry to reduce it to inaudible levels.
That is the reason for my contention that a cable's main duty is to transport the signal with close to zero loss (a few milli volts will not make any difference though).
The reason silver cables are considered to give more of the high frequencies is primarily due to better conductivity, that does not mean copper does not output high frequencies, just that in silver it is a little louder probably dues to a little lesser resistance than copper.
I am though not averse at all to try suggestions if it is within my affordability limits and agnostic if not absolutely scientific.
I was not averse to doubling the interconnect, but I am already running a short 12awg speaker cable so doubling that defied logic, so left it.
These experiments do help to learn and unlearn, though it will vary from person to person.
Though many audiophiles and hifi magazines use flowery terms, there is absolutely no denying the fact that the music that is brought into our home is and will remain a scientific marvel and bound by scientific limitations.
Cheers and happy listening.
