Special cables don't improve audio... Or do they?

The only times cables have made any difference were when there was a short in one or a bad connection (broken wire, tarnished or loose connector), except when weak signals are involved, such as with phonograph needles, especially the moving-coil kind (80% less signal than moving magnet?), because of the high impedance (47,000 ohms is standard).

Almost all the analog problems of audio were solved in the 1970s, except for speakers, which are still not very good.

larrymoencurly said:

The only times cables have made any difference were when there was a short in one or a bad connection (broken wire, tarnished or loose connector), except when weak signals are involved, such as with phonograph needles, especially the moving-coil kind (80% less signal than moving magnet?), because of the high impedance (47,000 ohms is standard).

Almost all the analog problems of audio were solved in the 1970s, except for speakers, which are still not very good.

Click to expand...

Depends on the device and input signals...

Such a high impedance source really should have a buffer as close to the source as possible.

As for what my best friend and I are doing now, we graduated well past the point of making cables and are now making a DAC. The analog signal path is PCM1792A, OPA1612, and TPA6120A2, since it turns out the PCM1792A has a built in output gain control (at least as good as the external PGA I initially planned on) and actually does not require I2C commands to start working. (That was why I initially looked at the PCM1794A, thinking that it would make debugging easier.) At this point, the entire analog signal path is wired up (some soldered by her and some I soldered while she was within 5'), but the digital part needs to be assembled.

So, I am likely pretty late to the game here, but thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.

The Klipsch S3 are pretty decent speakers, but they are not the level that would truly benefit from high-end cables, power conditioning, etc. If you get into higher-end speaker like the Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Series, or the Klipsch Palladium, then they will actually benefit from solid-core silver wire, power conditioners, etc. This is not snobbery, because I have Bowers & Wilkins DM601s, and I use standard 12g copper wire from Monoprice. But I also have a friend with a ridiculous media room outfitted with solid-core silver cables, B&W Diamond series speakers, Velodyne subwoofers, etc. And the difference is noticeable.