Cables - Is There A True Difference?

Can you tell the difference between music that passed through a pricey Monster stereo Cable, and a coat hanger? The answer is..."no". A friend of mine says his brother ran an experiment on him and four other audio buffs listening to a new CD from a new group blindfolded. Seven different songs were played, each time heard with the speaker hooked up to Monster Cables, and the other time, hooked up to coat hanger wire. Nobody could determine which was the Monster Cable and which was the coat hanger. The kicker? None of the subjects even knew that coat hangers were going to be used.

A speaker is only good enough when it can duplicate the original sound it is duplicating with such a high level of accuracy that no measurement device, including the human ear/brain, can detect any difference between the original sound and the speaker's duplication of the same sound. Of course this is impossible with todays technology. Because of the fact the original sound must, in some manner, be converted to electrons which race down wires at the speed of light, which are resisted and capacitated which will always cause a difference between the original and replicated sound. Therefore, I ask the question, why strive for perfect replication if it is not doable? Further, since it is not currently doable, why should anyone labor over the concern of how accurate or "good" their speakers are, or in this case, when is good, good enough? What matters is if the speaker SATISFIES its owner with the clear understanding that the owner is not hearing anything remotely true to the original sound recorded on the replicating media.

A speaker is not a music reproducer because it cannot accurately reproduce the original sound of the music it is attempting to replicate. All a speaker can do is take what is fed into it electronically and produce a "resemblance" of the original sound.

If you're going over 50 ft, then you may benefit from better shielding, but for most home people's home theaters, this is not the case. Remember folks, just because something performs better spec-wise doesn't mean it actually sounds better. Specs are one thing, psycho acoustics are another. Of course, a coat hanger doesn't have a Monster Cable lifetime warranty, so if your coat hanger breaks, you'll have to go out and buy another coat hanger.

Roger F.