Do Audiophile Cables Matter? Here's PROOF!

Then shouldn't a high end dap using high end have better sound quality then a full hifi system because it eliminates all those connections

Measure a wire and its properties. More wire is not more, it is the same measurement.
These 'folks' can hear electricity traveling at different frequencies and so can people living
in mental institutions.
I'll continue to use the same wire I always have.

All i can say is i can attest on what Danny is explaining. I used to get radio signal from my neighbors CB transmissions while playing my music. I learned later is to move the speaker wires around until i couldn't hear these CB transmissions. The same thing happened in the 70s with our TV set with a antenna on the roof.

You just saved me $600.

Come on people… when you disconnect your cable, the music stops. If you use a cable as thin as a spider web you may start getting some sound through but im sure it would suck. If you use a well designed filtered cable you will get pure sound through. - No sound. - Some sound. - Pure sound.
Cables are critical in creating a decent signal. The ‘Snake oil’ conspiracy cracks me up!

THE SOUL IS A ANTENNA

Well done!

Interesting method 👍🏻

Here's my experience:
I participated in a cable test in a shop a couple of years ago that included the administrator actually announcing which interconnect cable was used as they changed... a totally UN-blind test! The cables being used varied in price from around 30 bucks to 2000 bucks for a one meter pair. Literally everyone could hear that the $2000 cable was dramatically superior!! BUT, at the end it was revealed that the cables were never actually changed. The $30 cable was in place for the entire test. ;)

In addition to the above, I have participated in and administered blind testing of RCA interconnects on several occasions. In these tests no one ever consistently correlated/identified RCA interconnect cable changes/sound quality regardless of the type of music/equipment used.  

So, I have to admit that re exotic cables I'm pretty much in the "it's snake oil" camp! ;)

Well a test to determine a better antenna is vastly different to how a speaker will sound with a particular cable.

The thing is - it's a nice illustration, but it proves nothing. First - I doubt you could pick up anything with these "antennae" that was below 20kHz. Unless you broadcasted it yourself in that same room. Second - antenna requires very low signal that is then being amplified by the receiver circuitry. For example, cell phones receive a decent signal when antenna picks up more than 0.000005 V , or if it's easier 5uV differential between two poles. I have no doubt that lower frequencies require a bit more voltage, but none of these frequencies really matter, because we can't hear them. We can hear transformers humming, or PWM switches in our SMPSUs, in our PCs for example, that's noisy equipment around us that we need to think about.
I understand that the intent was to demonstrate, I know you're not suggesting that we're gonna "hear" radio signals coming into our speaker wires (it IS possible to pick up nearby radio stations through signal interconnects, but not through speaker power cords), but the thing is - it really is just a curiosity when you see it first time and know nothing about it. Dealing with actual noise that you could actually pick up and hear is another thing altogether. In fact, I'd wager that this huge cable is the best antenna for low frequency electric noise out of these 4, so the best thing to deal with it is to use good equipment, not just cables. And ofc, it is the best cable, 95% because of the copper quality and mass and 5% because of the design. Bad design can ruin every copper quantity, don't get me wrong, it's just that everything about cables is so well understood that only an idiot would get it wrong.

What about adding ferrite cores o to cables, whether it is interconnects, speaker, or power cables? I have added them to all of my cables, especially on my phono cables into my phono ( pit? To me, adding chokes for milk volt signals would be super duper helpful. Can you do a video on adding chokes to all sorts of cables?

How far away should I stand from audio gear if I am an antennae too? We live in the sticks so I can go a few miles if necessary... 👌 ( I bet you'd like me to just keep on walking .. 🤪)

That's why they don't read the Bible
ACTS 5:28 who created ears to listen to a 100% truth

Hi great informative video, I have an issue with dab and vhf fm, all new tuners have 1 aerial socket, my fm signals is really good but dab not so good, to get good dab I have external antenna in the attic , so I have great dab signals but fm is poor and the tuner is overloaded, the only way I can resolve this to have back to back duplexor and put attenuation in the fm path am hoping that we solve the issue, yiu are dead right about rfi and emp noise everywhere. Regards mark

You can use cheap cables with ferrite rings to achieve what most of these high end cables claim to do in the RF region.

The best way is get rid of the cable and put mono amplifier's at the speakers.
Litz wire is a good option.

I’ll grant there might be a difference between different constructions of cable. Simple physics can show that a single unbraided cable is more likely to pick up noise than braided cables. But beyond that, what would be picked up is not audible.

Great illustration 🎉🎉🎉tv picture gets blur 😂😂😂 fully understanding

Yes in my case when I upgraded my speakers to the GoldenEars BRX that has an AMT ribbon tweeter.

I liked my new pair of GoldenEar BRX speakers for music so I was curious if it would improve my old center channel speaker (like how the new BRX improved the L/R speakers for movies).

Today I hooked up the BRX to the center channel...and wow. There were high notes missing with my old speaker!
So I bought a 3rd GoldenEar BRX to replace my center channel speaker.

GoldenEar has 3 center channel speakers. The lowest model is 20in wide which is about the same as my old one but this lowest model doesn't have the best AMT ribbon tweeter which only comes in the highest GoldenEar center channel.
Therefore I bought a 3rd GoldenEar BRX because I love that reference level AMT tweeter.

What's amazing is that previously I bought better RCA cables named Worlds Best Cables (mogami wire and Neutrik plugs) from Amazon but I did not hear an improvement with my old speakers.

But now I do hear an improvement with the GoldenEars BRX in the high notes, female vocalists, cymbals, and more airy.

source=Apple Music (hires lossless, and spatial audio surround music) and Denafrips Ares II 12th dac (R2R technology for 3D live/realistic sound).

Could you please do a video on grounding. I find it intimidating because I think if I do it wrongly I can do more harm.

It is not a belief it is physics, and audio-perception: it is physically impossible to tell the difference

I have no stand on this issue and I trust everything you say, but as you say" the longer wave lengths are going to pass right through it".
In my system the back ground tends to be in thoughts longer wave lengths as indicated by the fact that I hear it as low frequency hum.
I suspect that the cause of these low frequency sounds are harmonics from countless sorces. I think therefore that your no doubt lovely clean sound has more to do with the isolated nature of your electricity supply than braided cable especially as you mentioned batteries.
Like you I am only interested in the truth ,I have had to move all my power to a different circuit because my preferred one is so contaminated . Do you really believe braided cable will help?

EVERY single part affects sound of the system.
You can hear differences even if you lift off cables of the ground.
etc

if you can not hear these changes, even small ones, then you should visit doctor…

Bogus test. I have never used speaker cable as an antenna. No one is questioning how different cables act as antenna. The question on debate is - do speaker cables make a difference to the sound or speaker output - this is not tested. Once you have a reasonably thick enough gauge copper cable to carry high current with negligible resistance, cables don’t matter.

Can you explain better what kind of copper you use for the 24-braid cable, where do you get the base material and how you braid it?
I won't get into the debate on whether cables make a difference or not. I think they do, even if no final explanation has been submitted until now that I know of. GR's is reasonable, because RFI is real and nulling it, in this case with a cable, might improve noise a lot.
The thing you must check is the cable you use is not capacitive, or that your amplifier can drive capacitive loads. Unfortunately I do not have a tuner anymore to test different cables.

The radio antennae idea is just focused on induction which is probably not what you were aiming for. And yes different wires are going to pick up a signal differently if made of different materials and different mechanical features. But what you were probably trying to prove is that a signal degrades more if it is conducted down a "cheaper' cable. Maybe another way to "show" a difference would be to send a signal from a record player to a digital audio card and use software to display what was received by the card. Maybe there would be a different wave pattern for the cheaper cable - maybe not. People might see the difference.

Soooo... the take-away from this is that speaker cables don't handle RF frequencies very well.

I dare say the tiny thin cables I use for 5Ghz RF gear might not be too good at powering a 2000w Sub, either...

Measuring microvolts at 100MHz is no indication of what is going on with your audio speakers.

Ahahahah how are you going to reconcile the fact that these cables arent inside the amp, assuming for example a wired tube amp / or God forbid PCB traces, so they loose the signal AND THEN the last wire from amp to speaker make up? It's like down sampling and then upsampling.

Good video, but you are missing something Very Important! Mr. Bean unpacking his new television! :-) Great example and great laugh gauranteed! And yes also short but good intro into cables what I did ask you before: where is it? I also can imagine it's not so much your field? Why don't I see su much dedication to it if I may ask? Greetings again, Onno Nugteren the Netherlands.

Any journeyman line tech or any Communications Engineer would use twisted or shielded cable

What I don't get is why all the naysayers think they have to "save" everyone from themselves. C'mon we're all adults, most of us. It's really quite simple. If you can't hear a difference don't buy them. I can hear a CLEAR difference, I am not an idiot I just have better hearing than you. So mind your own business and give us a rest.

Hmmmmm....interesting.

OK. I just found this video and had a good chuckle. The question of whether or not cables matter isn't even a question, really. Of course cables matter. And even then, most of these cable "gurus" will fail a blind AB test. So, for arguments sake we will just say that cables do matter. The real question/issue here is one of ECONOMICS. What these thieves are charging for this "magical" cable is nothing short of criminal activity. There is no possible way these cables should cost what they do. "Oh, but this cable is made from triple quadruple super-duper pure copper, woven by Narnian Nymphs along the banks of the river Alph". Yeah and... LOL! Like somehow that will justify the thousands of dollars they are trying to bilk us out of. So, I am going to submit that cables do matter - to a point. But don't be fooled by these high-end cable thieves. Apply the rule of common sense and pick the cable that is appropriate for your application. If your cable run is only a few feet, the Narnian rip-off cable isn't going to make a difference! At least not enough to justify the cash outlay. This is my honest opinion - feel free to do whatever you feel is best for your system.

Believe it or not
I was using 14 g lamp wire for speaker wire.
Then I got some 12 g ox free wire. Yup. There was a difference.
So...unless you've got pure silver wire .
Try and find 12g wire that's NOT solid home wire, good luck.
Radio antenna !

The question is "Do cables matter?" I guarantee you that I have the answer. It is YES. It matters. How can I be so certain? Easy. Because I know EVERYONE commenting on this is NOT using "zip cord" for speaker wire or RCA cables from the dollar store. The difference between those $40k cables vs Amazon Basic cables is the performance of your audio rig. Just like a Toyota Corolla will not benefit much from premium race fuel and high performance tires, a McLaren will not perform at it's best with regular fuel and retreads.

you lost me on ``how a cable sound``

I was astonished that cable impact was such a polarizing topic. As an engineer I know that cable construction absolutely impacts signal transmission. There is plenty of proof to this end but some folks are committed to being right over any kind of logic
This is a good presentation and parallel’s development of data cables as data rates have increased. For all of the naysayers how do you ignore the increasing speed of transmission just based on cable construction?
There is no question cable construction impacts sound

Am not an engineer, but one thing I know for sure that antenna connections for radio don’t have a choke to filter noise because signal in the air is already thin, whereas all modern AV equipments have a choke to cancel out the noise through AC power. The cross cross cancel effect you are referring to is done by choke for AC connections. If you analyse noise output difference via RCA using frequency analyser, you would end in a completely different result

🎸🎸🎸🎸🎸

My system is so good, I can hear the aging of the wood of the cello with every note it produces, all through my cables.

For my next experiment I will be showing differences in cheese cake...

I have never had a noise problem in any of my HiFi systems in over 40 years, so I don't know what anybody is talking about when it comes to RF interference because it's a problem I have never had.

Hello Danny

I have a Shunyata Venom power distributor which I run and power all my components through. Do you think that these devices help reduce possible noise coming down the lines from outside sources as you indicated which can possibly introduce noise in your audio system. Have you tested any of these Shunyata power distribution components?

When you are talking about the shielded cables, your explanation doesn't make a lot of sense to me: 
you say that shielded cables do not help because the noise already in the system. Fine, I understand that. But then how do the braided cables eliminate the noise that is already there? They can only cancel out noise that is picked up by the cable just like the shielded cables block it, any noise that is already in the signal is not distinguishable from the signal itself for the cables to remove it.
Also don't balanced cables do the same thing, it is exactly what they are designed for.