I would appreciate some feedback on this...I could be wrong.
At one time, I was associated with a manufacturer of high end subwoofers.
Oftentimes I would accompany their tech people when they were calling on dealers.
Bottom line, I was able to listen to a myriad of equipment that I could only dream of ever owning. More importantly however, I had the opportunity to listen to different high and low level connections and observe the audio differences in each product.
The first observation that I made was that line level cables do appear to alter
"end product". However, it semed that this difference was usually subtle and evident only in very very expensive products that were extremely discreet.
I cannot say that the differences were good or bad. Simply that there were differences. Depending upon each indivijuals ability to actually hear various frequencies,the end result was very subjective. IE, I hate eggplant....does that make eggplant bad?? Yes it does. But thats because nobody should like eggplant. Bad example. But lets say "sushi"...some like it ..some don't.
The old addage "if you like it, it's art. If you don't, it's not", seems appropriate.
As far as speaker cables go, unless the gauge of the cable being used was
far too small, I found the differences even harder to detect. I was able to observe a "double blind test" using some very expensive cables...no names.
and comparing the end sound with that of 12 gauge "romex" (house wiring)
I think we were all a little shocked. I believe that unless the path the audio signal takes is very "pristine" or discrete if you will, that the distortion induced by a myriad of capacitors, resistors, diodes etc. are sufficient to mask any differences one might percieve in all but the most expensive products. Certainly if you take this to extremes and attempt to wire your home theatre with #4 welding cable or some other equally inappproprate
product I believe you might hear a small diference.....just before you toast your equipment with something that has enough inherent resistance to cook
a few small,albeit necessary parts that reside in your home theater receiver.
That is not to say that one shouldn't use high quality interconnects in any system. But at some dollar figure you end up paying a whole bunch of money for a whole lot of "snake oil". This is often reffered to as the point of "diminishing returns". I often hear people ask if using RG6 for audio is OK.
Or if all speaker cables should be twisted. Well heck, have you ever thought of taking aluminum foil and shielding your entire sound room?
In closing please let me say that regardless of what type of interconnect
you use.....don't fall into the trap of listening to your equipment instead of listening to the music...if you do, you will never truly enjoy the wonderful
sounds and sights that you experience when you use your home theatre!!
