I have been using Kimber Kable products for years in my system. Yes, there is a difference, even if not all people can perceive it. I only wish I could afford the 8TC wire to bi-wire my speakers.
Heresy? Placebo effect? No, I am one of many who readily notice a real world difference in all components, and frankly I grow tired of the bashing to be endured by saying so. Several members have extolled the virtues of buying high-end gear in posts without reprisal, which in all fairness is how it should be for everyone.
If you believe there is no difference, that is accepted. Why should believing the opposite be maligned?
Disagree & debate, yes. Telling people they’re wrong, crazy or buying into hype, no.
If you welcome debate, CraigV, I hope you will interpret my comments as they are meant: with respect and a genuine interest in discussion.
The largest problem for me is that human perception is incredibly inaccurate. We can literally hear an identical sound 5 times in a row and yet swear up and down that the sound changed each time. Every scientific measurement can confirm that the sound was identical every time, and yet, there is no lie being told when we swear that we thought the sound was different each time.
The disconnect and the misinformation (IMO) is when people attribute a perceived difference to a new piece of gear. Did the new piece of gear really make a change? Or did we just perceive a change when really there was none? Or did our knowledge that there was a change of gear convince us that there was a change in performance?
I've conducted my own extensive listening tests - purely for my own curiosity. I've always kept myself sightless - relying on a partner to make any changes - and always included samples where no change was actually made - just to see if I would give a "false positive" and identify a change when, in fact, there was none.
My most accomplished test was that I correctly put in order, with 100% accuracy, a single song at various mp3 bitrates ranging from 96 kbps to 320 kbps as well as the PCM uncompressed original. None of the gear was changed, only the bitrate and I was very surprised that I was able to correctly put them in perfect order from the lowest bitrate to the highest. I wasn't expecting to be able to identify them and perhaps it was pure luck. But I simply went along and said to myself, "this one is better than the last one, not as good as the one before it..." etc. and so on and wound up with the correct order!
When I tried a test with various amplifiers, my perception led to nothing of value. I had several "false positives" - where I perceived a change when, in fact, the same amplifier was playing both times! I did correctly identify a cheap Kenwood receiver every time that it was used. But other than that one unit, I could not reliably tell a difference from one receiver or amp to another.
With speaker cables, I could tell no difference at all. Did I perceive differences? Yes. But there was no correlation at all between when I perceived a difference and when any sort of change had been made. It was completely random.
Here's the thing - if you just sit down and listen to a single song over and over and over. Make no changes to any gear at all. Just listen repeatedly to one piece of music. You will hear differences each time! It has everything to do with focus. If I specifically concentrate on the high notes, then I'm going to pick out details that I did not notice when I was specifically listening for low notes.
Bottom line - human perception is more easily swayed and changed than the actual sound itself. If I tell you to listen for more clarity in the high notes, you're going to notice more clarity - even if there isn't any!
In other words, if you believe there is going to be a change, then you will perceive a change because you are specifically focusing and listening for a change. No change in the sound actually occurred, but your focus changed and that focus changed your perception.
To attribute the change in perception to the cables is a mistake. We all look for cause and effect. If you perceived a change and you are aware that the cables changed, then you automatically attribute the change in perception to the change in cables. It's intuitive. It's natural. But it isn't correct. Correlation does not equal causation.
For years and years, people have been attributing perceived differences to things that actually made no difference. If I placed an inert rock on top of your amplifier and then you could have sworn that you heard something different, your intuition may lead you to believe that the inert rock actually caused a difference!
But that is where science and measurement comes in. In a nut shell, our senses suck
They are amazing, but compared to modern test equipment, our senses may as well be giant, dull, blunt mallets.
You swear that you heard a difference. But the test equipment says otherwise. You weren't lying. But you were mistaken. The difference you heard was in your brain; not in the actual sound. Whether it was because you were expecting to hear a difference and therefore, convinced yourself that you did; or whether it's because of the simple fact that each time we listen, we hear something different because of the way in which we focus and mentally block out certain sounds so that we may notice others; or whether it's because human hearing simply isn't that accurate and can be very easily fooled with auditory illusion - the fact remains that if we want the TRUTH, we have to rely on something other than human perception.
