Anyone who suggests cable parameters are "unmeasurable" has not measured any, nor availed themselves of the current literature where many examples have been measured in comparative tests. The question is what, if any, of those parameters are important, and whether those are audible, and under what conditions.
I have a distortion analyzer ... you can buy the same one if you want to throw $6000 at your favourite Measurement Equipment reseller. It's not an Audio Precision ... they start at twice that ... but it measures down the the H5 at very low levels. A good LCR meter that is capable of low value resolution (most aren't). A Tek 'Scope. And a bunch of other stuff.
My first paid job in Audio, at age 19, was building cable. That was 40 years ago.
When someone is sick or simply missing, at the premium acts that visit my city at the largest venue, they call me. Not second, not third. First. I get "comp" tickets to any act I want to see, provided I'm not too greedy. There are no buzzes, feedback, or dead connections when I do a show, at least on the stuff I work on.
I have multiple Rubbermaid tubs filled with various cables. I have never paid more than $100 for any cable, many in that tub I was given at no cost to me, and the ones where it does come near that figure you can count on one hand with some fingers left over. To say I am a proponent of "exotic" cables is to make up the accusation out of whole cloth.
To me, no piece of Audio gear ... component, interconnect, antenna, loudspeaker, interface, digital processor ... is of any use unless it offers unusual value. Anyone can throw together most of the audio equipment on the market, but there are examples that rise above the noise. I want to find them.
Cost does not equal Value, and it never has. I am interested in "cost no object" audio but only in the sense that I wonder if I can incorporate the same construction, parts quality, and design into lower cost examples, and which, exactly, of the features employed actually have value.
There are a lot of ways to stretch a dollar to achieve great things with a modest budget in this hobby. To do that means extracting every ounce of performance out of what you have and what you can afford. And those ounces might involve cable, and in particular low cost cable. There is no value in expensive interconnects when they require a disproportionate outlay of cash versus the rest of the system.
So, do we need specific construction, materials and termination? Which ones? Can they be achieved at low cost? That's the kind of stuff I'm interested in.
I read AES papers from many people. So (in this thread) I mention Hawkesford and get attacked as if I wrote his paper myself. Hey, I'm just interested in what the man says. I'm not marrying him.
Once, at this site, I opened a thread where i was going to compare three loudspeaker cables. I started with the L, C and R measurements of three 5 foot long examples ... none measured identical ly ... in my first post.
But before I could go further ... my plan was to do more comprehensive tests, publish the results here, and explore whether there were any audible differences by both ear *and* measurement ... I was bombarded with three pages of derisive posts. So I abandoned the project, and if I didn't "get it" before, I was made well aware of the position held by the active posters here. So every time I respond to whether this or that is "audible" I know to expect some pushback. Okay, a lot of pushback.
But I have thick skin, I don't take it personally, and I try to find members who at least are open minded.
There are people who want to learn, and there are people who are not just comfortable in their pre-determined positions, but adamant that there is no merit to further discussion or measurement. Good on you ... I wish I could live such a simple, uncomplicated life. I am cursed with curiosity.
