Newsgroup: it.arti.musica.strumenti.tastiere
Titolo: I cavi fanno la differenza [LUNGO]?

Q: 
Can cables make an audible difference? 
A: 
Most definitely, but usually not for the reasons that many exotic
cable vendors would have you believe. And the “difference” may or may
not be a good thing. We refer to companies that produce high glossy
cables constructed of elaborate metals and/or wrappings supported by
fancy marketing to justify high prices as Exotic Cable vendors. We
have seen many exotic speaker cables that actually acted like a tone
control rolling off high frequency response due to excessive
resistance and inductance, while we have seen other cables make a
system sound bright because of their excessive capacitance causing the
amplifier to peak its high frequency response. Be cautious about
exotic cable vendors that do not specify cable metrics or downplay the
importance of measurements. 
Q: 
What is the purpose of an audio cable? 
A: 
That’s a good question and certainly often a misunderstood one due to
the bombardment of misinformation in the audio industry. The basic
purpose of a cable is to transfer the signal from point A to point B
unadulterated. At audio frequencies the goal is to minimize losses by
controlling the amount of Resistance, Inductance and Capacitance. For
speaker cables, we have found the primary concerns for optimal signal
transfer is to minimize resistance, followed by inductance, while also
keeping capacitance in check to eliminate the possibilities of
amplifier oscillation or frequency peaking. For line level analog
interconnects it’s a good idea to use cables that are low in
capacitance and are well shielded to eliminate interference and
external noise sources from mitigating into the signal. For video,
good shielding and maintaining the proper characteristic impedance is
vital. For more details on cable basics, I encourage your readership
to review our Cable Budget Guidelines article. 
Q: 
Should I buy expensive cables? 
A: 
Provided that the cables are properly designed and meet your specific
requirements I see no reason why you shouldn’t invest in quality, not
necessarily expensive cables. However, many of the lavishly priced
exotic cables are not designed well and more often the case than not,
cheaper cables, which are usually not covered in bogus marketing
literature, offer better performance and certainly better value. 
Q: 
How much should I invest in cables? 
A: 
We generally recommend about 5-7% of total system cost. Anything more
would be better spent on higher performance electronics, speakers,
room treatments or software. 
Q: 
Why do some cables cost so much? 
A: 
In my opinion, there are several reasons actually. 
1) In HiFi, if a product doesn’t carry a very high price, it won’t be
taken seriously by many audiophiles. 
2) Many of the exotics are niche products that sell in low quantities
to a limited market, thus in order to be profitable must carry a high
price tag to pay for company overhead and marketing expenses. 
3) Some of the exotic cables do involve higher material costs. While
this may not improve the electrical or audible characteristics of the
cables, it does usually improve their cosmetics and product appeal. 
Q: 
Who really makes cables, and who just puts their logo on them? 
A: 
Very few cable vendors, especially the exotic brands, manufacturer
their own cables. Most of them buy large reels of wire from China and
either repackage them locally or have them labeled with their Logo
overseas. In fact we usually receive 2-3 emails/week from overseas
vendors wanting to manufacturer and brand Audioholics.com cables for
us. What do you think, good idea  ? 
Q: 
Why is there so much confusion about cables? 
A: 
I suspect misinformation and low consumer awareness are the key
reasons. Of course glowing subjective reviews and endorsements in
audio publications don’t help this either. Many exotic cable vendors
know the average consumer/audiophile has little or no background in
electronics, yet they somehow have to justify why their products cost
so much and why the consumer/audiophile needs them. So with that, the
exotic cable vendor concocts marketing literature, usually in the form
of a story, based on half engineering truths or misapplied engineering
principles to lure you in. They often reject the proven fundamental
truths that govern these principles and claim established associated
theories cannot be verified through measurements or engineering
certainties, but instead only through hearing. What they fail to
provide however is repeatable statistical data and correlation that
their cables do sound “better” for the reasons they tout. They often
go one step further and claim it can take weeks for the consumer to
hear the benefits of their cables since they require a break in
period. In reality cable break in is another misnomer, which I suspect
is used to convince the customer to keep the cables beyond the
retailers return policy. In addition, statistically, the longer the
customer keeps a product the less likely they are to return it. 
Q: 
Are there any industry cable standards? 
A: 
Unfortunately no. Organizations such as the FTC do not regulate cable
vendor claims and most cable vendors are slick with their claims by
how they phrase them by using terms like (can, may, in our opinion,
etc). Their claim about solving a problem that really doesn’t exist is
mostly nebulous. For example, if the vendor claims their cables
resolve “Strand Jumping” ten times better than ordinary 12AWG Zip
Cord, then since this problem really doesn’t exist, ten times zero is
still zero. 
Rest assured that Audioholics.com will always serve the consumers as
the voice of reasons about cables and will question illegitimate
claims made by any cable vendor when they surface on our radar
screens. We are working to establish standards for the audio industry
on cables as you will soon see in up and coming articles. 
Q: 
Why aren’t hardware vendors who design the electronics more vocal
about cables? 
A: 
This is a rather complicated subject that I will try to answer as
eloquently as possible without offending anyone. Many of the reputable
hardware vendors I have spoken with feel exactly as I do about cables,
at least privately. I suspect they aren’t publicly vocal about it
because they don’t want to undercut their dealerships. Believe it or
not, most dealer’s bread and butter result from cable sales. Cables
offer some of the highest profit margins in the industry. It is not
uncommon for a dealer to do in excess of $100K/month in revenues for
cable sales where they would be lucky to do 1/4th of that in sales and
maybe 1/8th in profit margins of say loudspeakers. 
Q: 
What marketing jargon do I need to be aware of? 
A: 
Here is a list of the top ten marketing gimmicks that we noticed many
of the exotic cable vendors enjoy promoting: Top Ten Signs a Cable
Vendor is Selling You Snake Oil 
About Gene DellaSala (
g...@audioholics.com
) 
Gene DellaSala (GDS), founder of Audioholics.com, has been an audio
enthusiast since childhood. His passion for audio increased with age,
which lead him to study Electrical Engineering where he earned a
B.S.E.E. from the University of South Florida and pursued a career as
an Analog Engineer. Gene currently works in the telecommunications
industry designing audio communications equipment for a national
defense company. Gene pursued his audio career as a hobby, but has had
major impacts on the audio industry since Audioholics.com’s inception.
He and his staff have developed one of the top ranked audio
information websites on the internet which continues to expand on a
daily basis due to increased membership and direct interaction with
many of the leading audio manufacturers in the world

 [CUT]
Bellobellobello! Specialmente se poi uno si andava a vedere i '10
indizi che il commerciante sta vendendo cazzate invece di cavi seri'
:)))
Bello anche il sito!
-- 
'Tengo na minchia tanta' (cit.)