Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat The Old Snake Oil topic

Yes, but as I pointed out, I am now spending more money than originally intended. At the same time I've said the free cords sounded better than the ones I bought. So which is it? You can't have it both ways unless I'm a subconsciously highly confused individual. That may be the case, but again you're only making blind assumptions, now in two ways, as you've neither carried out the same listening tests, nor subjected me to any kind of psychological evaluation. You might find out I'm a very rational individual with good, trained, ears (I was an opera singer in my youth, in fact), or a complete fruit loop. Right now though, the point is you have literally no idea, so you're relying on blind belief that all difference in cables 'must' be expectation bias, whereas I'm the one sitting here with cables I'm actually evaluating.

FWIW, I wish they didn't make any difference, and if they did I wish the Belden ones were great as they're much cheaper than the RA ones (I've also tried other, more expensive) ones in the past which we're not as good, by the way). I have no desire to spend money any more than I have to, and the more expensive RA ones are also a pain because they use Teflon and are rather inflexible. Unfortunately, I've found they do sound better, and this has only served to reinforce that finding.

Why not actually try some (I'll send you the Belden ones, if you wish)? It'll be an interesting experiment in expectation bias, if you are tied to believing this must apply here, since I'm assuming you don't believe there can be a difference, and also to whether you'd admit, even to yourself, if you did. Personally, I would guess expectation bias applies more to those who are totally convinced, and blindly believe (sometimes almost religiously), there can be no possible difference between two things than someone with an open mind, but then I'm not a psychologist and have never carried out research in the field, and certainly not within how auditory perception might be shaped by complex economic vs desire vs belief factors, etc. Without actual controlled experiments, it would all be just hot air.