A few weeks ago, in the RJ45 cables thread, a couple of people (I do not want to personalise this) suggested that the output of exotic cables should be measured so as to determine if they brought any benefit. This is perfectly fair and reasonable and in the spirit of rational debate. But the question arises as to whether such measurements can actually be made.

Consider the case of CD. This promised perfect sound for ever and many postulated that all CD players must sound the same as they were merely reading digital information. Meridian soon and resoundingly proved this wrong with the first "audiophile" CD player. And each iteration of the 808 brought yet further and unanticipated improvements in sound quality. The defeat of the damaging effects of jitter was a key priority yet Meridian found that they had to design and build new equipment to even measure jitter before progress could be made. So, in this instance, the impediment to better sound had to be identified as a problem before it could be measured and then required new tools to measure it.

Coming back to my original question, I think that sound quality can be measured if we can identify the crucial elements that determine it and if we have the means to make measurement possible. As it happens, an independent research project has been established to tackle this very issue: Knowledge alliance briefing paper

Asa Post