OK...guys.....I was hoping that we don't go down the path of a thousand other threads. We know that 50% of Hikers will swear by them and 50% will think they're a waste of money

Quote
The only thing left for that last few feet is shielding
. Is that totally true ?

Assuming that the 3 cables I am testing all have some degree of shielding, some type of soldering or connection, varying thicknesses of core, purities of copper, varying levels of resistance etc etc....what is it that causes a difference in sound reproduction.

One cable has a softer bass, another has a harder voices set further back, another has more background detail.

As I mentioned before, this is repeatable and not due to buyer's expectations (my wife has no idea what I am changing from and to)

Quote
Don't under estimate the power of suggestion that something is better.
Again (and sorry to pick on your comments, George) I'm not sure which of the cables is actually better and the perceptions are not correlating to price which is what you'd also expect. That isn't the point of my question. I want to try and understand what causes them to behave differently.

The extended question I hesitate to raise is why should the PSU in an 8k be affected at all by cables?...hence why I want understand what is going on......

Rgds,
Nick