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Then the only difference can be shielding
George, why do you stick to this ? I'm not fooling myself that anything sounds better or worse. Just different. The changes are not night and day I might add. More like the HS on/off magnitude.

As I said at the very top, if you accept that I (and Mrs L) are hearing a difference then I'd like to know why.

I'm not interested in you telling me that I didn't or couldn't possibly have heard or memorised anything. That's the bit that's been done to death in many other threads.

I am playing one track many times and focussing on particular aspects of that track (come on ...you've demo'd hifi and know what you are listening to when you judge changes)

I am changing cords as quickly as I can and setting the whole system back to where it was and repeating the listen.

Sure my neighbours maybe doing something different in their house but if I play 2 mins of the track, change cord, play again, change cord, play again, change cord........get the drift? Same temp, humidity, same food in my belly etc etc.

I don't need a machine to hear the difference. The hifi mags have struggled for years with trying to measure this. As you say, there is way too much going on and the brain is far better than any mic/MRC we have available to us.

Besides...what machine would you suggest for measuring the warmth of a voice, or the 3-D imaging, texture of a bass note ?? If you suggest these are not audible to the human ear then we should debate that seperately.

The kind of thing I am wanting to know is

...does a thicker purer cable allow current draw quicker....do capacitors recharge quicker.....do amps work better

The shielding debate would affect noise floor etc at most IMO. Why does a cable seem to reduce bass output. Please don't make me put the spl on this to prove the point. I'd like to think you could take my word for it.

I know it's subjective for all the reasons you mention, but, spending even an hour doing this test is enough to know something is changing. I agree that moving speakers etc change things very significantly etc. But I'm not doing anything beyond changing the cords.

Remember I mostly come from the snakeoil camp and don't particularly want to spend money on cables unless there is good reason.

If I accept (which I don't) that it's only the shielding of the cord...please explain how that will affect the sound at least.

Rgds,
Nick