George,

Thanks for the link. It's an interesting read.

You're correct my tests weren't ABX'd. I tried to approach the tests in a non-hyped up manner. I didn't erect any screens in my lounge or anything of the sort. The cables, however, are not visible from the central seats so I could say that Mrs L was listening blind, and, I reference her feedback as much as mine.

One comment in the ABX article resonates somewhat with me:-
Quote
...a bulletproof technical explanation was not absolutely necessary. The proof was in the hearing
I can't help feel that we are debating whether we can actually hear the changes still. That's a valid debate of course and the article goes on to note:-
Quote
Now there are perfectly good reasons to buy expensive power cords. For one they look cool. ‘The better it looks, the better it sounds.` (This has been shown to be the case in studies that compare sighted to blind tests using identical equipment.) Another reason to buy them is that they cost a lot. They are status symbols. Status is good in our culture. Fear is another reason. Fear of not doing everything you can to get ‘the best sound.' Of course there is plain old faith. If you believe that they make your stereo system sound better, then they do! If having them makes you feel better, makes you more relaxed when you listen to music, gives you comfort in knowing that you have left no stone unturned in your pursuit of musical enjoyment, by all means, go for it
The human mind is a complex thing. I'm not sure how fair it is to say that cool, cost/status, fear, faith, relaxation are the real reasons behind why we do these things. The only thing in this group of reasons I get close to here is fear....Fear of not doing everything you can to get ‘the best sound.'. I think calling this fear is a bit OTT and is a touch belittling
given it is authored by folks that knew they were concluding that power cords/ABX = zero. I'm not sure if the same comments would have been made had the results been different....anyway that's a digression.

Yes, I do want to make sure I am getting the best out of my investment in these DSP's, and testing some cords is a reasonable thing to do....not becasue I'm scared I add!!
I would actually prefer to find the M stock cable the winner..and it may well be the winner. However, that doesn't explain why we hear changes in cables.

I wonder, when we make comments about whether a squeezebox is better than G08, an earthspike lowers the noise floor, whether 5200's are better than 5000's, etc etc, these don't get the snakeoil treatment yet are in almost everyway just as subjective.

As soon as the kids finish with Teletubbies, I will actually put the spl on the test track and if times permits do an MRC on each.

Can the shielding on 3 types of cable be so different that they affect sound ?? I accept the weakness of my comment above about speed of electrons etc and that it is nothing magical.
However, the performance of my ring main doing whatever it does is at least a constant in the test.

I am curious to know how the varying resitivities of the cables might affect (if at all) what goes on, and given their straight or woven nature, what this is doing (if anything) to the "small additional signals" that Sedluk mentioned above. If shielding is to prevent the cable affecting other units, what is the effect on the power supply inside the cable ?

Incidentally, the PS Audio folks claim that non-perfect sign waves are the way to go with their Multi-wave feature. If true, then it would suggest that profile of power feed is likely to have an effect.

Anyway, thanks for your thoughts. Let's see where we can get to with this. I'll post back later with some spl figures.

cheers

Rgds,
Nick