Comments

Most oif the time this is absolutely correct. However.. there is a place cables can make a difference, but it's not the most expensive that sound the best. Home HiFi systems (and guitar amplifiers) have high-impedance audio interconnects, and in a high impedance system, things like cable reactance (inductance and capacitance) can make a difference. The more capacitance, the more the high end is rolled off. Smart guitar players use low-capacitance cables to keep from losing highs. The very expensive audio interconnects can in fact sound different- but not because they're made of silver, or have exotic cable geometries. It's because they're very reactive, and are screwing up the frequency response. Not that most audiophiles can actually hear a high end roll off. I worked for many years in a llarge auditory research lab, and my experience with audiophiles was that, as a group, they tend to be middle aged men with high disposable incomes and a great degree of high frequency hearing loss that they're not aware of. As for cheap gold-tipped cables found in consumer electronics stores: An incredible waste of money. As the gold is plated on top of other metals it makes no difference. And even if you had solid gold connectors- gold has higher resistance to electricity than either copper or silver!