What is it about most audiophile cable designs that make cables sound like Tone Controls?

DasguteOhr

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People like thick expensive looking cables in a nice box .
You gotta give people what they want to stay in business.
Louis vutton / Burberry know all about it
you don't need an expensive cable to simulate it, there are so many manufacturers who offer an adjustment separately. sometimes quite amazing results in terms of sound.;)
csm_Zobelglieder_dd7f179c52.jpg
 

morricab

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Does anyone understand what it is about most cable designs that audiophile cables are used as tone controls? Can an audiophile cable not be a tone control?

As quick examples, let me pick on a couple of the "bigger guys": Nordost seems to have high resolution but lacks bass while Transparent has more robust bass, and these are then recommended by dealers to solve these types of problems

Thanks in advance
ALL cables act as modifiers to the sound of a system. Anyone who tells you their cable doesn’t do anything means their cable doesn’t do anything they don’t like.
Because there is no invisible cable sonically it becomes obvious then that one can use them, like other components in a system, to tailor the sound.

So called “basic” cables that are now being touted as “natural” may have a better balance of sins to some people in some systems but it is definitely not universal. They also act as tone controls.

What is not highlighted here is that cables are not only tone controls (as mentioned above they all are regardless of pedigree) but they are also information controls, which means resolution and affects on space perception (soundstage/imaging and dimensionality). This is where superior cables outperform basic ones. It isn’t always about price but often is.

Materials and geometry matter as signals do not just pass through wire like water through a garden hose…the physics is a lot more complex and so wire geometry, coatings. Dielectric all contribute to the signal transmission. Is this just subtle manipulation of LCR parameters? Probably as that complex interaction defined overall impedance, which is frequency dependent don’t forget.
 

andromedaaudio

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you don't need an expensive cable to simulate it, there are so many manufacturers who offer an adjustment separately. sometimes quite amazing results in terms of sound.;)
View attachment 98546
Okay here is the deal .
We can use Habia industrial cables and solder nice milled copper cardas connectors on them.
Then put the whole thing in a braided sleeve and put Das gute ohr on it as a brand name .
Made in Germany always sells good .
Put them in a nice box and have them marketed/ reviewed.
 

DasguteOhr

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Okay here is the deal .
We can use Habia industrial cables and solder nice milled copper cardas connectors on them.
Then put the whole thing in a braided sleeve and put Das gute ohr on it as a brand name .
Made in Germany always sells good .
Put them in a nice box and have them marketed/ reviewed.
nice idea, unfortunately it is too difficult to bring a product onto the market in Germany, for example emv test, WEEE disposal guarantee, CE mark.....etc costs so much. you have to sell a lot of cables until it's worth it.
 

morricab

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nice idea, unfortunately it is too difficult to bring a product onto the market in Germany, for example emv test, WEEE disposal guarantee, CE mark.....etc costs so much. you have to sell a lot of cables until it's worth it.
Check out Inakustik…good German brand and truly innovative cables…I love my silver ICs from them…best out several others in a listening shootout.
 
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DasguteOhr

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I have found my cable silverfoil thanks for the tipp.

 
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andromedaaudio

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When i started with this audiophilia hobby in around 2002 , i tried all kinds of cables for a couple of years
Transparent MIT and some others
 

Kingrex

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Check out Inakustik…good German brand and truly innovative cables…I love my silver ICs from them…best out several others in a listening shootout.
I have their 2400 Air speaker cables and Interconnects. The speaker cable is very good. The interconnect is also good, but a $200 coaxial cable I had was hard to distinguish from the inakustik. Another coaxial interconnect I had sucked. I threw that one out. I like my Genesis interconnect by Gary Kho too. The genesis is better between my DAC and pre than the Inakustik. But the Inakustik is the best between the pre and the amp.
I bi-speaker wire from my amp to crossover and use Inakustik on the bass and Graditech to the mid/high. So I have about $4000 in speaker cables. I also lash my crossover to driver with Gradetech to the the mid/high and Verstar silver over copper foil to the woofers. So another $1600 in speaker cable. Never thought about it, but I have about $5600 in cable to wire a $8K speaker.

I tried a few power cables in the $2000 to $3000 price point. They did not do anything better than what I have made. They provided a little different lens.

I have a $1400 USB cable. That little cable can make and break USB performance.

Ethernet is Blue Jeans. I like it more than the far more expensive options. The more expensive,,,,,,,, Not my cup of tea. I do not like the Gigafoil or EN-30. Both are HIFI sounding. I have taken the Gigafoil to 2 customers houses to try and rid myself of it. They say the same. Its HIFI. Kind of makes the sound do things that are not natural.

I have not experimented with my phono cables yet. I need to talk to Mike, although he plays in a different park than I do.

I added a Torus 4.5KVA wall mount to my system. Hands down improvement across the board. In a way not like the other rack filters I have tried.
The Deoxit was also a big shift to better.

I am swirling the bowl on a Shunyata ground box. I am convinced there is noise that is coupling to the equipment itself that your power cable is not ridding, because the equipment is not designed to let the power cable shunt it to earth. A rack filter or my WM Torus is not helping either as the noise is entering after they did their work.
I have tried all sorts of wire such as 8awg copper to #20 gauge silver wire to lash between the ground studs on my equipment. No change. But why would there. I only created a parallel path. I am seeing the ground box as the answer.
 

morricab

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When i started with this audiophilia hobby in around 2002 , i tried all kinds of cables for a couple of years
Transparent MIT and some others
Ancient history…so you didn’t compare them to anything…:rolleyes:
 
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morricab

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I have their 2400 Air speaker cables and Interconnects. The speaker cable is very good. The interconnect is also good, but a $200 coaxial cable I had was hard to distinguish from the inakustik. Another coaxial interconnect I had sucked. I threw that one out. I like my Genesis interconnect by Gary Kho too. The genesis is better between my DAC and pre than the Inakustik. But the Inakustik is the best between the pre and the amp.
I bi-speaker wire from my amp to crossover and use Inakustik on the bass and Graditech to the mid/high. So I have about $4000 in speaker cables. I also lash my crossover to driver with Gradetech to the the mid/high and Verstar silver over copper foil to the woofers. So another $1600 in speaker cable. Never thought about it, but I have about $5600 in cable to wire a $8K speaker.

I tried a few power cables in the $2000 to $3000 price point. They did not do anything better than what I have made. They provided a little different lens.

I have a $1400 USB cable. That little cable can make and break USB performance.

Ethernet is Blue Jeans. I like it more than the far more expensive options. The more expensive,,,,,,,, Not my cup of tea. I do not like the Gigafoil or EN-30. Both are HIFI sounding. I have taken the Gigafoil to 2 customers houses to try and rid myself of it. They say the same. Its HIFI. Kind of makes the sound do things that are not natural.

I have not experimented with my phono cables yet. I need to talk to Mike, although he plays in a different park than I do.

I added a Torus 4.5KVA wall mount to my system. Hands down improvement across the board. In a way not like the other rack filters I have tried.
The Deoxit was also a big shift to better.

I am swirling the bowl on a Shunyata ground box. I am convinced there is noise that is coupling to the equipment itself that your power cable is not ridding, because the equipment is not designed to let the power cable shunt it to earth. A rack filter or my WM Torus is not helping either as the noise is entering after they did their work.
I have tried all sorts of wire such as 8awg copper to #20 gauge silver wire to lash between the ground studs on my equipment. No change. But why would there. I only created a parallel path. I am seeing the ground box as the answer.
I have 2404 air pure silver. It was distinctly more resolved and open, yet still relaxed than 5 other high end cables. Is it better than even more expensive interconnects? No idea at least not in my system.
 

Cellcbern

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Does anyone understand what it is about most cable designs that audiophile cables are used as tone controls? Can an audiophile cable not be a tone control?

As quick examples, let me pick on a couple of the "bigger guys": Nordost seems to have high resolution but lacks bass while Transparent has more robust bass, and these are then recommended by dealers to solve these types of problems

Thanks in advance
Cables are no more "tone controls" than sources, amplifiers, speakers, and power conditioner are. All of them are voiced by the designer/manufacturer, and all have their own sonic signature, even if that sonic signature is relative neutrality. The same thing you said above about Nordost and Transparent cables I've heard said about different brands/models of amps, preamps, DAC's, cd players, etc. Replace a DAC, power conditioner, preamp, speakers, etc. with a different one and you will get a change in the sound of your system - same as with cables. Yet the "tone control" issue never comes up with these components. I think that is because sources, amplification, and speakers are considered major or core purchases while cables are considered accessories, are typically less expensive, and are frequently an afterthought. Yet it is only possible to listen to sources, amps, speakers, etc. through cables, and it is only possible to listen to cables through these other components and several other cables. From my perspective this makes the question you asked to start this thread pretty meaningless, however many responses it may have generated.
 
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MarkusBarkus

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I am seeing the ground box as the answer.
...I will be very interested to read your comments on the Shunyata box(es), if you do go that route. It's kind of the final frontier of experimentation for my system. However, in my case, it would be signal only, I expect.
 

christoph

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Check out Inakustik…good German brand and truly innovative cables…I love my silver ICs from them…best out several others in a listening shootout.
What were the other cables in that shootout?
 
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DasguteOhr

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Check out Inakustik…good German brand and truly innovative cables…I love my silver ICs from them…best out several others in a listening shootout.
We had some shootouts with kimber ks 3033, schnerzinger ts line, solidcoreaudio final silver, synergistic research galileo le,echole limted edtion. IMG20210309141000.jpg

metronome cd player- kondo overture -living voice speaker this combination allows resolution and musicality to be assessed very well. plays very well together there is nothing to complain about. with 3 people it was evaluated afterwards which cable performed best. there was a clear winner echole limited. p-speaker-7.png
 
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Lee

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I have had the good fortune of hearing several upper end brands lately and I find they don't really act as a tone control. They just let the music flow through and breathe. I am particularly familiar with Shunyata Omega, Synergistic Galileo SX, and Ansuz D2. All sound marvelous.
 

Lee

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I disagree. I would prefer it not be this way. How about just a good basic cable that is not a tone control but rather adds and removes little or nothing and does not cost as much as a component? Then we could simply listen to the components in the room context and buy the ones we like. There would be no need to fix issues or create balance with cables as tone controls or worse, "band aids" (pun intended). This would be a much simpler and easier approach. The problem, unfortunately, is finding a cable that has little or no sound of its own.
Agreed.
 

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