Suggestions for an Alternative Cable Challenge
Okay, so the James Randi / Michael Fremer aka Pear ‘Anjou’ vs Monster Cables, has been called off — Pear’s people backed out. I think there are better shootouts than the one that was proposed - that could be fairly conclusive or at least that we could learn more from. With a bit of imagination and hutzpah.
Randi has succeeded in calling attention to an important question: are super expensive cables really “better” than average (decent) cables? If they are, it should be possible to prove it.
I would like to see a DBT shootout with $100, $1000, and $7000 cables, with a panel of participants, a set of criteria, and a methodology that all can agree on. The stated goal should just be to determine which cable performs better than the others.
The process could be something like:
1. all participants agree on a reference system & location for the test
2. all participants allowed 4-5 hours of listening to be familiar with the reference system
3. all participants agree on 4 recordings to be used in the test (say classical, jazz, pop and vocal)
4. agree on nitty gritty details like the test environment (switchbox or direct wired, how many runs through, what parameters measured on the scorecard, who is appointed as an observer, rotation of ’sweet spot’ seat, and so on)
5. Conduct the test and tabulate the scores. They could be anonymous. Publish the data.
I’d like to hear from others, what kind of shootout would you want to see?
What’s interesting here is that when Monster Cable first came out, people like the annoying Randi called them “fraudulent.” Now Randi admits that “anyone” can hear the difference between lamp cord and Monster Cable. Gee? Whadaya know? As for the expense of high end cable, no doubt it is expensive and by any definition “overpriced.” However, so are expensive watches (that don’t tell time better than a Swatch). As with expensive watches, it’s a relatively small market and so by the time it gets to retail, prices are very high.
Randi is not interested in the truth. I can vouch for that.
I think we all understand the economics involved in boutique audio. Still, a ‘7000-dollar cable’ should perform better than a lesser cable, full stop and no apologies. The question is how to measure that fairly and consistently. For example, signal loss might be measurable with instrumentation, though the differences will be miniscule and unlikely to be audible. Listening tests are subject to many biases; e.g. a cable may be “prefered” by one reviewer because it really acts as a sympathetic tone control, and “corrects” a deficiency in a given system. This in and of itself does not justify an exorbitant price tag, IMHO. (’lesser cables’ can do the same trick) So we need a panel of judges representing as many sensibilities as possible. They need to be blind as far as which cables are in the system, all they should know is that there’s a budget, mid-price, and ultra-expensive one in rotation. And we need to collect enough sample responses to make it statistically relevant.
Again, all IMHO.