James Randi offered $1 million to anyone who can prove those cables are any better than ordinary (and also overpriced) Monster Cables. Pointing out the absurd review by audiophile Dave Clark, who called the cables "danceable," Randi called it "hilarious and preposterous." He added that if the cables could do what their makers claimed, "they would be paranormal."

Scientifically, we know audible differences in cables are difficult if not impossible to measure. That's what started the whole idea in my father's head to make the first Monster Cable. As an engineer he was taught they don't make a difference beyond gauge and as an audiophile he knew it did. Me personally, I'm not a engineer nor a true audiophile. I've been trained to hear like an audiophile, but probably without the same passion as my father or others. I appreciate listening to a good properly set up high end audio system, I just don't go crazy over it.

What I do know is that I personally hear clear differences in premium speaker cables vs. zip chord, and I've seen plenty of other industry and casual friends hear the same to have confidence that the stuff works.

While I'm not a true audiophile, I do love music, and like to play it loud and have it sound good. Lots of low end bass punch and good clear undistorted highs. I also find it a shame when people don't get that from good speakers they bought, and yes, when I change the cable it has improved the sound. And for the most part the cost of better speaker wire is cheaper than the cost of a better pair of speakers, so I honestly believe that speaks to value.

As far as tests, DBT, etc. That's not the spirit of what I was offering. There's so much debate and drama around this in the audiophile world ( as can be seen by some of these comments) it makes my head spin.

But I love Giz, and if there are a few giz readers wondering if speaker cables would make a difference in the sound system they own, it would be my pleasure to take some time after work to help them do that wether they end up hearing and appreciating the difference or not.

As far as tests, DBT, etc. That's not the spirit of what I was offering.

He knows very well, that he will never have to give away this Million. :D He's just teasing them poor lads...,

LINK

These imaginary differences have spawned their own vocabulary, with meaningless terms like "swing" and "pace."

... way better than anything I have heard...Simply put these are very danceable cables.

And after all 'wow's said - of course I shall feel they sound much more better than others - placebo. I really shall feel it. Placebo is integral part of human. It's normal. Most of us without blind test will feel it.

Quote from: de Mon on 2007-10-02 20:30:46

And after all 'wow's said - of course I shall feel they sound much more better than others - placebo. I really shall feel it. Placebo is integral part of human. It's normal. Most of us without blind test will feel it.

Having some new and expensive piece of equipment will alter your state of mind and your level of concentration ... and thus your musical perception will also be altered. A higher level of concentration will commonly make you perceive e.g. more musical details which is falsely believed to be related to the newly-installed equipment instead of really being related to your level of concentration.

http://www.randi.org/jr/2007-09/092807reply.html#i4

3) With a bit of effort one can arrange for the difference between a standard wire and an audiophile wire to be audible if you have control over the source, amplifier and/or speaker plus there is a significant enough electrical difference between the wires to work with.

written by Michael Fremer, October 23, 2007
Now I read about a conspiracy to "doctor" my reference cable. Well folks, if it can be so doctored what does that tell you? It tells you that cables can be made to sound different by altering, among other things, the inductance, capacitance and resistance of the cable. All of that is easily pre-determined by cable construction and geometry, not VOODOO. In addition different dialectrics have different storage properties (store and release electrical energy). All of this can be altered in a cable recipe and those are some of the very differences I CLAIM TO BE ABLE TO HEAR. DUH! When cable is "designed," the designer works with all of those factors, which all interact, to produce his final product. Leaving cost aside for the moment, the post about "doctoring" the cable proves that cables can and do sound different.

Quite so, and Michael Fremer certainly knows this too.

If you follow the news on the JREF site, it looks like he's the one who is going to take the challenge, using cables he chooses (the Pear Audio charlatan having declined to offer a set of his $7000 cables, even though they're what sparked the challenge).

So right now it looks to me like Randi had better make some stipulations about measurable differences between the cables, or he's going to get taken.

Quote from: krabapple on 2007-10-24 06:25:18

Quite so, and Michael Fremer certainly knows this too.

No. I am fairly sure he knows little about the equipment he reviews

and this can be seen in his responses. However, one or two people among all the noise this challenge has generated are starting to mention things like amplifier stability. Normal cables that cause deviations of less that +/- 0.1dB over the range 20Hz-20kHz due to their RLC characteristics compared to the output impedance of the amplifier and the input impedance of the loudspeaker can still generate audible differences. This can be done by simply using a nonlinear response of the amplifier or speaker outside this range to shift information into the audible range. Normal competent audio equipment is obviously designed to avoid this but it is easy enough to modify if you know what you are doing. In addition, it is not unusual for expensive audiophile equipment to be incompetently designed and so might do this "naturally" without "cheating".

Yes I have followed it a bit and some of the regulars are commenting on Randi's behaviour. He may well have twigged by now that things are a bit more risky than usual. He might have got some duff advice initially from his advisors who may well not have considered the whole picture but only the linear behaviour over the audible frequency range.

Normal cables that cause deviations of less that +/- 0.1dB over the range 20Hz-20kHz due to their RLC characteristics compared to the output impedance of the amplifier and the input impedance of the loudspeaker can still generate audible differences.

Quote from: honestguv on 2007-10-24 11:07:26

Normal cables that cause deviations of less that +/- 0.1dB over the range 20Hz-20kHz due to their RLC characteristics compared to the output impedance of the amplifier and the input impedance of the loudspeaker can still generate audible differences.

With special speaker cables and special speakers, Lucpes even achieved 20 times this deviation : http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/index....mp;#entry148461