Why do you think audio & video cables don't make a difference in the sound or video quality?

I always like a friendly debate and this is probably the king of them all. We always see questions from consumers if cables make a difference and if they should buy "more expensive" cables and 99.9 % of people say don't bother save your money and either use cheap cable or "oxygen free copper cables. I certainly enjoy to respond to those who are strong critics against better cables but never really get a good reason why they think that other than there's no "blind test" that prove there are differences or you cant measure it then it doesn't exist lol. Or the best of them all that dealers or sales people only want to make more money selling them. I will say that is not entirely false especially when it comes to the chain stores who really don't have a clue about high quality sound, how to achieve it, what makes something better, and they really don't even carry better cables that make a clear improvement. The only place to buy better cables and to be able to hear or see the differences is your smaller independent high end audio video stores who carry the better equipment and cables that can show you the differences in cables.

I of course am a advocate of better cables (and no it doesn't have to be expensive to be good) and in all my years of selling high end systems have never had a client say they couldn't hear or see the difference and could easily justify buying better cable, and this goes for all cables, analog, digital, and video cables. Its difficult to answer each aspect of why I believe cables make a difference but one technical aspect which is undisputed is that cables create inherently have resistance, capacitance, and inductance, varying any aspect of these parameters will effect its performance and hence sound or video quality. If people dispute it makes a difference then they must also conclude that there is no sound difference in capacitors, and resistors, then they must conclude there is no sound difference in components. I can tell you the sound differences in resistors and capacitors so then how is that not possible ? As for digital cables I often see if its digital it makes no difference if the ones and zeros are there it makes no difference. Well that again would not be true as there are aspect to the transmission of digital data that can contribute to sound differences. One is bandwidth, and the other big one is Jitter. Jitter is a form of digital distortion it is measurable and valid form of distortion.

I am a firm believer in the sound and video quality of cables, and sure cables can get very expensive very fast and i would admit its hard to justify some of the very highest end of cable costs, but honestly if you have a reference system and it makes that big a difference how can you not say its not worth it. The goal is to achieve the highest level of involvement with the performance so who is anyone to say its not worth the investment.

Anyway I ask you keep this a friendly debate and welcome your responses.

Kevin

40 years high end audio video specialist