Do cables make a difference in audio?

One of the most oft debated questions amongst audiophiles.

There’s the group of people who think that cables and dacs all sound the same and they point to their measurements and graphs as evidence. These are the ‘AudioScienceReview / Amir follower’ groups. Nothing can ever change their minds that audio cables are all scams and snake oil.

Then there’s the other group of people, the group who claim to hear big differences between different cables and generally the most expensive the cable, the bigger the difference. There’s no shortage of cable manufacturers making expensive cables claiming that their cables will make a night and day sound difference.

I think because as humans we all hear differently, so whether or not you believe in cables making a difference is based on well, whether or not you have heard a difference personally. And I will say this – I used to be a cable skeptic. I really didn’t think cables could make much difference. Analog cables maybe but digital cables couldn’t possibly make a difference right? Well I was surprised.

First of all, it depends on the cable. I swapped out my Amazon Basics speaker cables for Kimber 8VS cables and there was maybe a slight difference but not much. Then I tried switching my Amazon Basics interconnect RCA cables for AudioQuest Evergreen. This made still a slight difference to my ears – but more noticeable than the Kimber cables change. So for my speaker system I wasn’t willing to spend anymore money on it if I wasn’t hearing major differences with the cables.

Then, a few months back, I decided to go for an Astral Acoustics Pulse IEM cable to upgrade my IEMs since they were on sale for $200 (MSRP $500). These were the most expensive cables I had bought even though I knew that cables could easily cost thousands. I decided to take my chance on it and see if this more expensive one could make a difference and holy shit it made a difference. I was genuinely blown away. It wasn’t like night and day but it was definitely noticeable and perceptible. I kept going back and forth between my old IEM cable and the Astral cable and could hear the difference each time. It was like I upgraded the DAC on my music player. Everything was more dynamic, the bass was punchier, the highs had more energy, the soundstage increased etc and I couldn’t believe it. I was finally converted.

I then tried upgrading some of my other headphone cables with some $50 cables and there was again a slight difference but not too noticeable.

I wondered if it really was the price of the Astral cable that made me hear a difference or what? I can’t explain it scientifically why a cable swap could make as much difference as upgrading a DAC but it did. I went into it being a cable skeptic not expecting to hear huge differences but with that $500 MSRP cable, there was definitely a bigger difference than with the other cables I tried.

I’m not trying to convince everyone else there is.. but for me there was and it was definitely noticeable. Now – whether or not its worth that price is a different matter. I personally would never buy those cables for full price, only if they are significantly discounted because I know how large a profit margin companies make with cables. Cables cost so little to make so it’s ridiculous that these luxury cable companies can charge so much for them. So yeah… even though I DID hear a difference, that doesn’t mean I agree that they were worth the full retail price.