The more accurate cable

[sandyk]

9 hours ago, Speedskater said:

There is no typical answer. Such a wide range of sounds and volume levels.

But sometimes audiophiles enjoy a bit of added background noise.

 

John Atkinson at Stereophile magazine, wrote:

 

I think that what the listener perceives with this cable is that at low levels, the sound is fattened and made more coherent-sounding by the dominant second-harmonic distortion. In addition, the presence of background noise cannot be dismissed, as there is some evidence that introducing small amounts of random noise results in a sound that is preferred by listeners. At higher signal levels, transients are accompanied by bursts of higher harmonics. However, these subside as quickly as they appeared. The overall effect is to render the system sound as being more vivid,
John Atkinson
August 2005

 

 I  agree. The brighter, or a little more loud sounding version is in most cases the technically worst of the two.

 Often you can turn up the slightly softer sounding version and notice that it is a little cleaner sounding overall, and less fatiguing with longer term listening.

[sandyk]

27 minutes ago, Kimo said:

 

The louder brighter cable is the shielded one in this case?

 That is possible due to different construction and possibly Earth loops.

How does the softer one sound when you turn up the volume ?  Is there anything missing ?

 

[sandyk]

10 hours ago, Speedskater said:

Just the opposite! The apparent brightness/sparkle/detail is causes by noise/interference.

 

Yes, that is normally the case unless the other has much higher capacitance.