The information in the DIY IC note was compiled over years of
controlled subjective listening tests of cables.
Many of the differences heard were subtle, however, taken as a
whole, selection of a cable with all the preferred materials
and construction can make a significant overall difference.
These results are based on listening tests, not just measurements,
or conjecture, tests which were conducted blind, and under
controlled conditions. Many have asked what methods I used in
my listening tests.
No, I did not use the ABX switchbox, cable swaps were used.
Over a period of months and years of testing, I developed a few
twists on test methods and procedures, which I present in my
AES paper, preprint #3178, "A User Friendly Methodology for
Subjective Listening tests", presented at the 91st AES convention,
October, 1991. Consisting of 33 pages of text, and 19 references,
it is too long to try and present here, and I urge anyone interested
in the details to get a copy from the AES, it is available for $5,
and can be ordered from:
http://www.aes.org/publications/preprints/search.html
The results I present in this note are based on comparing one
cable to another, under blind (or often, double blind) conditions,
where levels were always checked for compliance to +/- 0.1 dB,
and the comparisons varied one aspect of the cable at a time, i.e.,
one cable might be identical, except the insulation was foamed
PE instead of foamed PP, etc. or the wires were bare copper for
one, and tinned copper for the other, etc.
So what I am saying, is that not only did I reliably identify different
cables, but I was able to identify a single cable variable at a time.
Dozens and dozens of different coaxial and twisted pair cables
were listened to, over the course of hundreds of hours of listening
tests, stretching over the course of years of effort.
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