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Yes, they do sound different.

Cables realy do sound different.

But trying to conduct DBT listening tests can be fraught with problems and flaws. There are many subtle and not-so-subtle errors that can creep into an audio DBT. One of them that you commited is that you placed the cables being tested in parallel electrically, which will cause their capacitance to add together and cause the cable with the worst dielectric behavior to dominate the sonic result. Even though you were switching from one input (CD) to the tape input, the other cable was still there electricaly, in terms of the load capacitance the source was seeing.

Thus, the worst sounding cable would dominate the sonic presentation, in fact, the worst aspects of BOTH cables would be present all at the same time for either cable you switched to via the CD or Tape input.

Another related flaw, is that there are two parallel ground return paths, and this would also confuse the sonics of either cable, as the source would have two ground paths to the preamp, instead of the one that it should have for that particular cable. This would also compromise the sonic quality, again, further reducing the quality of both cables.

Further flaws that probably occured are related to the actual procedures used, which you did not relate precisely. I am talking about letting the music play on while you switched back and forth betweenj CD and Tape. This is a major methodoloical flaw, and all by itself would render the test results worthless.

I talk about these and similar problems in these posts:
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/prophead/messages/2190.html
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/prophead/messages/2579.html
http://www.audioasylum.com/forums/prophead/messages/2580.html
AND
http://www.AudioAsylum.com/forums/prophead/messages/3100.html

this last one is related to using the tape loop as a test method, but not in the same manner that you did, however, some of the issues are similar, such as the non-standard switching and input impedance that many tape loops have.

To address your specific concerns: were you influenced by what you read and heard about? Possibly, but it is also not likely that this would have been the ONLY reason you heard what you did, for instance, the silver cables would still tend to sound forward or bright in most instances, even if you had been told they should sound dull or soft.

By the same token, once you conducted your DBT, you started to doubt what you heard, and then, even began to create a negative bias in your listening, such that it might have been much more difficult to hear the true situation, what was realy occuring, because you now had a bias to NOT hear those subtle things.

Many DBT proponents overlook the fact that bias works both ways, and can easily cause you to NOT hear what is actually there! This is one thing that a DBT does NOT eliminate.

As noted in the posts I reference above, a failed DBT has no special meaning, no meaning beyond the simple failure to achieve a statistically significant positive outcome. This failure to achieve a positive DOES NOT MEAN THAT WE HAVE A TRUE NEGATIVE OUTCOME, that is, a 'null' result (which is another way of saying we failed to achieve a statistically signficant positive outcome), does not equal a negative result, where negative means that "there are no differences".

This is becuase of the simple reason that the listening tests might have failed due to a poorly done listening test, whether through poor design, execution or administration.

So trying to draw an inference from one amatuer listening test that you conducted, that had numerous flaws and problems, has no basis in scientific practice or methods.

Some others here might try to point out that there have been other listening tests done on cables, and that none of them ever acheived a positive either. Well, as noted in the referenced posts, none of those tests were done in a professional manner either, and there has been a lot of disagreement as to what exactly constitutes a valid listening test.

I find it ironic that so many ofthe proponents of DBTs want to accept any and all amatuer null results as if they were solid gold negatives (when this is not even allowed in the first place by true scientific methods), but want to dismiss all other listening tests that were not done professionally.

In point of fact, there are no listening tests for audio cable sonics that have been done to the highest professional standards, NONE. Thus, stricty interpreted there is no scientific evidence against cable sonics, yet, we have just as many, if not more, popular press blind listening tests that came up with positives, for both interconnects and for speaker cables.

So you really need to have some trust and faith in your ears, and should not let one simple DBT attempt bias you so much that you distrust your own hearing and judgement. Read the posts I reference above, and read some other posts that are not all pro-DBT/ABX. It is all too easy to say it ain't so, that it is all snake oil, especially when hiding behind the bogus 'burden of proof' cop-out, but a lot harder to provide some helpful input.

SPECIAL NOTE: Since jj has been posting again, I am specifically stating that all of the above post is referring ONLY to amatuer DBT's concerned with audio cables, and NOT codec research, or other professionally conducted listening tests on other audio components besides codecs(of which there are very few).


Jon Risch

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