DANGEROUS TOPIC: But this is not about cable wars, rather about the logic of the debate

Dangerous topic; but this is not about cable wars, rather about the logic of the debate. There are two basic disputes (a) whether properly designed cables sound different at all, and (b) if they can sound different, what preference should be attached to that difference. Note here that the debate about whether a category of objects (in this case cables) can sound different, is only possible because people disagree. You don't get debates about whether all loudspeakers sound the same, or all cartridges sound the same. This type of debate only occurs, as a matter of fact, when there is genuine disagreement.

But this disagreement can only exist because the differences are very small. This must be true. We don't argue that violins sound like cellos....because we can all hear they don't. So: the existence of prolonged, historic, debate about whether cables sound different, is only possible because any difference (if at all) must be very small. Of course, even tiny differences might matter to any given individual; but that cannot change the central point.

Argument about whether cables sound different is proof that any difference must be small. That's surely not a matter of opinion, it is a matter of fact and the meaning of language. If this is true, then claims for major differences in the audible performance of cables must be false....because doubt can only exist when the differences are tiny. (Which isn't to say that big differences in value cannot be attached to objectively tiny distinctions.)

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