One example among many is the renowned Kevin Gray, who has been recording for Blue Note and Tone Poet for decades, among others. He replaced the cables in his studio with Audioquest cables, played recordings before and after the upgrade, and 100% of listeners preferred the sound after, so with the AQ… Don’t think that reputable studios don’t consider cable quality; they’re just like us, they want their system to sound its best.
Hi @Nigel1957 ,
I while back on one of my threads I explained why Shunyata power cables made a difference to mains transformer based power supplies…
POWER: Shunyata Sigma cables for Power Amplifiers that use mains transformer based rectification. The explicit granted Patent for Shunyata Sigma technology is designed to provide rapid current delivery into amplifiers (when the rectifiers pass current) and the benefit is in dynamic recharge of the reservoir capacitors with lower self-noise generated.
Hope that helps give you an explanation.
E of E
But @opus this is the internet, where everyone is an expert on things they have never tried! 
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Lololol so true !
Sigma-X QR incorporates what may be the most consequential of Shunyata Research’s 12 patented technologies: the QR/BB circuit. This ground breaking innovation boosts peak current delivery to the component’s power supply, fundamentally transforming the performance of amplifiers and critical source components.
Can you enlighten me about what this is exactly. Electricity flows at the speed of light, that is, 300,000 kilometres per second. Going beyond the speed of light is impossible. Alternating current is maybe 60HZ. A cheap conditioner will guarantee this frequency. the voltage needs to be 240 volts.
I see nothing that needs boosting, apart from the Snake Oils salesman’s earnings.
We need to understand these word salad claims. A patent means nothing. I can register almost anything I claim to be new the Patent office. These chaps never provide graphs or other Engineering proof of their claims.
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Hi Nigel,
I plan to give you a full explanation tomorrow, in the meantime can you give me a bit of an indication of your educational understanding of electrical engineering in general - this will help me pitch my response.
BTW have you looked up the public domain US patent office information and read the specific patent(s) of Shunyata?
I also somewhat agree with your observation that occasionally patent officers can be hoodwinked, and if nobody challenges the ideas then crap ideas can get patented.
In the meantime, do take a look at my two main threads, you might find support for your frustration with cable ‘snake oil’ in general.
I am basically interested in the same argument as this post, from a few days ago..
I am an Engineer in a different field, but did some electronics at school. I worked for 10 years in the field of automatic warehousing, and collaborated with Electronic Engineers. I am quite capable of reading a spec sheet, or what a Standard requests. I have worked in industry and know how things are priced. Like the post I linked to I was under the impression that studios and live music use cabling and connectors that are robust, but not hugely expensive.
Mogami seem popular and I have used their cabling in my HiFI, with QED connectors. I have had cables made up by a professional supplier in Rimini, and the costs have always been below €100. I just thought it prudent to have studio grade cabling, and I respected the Naim minimum length speaker cable advice. I have seen HiFi shops selling at least one of my same cable configurations at a mark up that is several times what I paid.
Being curious I wanted to try and understand why some cables cost thousands of Euro’s, rather than less than a hundred. I found at least one of these hyper expensive cables, using connectors that can be bought retail for €30. The cable was not very high specification, according to the Standard they quoted. As Malcolm McLaren would say “it’s a swindle” . Let’s call it “The great Rock and Cable” swindle.
The Shunyata Research Sigma-X NR costs around €5000. What are the components in this cable justify this price? If I use their most expensive components I can have a Furutech cable with filtering made up for €600.
I am pretty sure from some reading that I have done that beyond a very low expenditure, these hyper expensive cables rely on a proven scientific phenomenon called the Placebo Effect.
Googling “Cable snake oil” will throw up a ton of interesting article written by qualified people. (Sorry no links I got told off for linking, and I am not sure what we are allowed to link to. )
Here is just one little snippet
It’s true that cables can measure differently in the lab. You’ll see small variations in capacitance, resistance, or shielding effectiveness. But in most real-world systems, these differences are so tiny they’re completely drowned out by bigger factors: your speakers, your amplifier, and especially your room acoustics.
Double-blind studies—including those by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) and sites —consistently show that listeners can’t reliably distinguish expensive cables from good-quality budget ones. The rare exceptions? Extremely long runs, very high-impedance loads, or severe electrical noise—all scenarios almost never seen in typical living rooms.
### The Psychology of Hearing: Placebo, Expectation, and Bias
So why do so many audiophiles swear they can hear a difference?
Simple: human psychology. The placebo effect is real, and so is confirmation bias. When you spend hundreds (or thousands) on a “miracle” cable, your brain wants—needs—to justify the expense. Every new listening session becomes a treasure hunt for subtle “improvements.”
I’ve lost count of the times a client was convinced their new cable “opened up the soundstage” or “brought new detail to the mids,” only for a quick A/B switch (with their eyes closed) to shatter the illusion. As Ethan Winer famously demonstrated in his Audio Myths Workshop, our senses are easily fooled—especially when marketing hype is involved.
> “If a cable company can’t show a measurable improvement, why should you believe your ears alone?” – Ethan Winer
Or this:
The June 14th 2025 email from The Absolute Sound featured a brief promo piece for a $34,000/ 6 foot power cord! The headline reads “2025 AC Power Cord of the Year: Crystal Cable 20th Anniversary Infinity .” OK, more of the same nonsense from a publication that lost its credibility a long time but it was the opening sentence that prompts me to write once again about the BS that gets peddled as truth in high end audio.
I have to assume this a writer’s technique to make those of us who have never heard “sonic differences” produced as a result of changing power cords….including “elite” ones …feel stupid or lack the ability to evaluate and hear high-end sound reproduction. Well, after spending most of the past 50 years as an audiophile, recording engineer, mastering engineer, university professor of audio recording, builder of several state of the art listening rooms, and someone who has listened to systems in my own studio powered through “elite” power cords, in my humble opinion – and the opinion of virtually all professionals with my background – this claim is absolutely untrue. It is a lie.
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I agree with @Nigel1957 comments on this issue. Having spent a lot of time re-visiting this and posting to this forum recently it really strikes me that there is little credible data to support most if not all claims, marketing statements, dealer sales narrative.
I recently decided to explore the issue of my Chord mains leads which were very modest in price some 12 years or so ago as part of an upgrade. This is where I got to.
Having spent some time thinking this through (and discussing it with people who take a more engineering-led view), I’ve come to a fairly settled position on mains cables.
Once a mains lead is electrically competent — i.e. correctly rated, well made, solidly terminated, and compliant — it has already done its job. From that point on, the dominant factors are the internal power supply design of the equipment (rectification, smoothing, regulation, rejection of mains noise), not the external cable. In well-designed electronics, any differences between competent mains leads are reduced to levels far below audibility for the human ear
That doesn’t mean branded cables like my Chord are “bad” — they’re well made and perfectly suitable — but it does mean there’s no robust, testable evidence that spending significantly more on exotic mains cables delivers repeatable improvements in tonal balance, timing, or musical detail once basic electrical sufficiency is met.
Perceived differences are more plausibly explained by expectation, reseating/cleaning contacts, tiny level changes, or listening focus — especially when compared with factors that demonstrably do matter, such as room acoustics, speaker placement, bass control, and gain structure.
In short: sensible mains cables are fine; chasing ever more expensive ones looks like very diminishing returns compared with addressing the room and setup.
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Hi Nigel1957,
Thank you for your very full response. Perhaps you noticed I had already exchanged a few posts with the OP on the thread that you linked. As that thread contains a few posts and links to my own threads on the topic of ‘cables’ I’ll try to keep this reply short…
The reason why some companies charge thousands of dollars for cables, it is simply because they can. Customers are free to choose whether to buy or not. The businesses and business models of some of those companies will have various costs. Maintaining patents has fees and is an example of one such cost. Marketing departments typically have much bigger costs. IMO this is self-perpetuating. The more (technical) BS that gets spoken amongst communities such as online social media or even HiFi forum, the harder it becomes to keep this all in perspective.
But a few of us (you included - and typically with science or engineering education and/or training) have access to higher knowledge and are perhaps better able to resist this Marketing BS. Nevertheless, even with my own training and experience I have failed and succumbed to the marketing hype with two of my HiFi cable purchases.
Regarding the Shunyata Power cable patent (US Patent No 10,031,536), this is very clear in its claims. It is simply a very fast (low inductance) mains rated balanced capacitor pair, incorporated within the mains cable structure to do exactly what it says in the patent.
This kind of capability could be incorporated within the equipment - but the manufacturers of the equipment generally do not want to give space over to that and in any case, once the equipment performs to specification, there is no need. Furthermore, if these things were to be incorporated within the equipment design then (depending on capacity) they can introduce additional potential electric shock risk under certain disconnection scenarios.
In summary:- mains conditioning is a thing, and depending on the particular mains feed involved may improve the measured performance of the connected equipment. The key question then becomes:- are these measurable improvements consistently perceivable - with experimentally and statistically valid and sufficiently representative and repeatable listening sessions?
Which brings us to your point about The Psychology of Hearing. It seems to me there have been many threads on this forum on the topic of cables (and other things) where assessors are encouraged to ‘just use your ears’.
It is perhaps a shame (and I do feel ‘sorry’ for those members) who might have missed the very clear (and correct) advice suggested by Innocent_Bystander posted over five years ago on the ‘Ethernet Shootout’ thread here.
PS: I just hope @Innocent_Bystander approves of my methods of assessment in my own experiments.
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I have read the Patent and as I imagined, it is due to the fact that electrons travel at about 1% of the speed of light. I am in no position to contest their patent, or understand if this has any consequence on sound quality, or even if it works. The device seems to be just two metal plates and a resistor.
The device is rather simple and the parts are not costly.
There lies the problem. Very few of us have the knowledge to contest this Patent and the pseudo scientific sales talk that we often find in cable makers marketing materials. We can only hunt down information of sites like Headphonesy that point us to articles that debunk a lot of sales talk.
I am very sceptical about these very expensive cables. As stated in a post above. cleaning contacts, or just pulling out a connector an pushing it back in again may make a difference.
The sound I get from my HiFi is better than any concert of amplified music I have ever attended. I also would ask what exactly is the ultimate sound quality a lot of people are seeking out. Our ears are very good at making adjustment to sound. I know this from my use of different headphones.
For the cables in question, and seeing that the device that they believe gives them value is so simple, I believe these cables are incredibly overpriced.
Luckily, I can happily live without them.
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I’ve found nothing yet of which to disapprove (note to self: must try harderr)!
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I find this subject curious. I have done a little reading to try and understand this argument.
I liked this quote about why we hear improvements or not when we make small changes to our setup:
There are other reasons people might think they hear the sound change even when no change is likely. One is the limit of auditory memory - if it takes 15 minutes to swap a set of speaker cables, it will be more difficult to recall the original sound when compared to switching quickly between two different sources. Crawling around on the floor will also likely raise your blood pressure, which can affect perception. We also hear differently early in the day versus later when we’re tired, and just listening for a while can change our perception. Does that solid state amp really sound different after warming up for half an hour, or is it just our perception that changed? Add a couple of cocktails to the mix and then you really can’t tell for sure what you’re hearing!
It is worth seeking out articles by Ethan Winer.
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It’s valid for everything at that moment! Naim like other brands (SPL…) listens to the sound of the components that make up the equipment, for example the capacitors… they spend hours comparing the sound of the capacitors and choosing the best ones before validating the product, it’s as silly as comparing sound from cables, isn’t it? You should tell the engineers of these brands…
They study, measure and listen to the combination of components and the layout of the circuits eccetera.
A piece of wire with two plugs is rater different.
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It’s your prerogative to be sceptical about the effect cables can have on the audio signal. You mention people’s perceptions can be affected by various factors, which I’m sure is true to a degree. However, I’m lucky that I have a very good dealer who spends his working life listening to audio equipment and has strong opinions on what works and what doesn’t. He approaches these problems in a much more analytical way and often runs blind listening tests involving his regular customers and staff.
I’ve been fortunate enough to participate in several of these events over the last few years, which can bring some surprising results. One test I particularly remember was concerning four well known ethernet cables. Three of us took notes while one of the staff members played a thirty second of a track and then changed the cable. We did this a number of times to ensure a good range of results and none of us could see the equipment as it was behind us.
At the end of the session we compared notes. The somewhat surprising result was that we all had the order of preference exactly the same, the cheapest ethernet cable was in last place and the most expensive was in first place. We all thought the test quite easy to hear. None of us struggled with choice even when the same cable was played back to back for extra confusion, so I’m personally convinced that good cables are easy to hear on systems that have high enough resolution as my dealer doesn’t do ‘snake oil’!
Hi Geko,
The test you are generally describing is unfortunately not sufficiently ‘masked’ to be considered worth reporting in a scientific context.
Nevertheless, as it would perhaps be too costly to undertake such a trial sufficiently ‘masked’, perhaps you could share the details of which particular piece of equipment was needing the Ethernet cable?
And that is a point I’ve made when people talk about”burning in”, e.g. cables. Either a blind test with an “unburnt” item or measurements before and after are the only way to know, though to be meaningful measurements of any differences in-room sound (as opposed to electrical characteristics) would be very challenging as everything else affecting acoustics would need to be absolutely identical, right down to millimetric positioning of every single thing in the room, temperature and hmidity etc.
Remember that the effect of an ethernet cable depends very much on the specific gear, especially the DAC (and not just how “resolving” it is) - some DAC designs can are very susceptible to RF superposed on the signal, others very little. Also the entire network, and the electromagnetic environment through which the cables pass could have an effect on RF pickup. The room also can be significant to preference : e.g. one reported effect of ground plane RF modulation in a DAC is a perceived “brightening” of the analogue output - in a “bright” room that may be negative, but in a deader room it might be positive. In other words audible effects of RF modulation in a DAC and what sounds best in one system may not be the same in another, or another location, so even where the DAC is very susceptible and a clear difference is audible in one place doesn’t necessrily mean it will be the same in another different location, and even less so with a different system.
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Sure, if I remember correctly it was the shops 333/332/250 system. We could have used their 500 system but due to the convenience of the 333 being behind us it was considered easier. This system easily showed the differences between cables.
Perhaps the harder test they put me through was regarding turntables. My dealer has been comparing six of the top mid priced (£10-£15k) turntables for a month or so. It was sold as a bit of a turntable shoot out. Unfortunately, I was out of the country but he’d made a digital recording of each turntable. When I was next in the shop they played me all six digital recordings in a random order and asked me to pick my favourite. I had no idea which was which. I could listen to each recording any number of times but had to write down my order of preference. My first choice was the Rega Naia and my second choice was the Linn LP12. Again, I didn’t find it particularly difficult to choose what I thought was the best sound. I just used the criteria I always use ‘does it sound like live music’. I don’t need to be convinced by any measurements, fancy materials or exorbitant costs as long as it sounds like live music.
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“Does it sound like live music?”
We are going off topic, but in my experience, unless we are listening to acoustic, non amplified music, such a Classical, or Opera, the sound quality is most often pretty poor, if not dire for big events. I worked with an Italian Opera house for ten years. I have listened to a lot of live concerts. Some Classical music venues have crappy acoustics.
A surprising number of best selling records have been recorded in somebodies bedroom on a PC (Check out the “how we made this song” series in the Guardian). Most studios use good but economic cabling. How about those old jazz recordings from the Sixties. The recording quality of much of our music is certainly not Hi End. How about all the distortion inherent in a vinyl record?
How can cables, or even expensive HiFi gear improve on a crappy recording? What is are the characteristics of the sound that you are looking for?