Roger Skoff gives the facts about cables
Lately, I’ve been following on Instagram some of the idiocy that so‑called “experts” have been posting about hi‑fi. Although there certainly is the occasional something of merit there by a person with real knowledge, the overwhelming majority of what I’ve seen seems either to be from a parts house, a mail‑order dealer, or some headphone place that’s offering seemingly friendly but usually self‑serving (and almost always either obvious or incorrect) advice to the ignorant or unwary.
And the rest of the Posting Pontificators seem to be there either to share their latest home‑brewed “breakthrough” (“How, for just $1.99, and with no knowledge or skill whatsoever, I built something that sounds better than what would cost thousands at a reputable dealer”) or – more usually – to expose what they would have you believe are the evils of those who would exploit the poor dumb sheep (their apparent thoughts) who call themselves “audiophiles” by selling them stuff that costs little more than a cheap lunch.
Especially when the subject is cables (something that I, as the multiple award‑winning designer and manufacturer of, among other things, the brand of audiophile cables that was, for decades, recognized everywhere as The Best in the World, do have some knowledge about), these Backyard Einsteins fall all over themselves either to declare that 1) cables make no difference at all; or 2) any cable over $6.99 is a ripoff (“voodoo” or “snake oil”); or 3) measurement and blind testing are the only absolute proofs of sound quality; or, finally (the very best one of all) 4) that simply hearing differences is of no value because “placebo effect,” the penny‑psychology mantra that “you hear what you want to hear,” makes just hearing something and liking it untrustworthy.
The wonderful thing about all of the Nincompoop Newtons spouting this stuff is how often their basic assumptions cancel each other out: One real posting on Instagram recently declared that there was a $6.99 interconnect from Amazon that sounds better than another cable from an audiophile manufacturer that costs $8,500. Just contemplate this for a moment: On the one hand, they’re telling us that what we hear is not to be believed – that only measurements can be trusted – and on the other, they’re saying we should believe them when they say that what they hear is reason to decry the more expensive cable as a fraud.
It’s either ignorance, self‑aggrandizement, or an attempt to sell us whatever else they might be touting. Whatever it is, though, it doesn’t make sense.
What does make sense is that, at those prices, neither cable can be relied upon to be the best available.
And this is where the Instagram Geniuses always fall off the edge of the world: They simply don’t understand the economics of cable manufacturing. They think a cable is just “wire with connectors,” and that the price is whatever the manufacturer feels like charging. They have no idea what it actually takes to make a real, purpose‑designed, high‑performance cable.
To understand why, let’s first take a look at the cheap cable. At $6.99 retail, it’s doomed before it ever leaves the drawing board. That tiny price tag has to pay not only for the parts and labor to make the cable, but also for its design. testing, packaging, shipping, warehousing, distribution, and retail sale – including the overhead and necessary profit margin that everyone along the way must have if the product is ever to get to market.
Every one of those steps costs money. Every one takes its bite of the sale revenues. And every one forces the manufacturer to choose the cheapest possible option. There’s no monetary room for performance considerations; there’s barely room for survival. A $6.99 cable isn’t “affordable”; it’s a collection of compromises held together by hope and must be made by the mile or it can never happen.
At the other extreme, there’s the $8,500 cable. That price tag may seem absurd – and often is – but it isn’t automatically fraudulent. A real cable manufacturer (not just the ones who buy a Belden, Alpha, or cheap import cable, hide it under a layer of Tech‑flex, terminate it with fancy but off‑the‑shelf connectors, and sell it with a fancy name at a fancy price) faces capital requirements that electronics and speaker makers may never have to worry about. Small manufacturers of amplifiers or other electronics can buy resistors, capacitors, transistors, transformers, and other components in handfuls and have chassis parts made just a few at a time. Doing it that way costs more individually, but the price of the finished high‑end product can be raised to cover. Speaker builders, too, can buy drivers, crossover parts, damping materials, and necessary hardware – even in onesies, if they need to – without a colossal capital investment. They can make runs of five, ten, or twenty pairs of speakers, call it a “limited edition,” and use that as an excuse for charging more. And both they and the electronics manufacturers can test the market for their products without betting the farm.
Real cable manufacturers can’t do that.
Whether they make it themselves or get it from a contract manufacturer, the raw cable itself must be ordered in quantity. Not five feet. Not ten feet. Thousands of feet. Custom‑drawn conductor? Minimums apply – possibly even miles. Custom dielectric? Minimums. Custom shielding? Minimums. Custom jacketing? Minimums. Custom‑designed and precision‑machined connectors? Minimums. Printed packaging? Minimums. And all of those minimums must be paid for up front, before the first cable can ever be built, let alone sold.
Then comes the labor. Real high‑end cable assembly isn’t done by machine. It’s done by hand. It requires skill, consistency, and time. It costs money. And unlike electronics assembly, where a single technician can populate dozens (or even hundreds) of boards in a day, cable assembly is slow, meticulous, and unforgiving. Every termination must be perfect. Every solder joint must be flawless. Every mechanical interface must be secure. Every cable must be tested individually.
That’s why legitimate high‑end cable manufacturers simply can’t produce world‑class product cheaply. The economics won’t allow it. The capital requirements won’t allow it. The production realities won’t allow it. And that’s the part the Instagram experts never grasp: The price of a cable isn’t just the cost of the parts. It’s the cost of being able to make it at all.
Does that mean an $8,500 high‑end cable is automatically justified? Of course not. Some manufacturers really do try to amortize development costs over a tiny number of sales. Some really do chase profit margins more suited to mythology. Some really do believe that “luxury pricing” is a feature. And some cables at any price really are, despite their highfalutin’ claims of arcane technology and of being hand‑crafted by celestial virgins, just pure snake‑oil rip-offs from the get‑go.
Price, whether high or low, is simply not an automatic indicator of performance, but extremes at either end of the scale should be approached with concern.
The truth – the awful truth – is that cable pricing, like so many other things, is driven by realities the Instagram crowd has never encountered and never bothered to learn. They think everything is a scam because they don’t know how anything is made. They think everything expensive is a fraud because some of it actually is, and because the great majority that isn’t they dismiss as “sour grapes” – beyond both their budget and their comprehension. They think everything cheap is “just as good” (or magically even better) because they understand neither engineering nor materials science.
And they think they’re experts because anybody at all can shoot his mouth off on the internet.
