I just finished reading a review of very expensive interconnects, (>$12K for one meter). The reviewer ended with: “…and adds no coloration to the music. As a reviewer, I appreciate their complete neutrality.”
Is it that I’m growing crankier in my golden years? How the h-h-heck do we know what “neutrality” or “lack of coloration” sounds like unless we know for sure what the recorded product sounded like when it was being recorded?
“Neutrality” bugs me.
Maybe I just need the Snickers Bar.
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By making such statement, the reviewer delivers a judgement based on a benchmark well known her/him. If they do not share that benchmark with their readers, then they are guilty of either ignoring the minds of their readers or of being another cliche reviewer.
He should have written „compared to some others, it seems to add no coloration”.
I think that’s all he can say.
If only the resale of the cables was greater than the purchase price…
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If only Jennifer were here…
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You funny.
This is a very good question, as it is possible to argue that most all cables only add mostly unwanted things, and the theoretical “best” cable would do nothing in the sense of neither adding or subtracting from the signal that left component A on the way to B. $12k for nothing…
?
The best cables I’ve heard do something More than “lesser” ones - independent of price. And I think that even if you were able to directly wire one component to the other, board to board, with wire identical to that used in the better component, really good wires do something else. Yeah - makes no sense.
And the interactions between speakers and amps introduce a whole 'nother set of variables.
$12k for something that does nothing?
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Naw…what you need is a Pay$Day bar… 
Perhaps "neutral " maybe less "bloom blosom " , body of instrument; loose bass vs
more detail in the bone of the instruments tight bass…
Just guessing at this…
Great cabling gets pace and coherence right, purifies bass and at the same time enables more extension, dynamics and natural sounding solidity of it, too fat and bass lush recordings sound far more controlled, but also thin sounding recordings get the bass right.
Great cabling improves dynamic range by lesser noise level, strongly enables 3D imaging, air and ambiance retrieval. It lets through much more information in this regard.
In all those characteristics it can do more than you would expect by a component or speaker change of a quite high price difference.
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Perhaps a matter of how we hear it…
For me fat bass lush recordings sound as if they had lost control and became flabby and
detail is quite lost. Years ago I demoed a Claude Debussy Claire de Lune which was so lush
and the instruments so blended together… like mushed spaghetti…
that copy didn’t stay with me long…
Yet there is "rich full sound that is really good with great detail
I did good not selling audiophile LP!s which I didn’t like in terms of sound and sound balance until my setup reached an extremely high level.
Meh sounding recordings partly blossomed out, fat and lush sounding recordings tightened up, bright sounding ones got balanced and well extended, recordings which attracted attention due to worse tonality began to be just judged by the lower grade of 3D perspective anymore.
Some I judged inferior than another one previously, suddenly bettered the other.
There’s a long phase when repeatedly improved high end gear leads to a limitation of great sounding recordings. At a very high, consequent level of performance, things start to get better all around, tonality looses relevance, everything starts to sound better.
What I want to say is: you only know your recordings in relation to your current status of gear quality. Judgements can change considerably.
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Great call good points !!!
Personally, in my experience a great power cable transforms an Uber kettle cable cacophony into a chauffeur driven limo experience, no external noise, perfect timing and a champagne experience after which you won’t notice the price.
So when do I get get the job in the PS Audio marketing department?
No coloration? The best cables sound like orange. Hahahahaha
The French horn player in my brass quintet once asked me to “play more orange.”
She has synesthesia so this makes sense for her. It remains a mystery to me.
One of our group here has this. Can’t remember who. It’s fascinating for sure.
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Did you play horny?