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Editor's Preface: In an article in the October 1995 issue of Stereophile, Professor Malcolm Omar Hawksford used Maxwell's Equations to develop a mathematical model describing the behavior of cables at audio frequencies. Among the predictions of this model were that for good conductors there exists an optimum size of wire for audio signal transmission, and that for a wire larger…

The variety of cables tested alongside the Supra Ply (D) includes examples of generic types that are universally used or accessible (A, B, C) or easily made up (E, F). Other purpose-made audio-grade cables (G–H) were needed to contrast against. They had to be practical and immediately wireable—many audiophile cables are not. In alphabetical order:

A) Zipcord is 0.5mm2 Cross-Sectional Area (CSA) (footnote 1), comprising 16 0.2mm (16/0.2) strands of plain copper in an oval sheath. It's commonly used for table lamps as well as connecting budget speakers.

Roger Skoff with Jonathan Scull, "Wires, Insulators, Conductors, & Audio Signals," Stereophile, Vol.18 No.9, September 1995.

Martin Colloms, "Cables, Cables & More Cables, Hi-Fi News & Record Review, June 1985; "Cable Considerations," Hi-Fi News & Record Review, December 1985; "Cable Talk," Hi-Fi News & Record Review, June 1987.

Malcolm Omar Hawksford, "The Essex Echo," Hi-Fi News & Record Review, August 1985, August & October 1986, and February 1987; "The Essex Echo," Stereophile, Vol.18 No.10, October 1995.

Tommy Jenving has been making special audio cables in Sweden since 1976, beginning with a chunky speaker cable, the Supra 2.5. The idea of Supra Ply came more recently, and laterally, through developing and patenting a shielded mains cable called Supra Safe. The idea was to protect studio equipment and humans alike from 50Hz and 60Hz AC fields. Research into reducing power-line radiation indicated that low inductance was the key, and that high cable capacitance was unimportant. Realizing that the pulsating, high–peak-current-flow conditions in speaker…

Careful readers will have noticed that my article last December about speaker cable measurements was originally written to inform my recording and live-sound engineer colleagues, quite a few of whom recognize sonic differences between cables but are as confused about the subject as everyone else. When, in a recent issue of Stereophile, an advertisement for cable claims, almost in the same breath, that the wire both is neutral and gives warmth, I can rest my case about the dearth of clear thinking and explanation…

Cable standards
Editor: Thank you for publishing a scientific study of cable performance using in-circuit measurements ("What a Difference a Wire Makes," December '95, p.95). Author Ben Duncan suggests that low inductance correlates with good measured results. The obvious deficiency is that he did not provide inductance (L), capacitance (C), and resistance (R) measurements for the eight cables he studied in the article. Would it be possible to ask him to supply such…

Made or Makes—Difference or Diff'rence . . . this article's namesake is an 86 year-old jazz standard, first encountered by many as a smouldering, LA-produced disco tour de force set alongside the maudlin dross that infested the English singles charts in the fall of 1975.

It starts with a first verse of breathy sighs: Huurh! Haarh! Not in any lyric sheet. Then "What a difference / a day makes, Twenty four / little hours." (Forward slashes are any writer's limited attempt to show phrasing—as in The Oxford Comma.) Even sheet music only shows so much.…

I met Art Dudley twice, and in both instances, he was exceedingly humble and gracious with his time. The first time, I thanked him for hosting the Virtues of Vintage panel at DC's Capital Audiofest, just moments after he was verbally accosted by an unwell man seated in front of me—something about audio-journalism lingo and abstract phrases like "midrange bloom."

Art wrote about this experience for Stereophile several times, in a show report and also, anecdotally, in Listening. Recently, actually.

After the panel, I waited for the adoring throng to…

In April 14, 1895, Mahler's Symphony No.2, "Resurrection," premiered in Berlin (footnote 1). Mahler wrote a program for this symphony prior to a performance six years later, in Dresden. Here is what he wrote about the first movement, Allegro maestoso:

"We are standing near the grave of a well-loved man. His whole life, his struggles, his sufferings and his accomplishments on earth pass before us. And now, in this solemn and deeply stirring moment, when the confusion and distractions of everyday life are lifted like a hood from our eyes, a voice of awe-inspiring…