<html><head></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><br><div><div>On 20 Aug 2010, at 07:37, Jonathan Stowe wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>On Thu, 2010-08-19 at 20:07 -0400, Lamar Owen wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite">On Thursday, August 19, 2010 12:18:19 pm Ralf Mardorf wrote:<br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">Is 'lossy' just the wrong word? I 'guess' I did hear loss when doing a<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">copy from DAT to DAT, using an audio cable, but a 75 ohm cable. I read<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">about this as a common issue for optical waveguide in the audiophile<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><blockquote type="cite">mags at my dentist :D, but they do write a lot of nonsense.<br></blockquote></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite">Nonsense of the day: <a href="http://www.malcolmsteward.co.uk/?p=2479">http://www.malcolmsteward.co.uk/?p=2479</a><br></blockquote><blockquote type="cite"><br></blockquote><br></div></blockquote></div><br><div>There's also the well documented 'placebo effect' where people start off by believing that a particular product will give superior (or inferior) results to the one they normally use. Then when they use it, they simply imagine effects that seem very real to them but which aren't actually there. That initial belief is often stimulated by something they've read, or by advertising, or by manufacturers' recommendations or simply because the new product is more expensive or cheaper than their old one. Trials have sometimes shown that customers attribute certain properties to certain shampoos - even though the only difference between them was their colour or fragrance. Or that people preferred a certain brand of fabric conditioner when in fact, all the fabric conditioners they tried were exactly the same product, made by the same manufacturer and simply poured into different cartons!</div><div><br></div><div>In hospitals, certain physicians are known to have a placebo effect which stems from the fact that patients find them more authoritative or trustworthy than their colleagues. Their patients have a higher chance of getting better - simply because they <span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline;">believe</span> they have a higher chance of getting better!</div><div><br></div><div>So I guess that changing a cable might actually improve the listening experience for an audiophile - simply because they believe it will do so..! After all, listening to music (as with all appreciation of art) is largely subjective anyway. Beauty being in the eye (and ear) of the beholder!!</div><div><br></div><div>John</div></body></html>