Totally agree. Z-matching the cable (in whatever configuration) should be important if you want (as much as is possible) to remove the cable from the equation. I haven't done any work on that however,izzy wizzy wrote: ↑Mon Jun 06, 2022 1:38 am Cable whys and wherefores are inherently problematic without the full picture. Drive Z and termination Z for starters and also signal level.
No one would use a microphone cable to drive a speaker nor the other way round. It's an extreme example to make a point.
It's interesting to note that studio stuff is 600R drive and termination mostly maximising power transfer. HiFi is mostly medium drive Z and high termination maximising voltage transfer. Studio stuff is mostly balanced, HiFi mainly unbalanced. Studio stuff may also have galvanic isolation where HiFi stuff rarely does.
Unsurprisingly maybe, that HiFi cabling is a mixed bag and studio stuff not so much. And although it does make a difference, for many the effects may only be minor and so claim "there's no difference". It's hard to weigh up "perspective" in a forum environment.
I've noticed over time, reducing drive Z and lowering termination Z removes cable effects to a place I can't really be bothered.
Studio kit is balanced for a host of reasons (as we all know), mostly to remove common mode interference and prevent ground loop issues. Galvanic isolation in order to stop performers being electrocuted, e.g. by being outside in the wet. Standard connectors too so you don't use the wrong cable in the wrong place and all cables that should work in a particular place, do.
There's an engineering agenda in studios - sound quality is excellent but practicality is important too... it's a compromise. We all know that recordings are greatly influenced by the end-to-end signal chain in place when they were made and by the studio engineers & producers' choices when mixing. I'm not a huge fan of messing with the digital signal chain, however the analogue side will have gone through a whole bunch of transducers, active & passive components before maybe hitting an ADC and entering the digital domain. Even the positioning of the source transducers and the acoustic properties of the venue are significant.
At best, we get back to the signal that was recorded (i.e. the start of our signal chain), not the performance itself.