Cables don’t add. They only take away.
That’s the big myth we audiophiles often wrestle with—this idea that a cable has a sonic personality, a character it imparts onto the music. Bloated bass, tipped-up highs, midrange magic. I’ve heard those descriptions more times than I can count. And while it’s tempting to say a cable “adds” warmth or “boosts” sparkle, that’s not how passive devices work.
A cable isn’t an active component. It doesn’t amplify, it doesn’t process, it doesn’t inject energy into the signal. What it can do—and often does—is lose information. That’s the whole story. If a cable sounds thin and screechy, it’s not because it’s adding treble. It’s because it’s losing bass or smearing transients. A cable that sounds bloated? Probably rolling off the top end and masking detail.
But since our ears don’t hear subtraction directly, we interpret what’s missing as a change in character. If the lows go missing, what’s left feels like there’s more treble. If a cable can’t properly preserve microdynamics, we say it sounds dull or veiled. The illusion is that something was added or changed, but it’s always the result of something being lost.
This is important because it helps us listen differently. It reminds us to stop thinking of gear—especially passive gear—as tone controls. They’re not there to flavor the music. At their best, they vanish. At their worst, they get in the way.
So no, cables don’t add anything. They just try not to screw up what's already there.
In the end, it’s not about what a cable does. It’s about what it doesn’t do.
