Gary Cook wrote:
"I've used pretty much every style (not brand) of cable over the years and I've yet to hear a difference."
OK, that's fine. But surely that does not support an assertion that "there's no such thing". There's no such thing for you, but there might be such a thing for someone else.
As for measurements and "accuracy", ultimately, we're dealing with an emotional reaction: am I enjoying myself? I think we should not lose sight of this. It doesn't matter if it measures well - the big question is: how does it sound - to me?
Audio measurements are fine as long as they correlate with our experiences. Once upon a time, amplifiers measured exceedingly well, with 0.001% THD, but sounded terrible. Some people stuck to their position that this was what music was supposed to sound like. Fortunately, others discovered TIM. And that led to the view that one just needed to keep THD below 0.1%, but keep TIM below 0.01%. So measurements are constrained by the level of knowledge.
When digital audio first came out, it sounded a certain way. All the theory and math indicated that everything should be perfect. And for what it was invented for - long distance phone calls - it is perfect. But when applied to music, came the discovery of certain errors, then the solution - add error (dither) so that they don't all show up in one place - when they show up in one place, they're really noticeable. Should we have resisted dither, and held out for something better?
It's interesting that amplifier measurements now omit the TIM figure, and all amps have THD below 0.1% and all have flat frequency response. Do they all sound the same? No, but we don't have measurements to differentiate them. As for the LCR values of cables, these are measured from time to time in magazine articles - so it's not like the info is absent. The bigger question is: if a cable happens to have a bigger L (or C or R) than another cable, does that mean it's not as good? Well, not necessarily..... Wouldn't you have to consider L, C and R across the whole frequency range, and in combination with each other? And how does this interact with the LCR and Q of your speaker? (Nordost let's you know the speed of the signal in their wire - but I don't know what that has to do with sound quality.)
It has been said that measurements or specs are attempts to "dumb down" the audience. For example, a 10 megapixel camera is only half as good as a 20 megapixel camera, right?
Alternative measurement techniques are out there. Goldmund, MIT and Nordost use tests, but they're not in the public domain. I wouldn't preclude them from consideration just because they don't want to give their competitors any info. And I'd ignore what their marketing departments put out - if you read them, then have a good laugh. I'd go and hear their gear, and if I like it, I'd be fine with buying it. Life is too short - you owe it to yourself to try stuff out.....
I would also caution against the concept of "common sense". Once upon a time, common sense held that the universe had existed forever. This was such a powerful notion that Einstein fudged Relativity to fit this view. Then came Hubble's discovery of red shift, and then the Big Bang. To me, "common sense" is a form of bias.
How then can we choose between two components? To me (and this is just me) I want soundstage. The component that can show the soundstage better is the component that stays - and this is true for interconnect and speaker wire, too. I am ready to forgive small errors in frequency response. There's no soundstage index or soundstage% - so I ignore all measurements.
That's what led me to Emotiva as well as my use of Cat5/6 cable for interconnect (with no-brand RCA connectors) and my previous use of Metal Monster Audio Speaker Cable Wire (that looks a lot like lamp cord). This has, however, also led me to replace the Metal Monster Audio Speaker Cable Wire with Nordost Red Dawn II - the soundstage is awesome, the bass is amazing and I get better integration with my sub. I'm also impressed all over again with the XPA-100 - it's a truly awesome amp.
PS: Can I afford the Nordost Odin? No. Would I want to hear it? Yes!