Change of speaker cable seems to make system louder?

Hey all,

I'm a bit confused - i've recently changed my system from QED SA to Cat5 (following owain_thomas' excellent guide) and amongst the immediate benefits such as improved definition and clarity it also seems to be louder to me.

I dismissed this at first assuming that it was just me being more sensitive than normal to the volume, however, listening at my usual volume level last night, my flatmate complained for the first time in 18 months that he could hear my music and couldnt get to sleep because of it..

Is there something to this? I understand that Cat5 technically is better at stopping the signal from being attenuated but could this cause enough difference to result in a significant increase in the volume level? I wouldnt have thought so. The only other thing i have changed is changing the input from aux to dvd on my a80... so unless the dvd gain is set higher i can't really explain it!

 

You'd need to measure the differences using an spl meter to be sure.