13 Cables ... A Horror Story
As some may know I got my start as an audiophile working in motion picture sound. Manufacturing processors and installing turn-key racks. AMC was among our biggest customers. I wish I could say I had the background Floyd Toole and others have in measuring speakers, acoustics and auditoriums then, but my work was all done with the electronics.
As part of this I got very comfortable with 4’ to 6’ tall racks of audio gear and dozens of cables that needed connecting, and big beautiful meters on Yamaha amplifiers. Each amplifier required 5 cables, and a 5 channel theater had a minimum of 3 amplifiers. 70 mm film had a separate stereo bass track if memory serves as well, so 5 different balanced signal wires would feed magnetic head preamps, then noise expanders (i.e., Dolby A) followed by equalizers and finally the output buffer. The point is, I got far too comfortable with dozens of cables polluting the space behind the equipment and too often I find myself wondering if I really need this many parts to my stereo and home theater setup.
My current setup uses a Luxman integrated amp for music and an Anthem AVM 50 for the home theater portion. Supporting the AVM 50 is a miniDSP for the center and subwoofer as well as three separate Class D monoblock amplifiers and I’m ready to pick a direction.
Do I get a pure processor and keep the overall hookups the same, or do I get a receiver like an MRX 720 and eliminate about a dozen cables in the exchange? That’s where 13 cables comes from. If I eliminate the monoblock amps, the DSP (thanks to built in room correction) I get rid of 10 cables in my setup, and reduce five pieces of equipment to 1.
Clearly I suffer a madness few consumers would. Not only would they get the HT receiver, but they would eliminate the stereo part of the installation as well. The Luxman, Mytek Brooklyn and Pi based Roon streamer would all vanish and they’d stick with the Anthem receiver as the only bit of kit in the room.
This is something at least kin to the audiophile who insists on only getting separates when an integrated would work. The madness takes us and before we realize it we as pulling apart every component into it's own chasis, complexity and remote counts be damned.
