Are audiophiles still out of their minds?

Dracule1 wrote,

"All in all, I’ve spent about $4k on the acoustic treatments, which is tens of thousands less than a pair of Odin speaker cables."

Well, of course you can find cables that are much more expensive than your $4K room treatment; however, $4K is much more than most audiophiles spend on cables. Besides, your $4K pales in comparison to what better heeled audiophiles spend on room treatments. Ergo, your contention that one can obtain better results for a lot less money (than expensive cables) by employing things like room treatments is patently false.

dracule1 OP
957 posts
06-21-2016 1:13pm
Geoffkait: "Your negative or unsubstantial results actually don’t match what the majority of audiophiles experience with expensive cables, therefore your contention that expensive cables are not worth the price is unfounded."

to which dracule1 replied,

"--Says you. I know plenty who have had the opposite experience. It’s hard not to convince yourself that your mega expensive cables improved the sound of your system after spending so much money on fancy dressed copper wire. So your contention is unfounded."

I suggest you try to get a different circle of friends. Plus, as I’ve said previously, a thorough and careful experimenter will be able to isolate or control variables such as expectation bias and placebo effect.

Geoffkait: "Two, your contention that blind tests reveal that all expensive cables are no better than cheap cables is either your own puffery and untrue or if you have been involved in a blind test, which BTW I actually doubt, that produced negative results I suggest it is simply an outlier and can be thrown out."

to which dracule1 replied,

"--Not even sure how to even begin on this one. When did I ever claim blind tests reveal ALL expensive cables are no better than cheap cables? I said there is no correlation. Please look up the definition of correlation if I’ve confused you. So anything that goes against your belief is an "outlier"? You’re full of yourself."

Any single test should be considered just a data point. A single test doesn’t prove anything. When taken in the context of the totality of tests when most gave positive results the ones that gave negative results can be thrown out.

Geoffkait"Besides the tests you yourself (for some bizarre reason) linked earlier on this thread actually show the opposite - they show that there ARE significant differences among cables as heard by almost ALL listeners in the test."

to which dracule1 replied,

"--When did I ever claim there is no difference in sound among cables? I have repeatedly stated that I hear differences in cables. This shows you’re blinded by your own biases and not EVEN LISTENING to what I have been saying. First, I thought you’re just a troll. Now I know you’re not even a good troll."

I never said you did say there’s NO difference between cables. What you keep saying, though, is that there is NO SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE in sound quality between very expensive cables and inexpensive cables. And you yourself provided evidence to the contrary when you linked the blind test that showed otherwise. 

cheers,

geoff kait
machina dynamica

What a mindf**k all this has become. What if it is a real purpose of some participants here?

dracule1 - why don't you contact the cable manufacturers whose products you find disagreeable & ask them to justify their prices...? Then you can post the response...

One more thing, why give a s**t what some manufacturers charge...? There are plenty of items in this world that I feel are over-priced so I don’t buy them & can still find items that I feel are reasonably priced.

Also, having sex takes the edge off everything. 

At best, you could say that the thread:
-helped us recognize that many cables are perceived to be overpriced
-acknowledged (I think) that there are sonic differences among cables, but
-the high priced spread isn't necessarily always "the best" for some people.
It also helped us see that 
-the subject of cables is a seemingly endless controversy, and one that won't likely be resolved soon, by this thread or otherwise, owing in part to the fact that the perceived results among cable seems to vary, depending on listener and system;
-that some folks who have higher priced cable that have chimed in here (not necessarily a good, representative sample of anything) don't feel ripped off by spending money on cables to achieve synergy with their systems, whereas 
Dracula and perhaps a few others (I didn't have the energy to wade through it all again) have used "fancy" cable and concluded that they get better results from less expensive cable products.
There have been a few attempts to describe the science, but I'm not sure it adequately describes why different cables sound different or work more synergistically with some equipment than others.
Frankly, I'm always interested in opposing views. The sniping gets in the way of productive discussion, in my estimation.