Cable curmudgeon
I'm not an 'audiophile" but I like to think I have a good ear having been a professional musician (principal wind player in major symphony orchestras) for 50 years. A number of years ago going into an excellent audio equipment store I talked with, what seemed, a knowledgeable salesman. Being a musician experienced in audio systems but not expert on all the equipment out there I had some questions concerning high (over-priced?) end cables. The salesman assured there was an audible differencet in a demo room switching back and forth etc. After a few minutes I noticed the sound coming out of only one channel. He complemented me on my "good ear." Hmmm? A few years later when setting up my home system I investigated speaker cables. Two sets of Monster, stranded standard cable, solid core copper (used for alarm system) attached with like connecters. There was a difference. However, not in terms of better or worse: bass and treble were acceptable as was clarity loud and soft. Differences were esthetic- like asking "whose the best tenor" (I like Plácido). Now I know as a musician used to live (i.e. un-amplified) music that all I hear coming out of a loud speaker is perforce ersatz. But most everything today comes out of a loud speaker whether a rock concert or a hi-fi system so perhaps my opinion is curmudgeonly. But, for me, spending oodles of money on hyped cables, well... I liked the solid core for my alarm system- still do.
@wesheadley should move on down to Venezuela. See how a state run economy is working. Oh I know you are here to save us from our selves because we cannot make an educated decision on how to spend our disposable income. Who is making anyone buy the marketing hype or these (your words) over priced cables? Think there is an open table at the Hookah Bar.
|
I once auditioned some AQ cables in a full Mac system that I would judge as pretty damn good. ToL B&W LS w 2x big REL subs. Well-proportioned and well-damped room. Excellent presentation with correct perspective, height, width and depth. One of the best store demos I’d ever heard. So, moving from the $6k pre->amp IC to the $12k, the system became UNLISTENABLE. Now, you may say it comes down to personal preference. If you’ve paying attention, I always audition with the same three tracks and only if the system passes the sniff test, do I continue. No point otherwise if it can’t cut the mustard. I start w "Ruby Baby"*, original Tommy "Underture" and finally Jarreau’s "Mornin’". The system in original configuration was really, really good. One of the best store demos ever! On an audition change, the tune order is reversed. On the new cable, about a minute into "Mornin’", I said "STOP. That cable is totally wrong for this system**." Asked "Why?", I answered "The perspective is all screwed up. The hat has gone from delicate to gritty. The vocal has lost all its air. The bottom is nebulous. It’s really bad." Asked "How do you know it’s not the recording and the new cable isn’t revealing flaws in the recording?" "Well, I recorded and mixed it and in 35 years I’ve never heard anything quite as bad. The other cable played it as I recorded it, so for my money, if I had the original system, I’d stick with it." BTW, most of the time I just walk out part way through a demo because the systems are hopeless. -------------------------------------- * Nichols is one of my idols. ** It’s always the system in a room and that’s why bloviator FanBoy recommendations are worthless. |
I really didn’t mean to rile up the MAGA loving or the placebo-denying crowd by pointing out that no one can rank cable audio quality by price (or to promote communism). I’m just pointing out the obvious-- very expensive cables include obscene profit margins and that beyond a certain build and materials quality yield little interchangeable differences that cannot be ranked by price. I can easily hear the differences between my phono cartridges’, between my different phono preamps, changes in speaker positioning, room treatments, vibrations treatments, etc., and yeah, I have tried multiple cables from decent to very expensive, living with them for a while before coming to any conclusions. With cables it’s just trading one set of micro-differences for another with NO relationship between price and ultimate sonic quality-- and frankly, I’d rather listen to music than the gear, which I think is, for some, a kind of obsessive distraction. Anyway-- I’d bet anyone here that they would never be able to rank a series of cables by audio quality -- say five cables ranging from $200 - $10,000 each. It’s all in your mind-- so if you want to believe that a $2000 piece of wire will beat a $200 piece of wire, then by all means, go for it! What was it again that P.T. Barnum said? Hope that doesn’t make me a commie! |
