I know what numbers mean. 1066, 1588, 2525, 5500, 17,000, 29,999, 250,000, 1,000,000
So What Is Real?
There is a newsletter I subscribe to because the guy seems to talk about reality and not what some sales dude wants to sell you. mwaldrep@aixrecords.com Now the funny thing to me is that all these cable specialists of high dollar remedies for flawed playback are somehow going to magically change what you hear and will then rise above the abilities of the music file limitations and recording engineers. A dumb wire that is used to create the hi-res recordings so sought after is not somehow suitable for the playback of the same. The following is from Waldreps newsletter and I fully agree. I love this guy and he is a light shining through all the smoke and mirror BS of high end audio. I confess I too am a cable denier and incapable of hearing "
further uptick in micro-dynamic jump
" but love the delicious word salad these guys create to try to describe something that is not there. I can see the cable guy sitting there with his buddy. Wow did you hear that uptick in micro-dynamics!! You just know that's how he would talk, right?
As an aside here how does one become a professional listener? What is the criteria for attaining this lofty goal? How do you know when you have arrived and what governing authority sets down the requirements for such a thing so you know you are not deceiving yourself and others? Is it a nebulous category that is assigned to you when you spend a certain level of money or do you have verifiable and provable abilities above the norm as recognized by a large group of people including recording industry engineers, professional sound installers and high end audio system owners? In other words anyone but cable sellers?
The following is from "Dr. AIX Post for January 25, 2020"
" Cable Nonsense
As an aside here how does one become a professional listener? What is the criteria for attaining this lofty goal? How do you know when you have arrived and what governing authority sets down the requirements for such a thing so you know you are not deceiving yourself and others? Is it a nebulous category that is assigned to you when you spend a certain level of money or do you have verifiable and provable abilities above the norm as recognized by a large group of people including recording industry engineers, professional sound installers and high end audio system owners? In other words anyone but cable sellers?
The following is from "Dr. AIX Post for January 25, 2020"
" Cable Nonsense
What is it that Art Linkletter used to say? Kids say the darndest things. Well, it seems some FB audio group administrators, audiophiles, high-end audio salespersons, audiophile society officials, and manufacturers also say things that make little or no sense when talking or posting about cables.
I usually steer clear of FB posts or online magazines that promote high-end audio cables. It's just never safe to present with science, established electrical engineering theory and practice, or objectiveness when cables are concerned. A recent exchange on a familiar FB audio group page resulted in a member calling me a "cable denier" because I advocated for science and physics in evaluating power cords.
The thread basically dismissed my comments because I'm a member of the professional audio engineering community. Audio equipment salespeople, FB administrators, high-end audio marketing managers, and the general audio buying public are claimed to be better and more reliable sources of information when it comes to recommending expensive accessories and cables. According to the gentleman below, they are capable of listening in ways that audio professionals can not.
One commenter wrote:
"Mark is a pro and speaks just like one, but he is not a professional LISTENER, like you (Writer's NOTE: the guy offering the ultra expensive power cords), I and so many others in the high-end industry. Interesting is that most so-called experts are also naysayers who work in the recording industry, not in the high-end industry."
What does this statement actually claim? That professional audio engineers and producers do not know how to listen? That spending one's professional life in front of speakers in a control room doesn't require listening?Maybe...just maybe...the engineers responsible for producing the recordings that are played back in these guys high-end systems are correct in their assessment of power cords and expensive USB/Ethernet cables. Image that!
Can you really trust a gentlemen that just launched a new cable company that offers a 6-foot power cord for $3150? Oh and this person also believes that cables are directional! BTW They are not.
Here's a couple of additional comments...
"Cables can make a difference. I’m glad I can hear those differences it truly enhances the experience. I have been a dedicated audiophile and in the industry for over 45 years and have been able to identify those differences since my first experience with Smog Lifters in the 70’s. I search for and usually discover great products that deserve special attention by people looking for the last bit of resolution and coherency. I’m truly sorry for those that wouldn’t hear the difference."
Here's a comment from an individual that swapped a normal Ethernet cable for an expensive one.
"...the Vodka seemed to remove a layer of film for superior textural reveal. There was also a shade more tonal depth and recording space ‘air’. Most noticeable of all was a further uptick in micro-dynamic jump."
I don't know about you but I cringe when I hear people talk about audio in such terms. And this after listening to a commercial album and then stopping, swapping the cable and relistening. It's unbelievable.
I could pull quotes from cable reviews all afternoon but I think you get the point. When anyone starts spewing nonsense about power cords, digital interconnects, or network cables, run away. Keep your wallet in your pocket and unsubscribe from that group or online magazine. Their motivations are suspect. They either want to sell you something (usually at very high cost) or are dependent on advertising dollars from the companies they write about or the individuals they interview.
"- ...
- 237 posts total
@hombre, "A long time ago Julian Hirsch founder of "Stereo Review" set up a test in which he invited twenty experienced high-end audiophiles to audition a very expensive high end system. Mark Levinson, Linn Sondek TT, Dahlquist, etc. Over 10K in gear (which was really big bucks 50 years ago). After listening all the participants waxed enthusiastically about how excellent the sound was. The best they ever heard. Hirsch then informed them that, in fact, they had been listening to a $300.00 Pioneer receiver which he had hidden from view. They were furious. This tells us a lot about things like the sound of speaker wires." There are innumerous similar examples in the history of audio. Every working journalist is aware of them, and almost every working journalist is happy to continue to keep turning a blind eye to them (and also a deaf ear and closed mouth). No real need for anybody here to ask why, is there? Far b$tt£r to pretend they weren't valid, didn't happen or maybe never ever even existed. |
Then last year I improved the system to really high end sound with a custom designed and built listening room for $165K.
WOW, I bet it sounds wonderful, Some day. The little lady uses, her Fathers, old tube set in her room. I listen to my Gear in my room. We paid 55 thousand for the house 40 years ago. We both use HIGH quality cable. That I made!!! There is NO substitute for quality cabling. A total of 1500.00 USD. For all the Knob and tube upgrades, 3 20 amp outlets with copper and 3 quality power maintenance and conditioners. 300.00 each. I think TOTAL 2 thousand, including ALL the interconnect too. I also built bass traps and sound treatment panels for 320.00. I't in a 15 x 20 x 9 room. I built the room 31 years ago for 5,900. hundred dollars. including permits and inspections. I drove every nail, by hand, down to the last nail in the roofing. I liked it.. I rebuilt most of my old gear, with a few new addition along the way. BUT someone did offer me 225,000. for ALL (or most) of my old Mac Gear. (lots of it) The house who KNOWS, Bay Area. 20 X the original cost. Speakers, well there is a standing army, in the speaker shed.LOL What's good sound worth??? |
I feel proud of my 400 dollars approx. for Amp+Dac+speakers, with good cable (Morrow m3 being the most expansive then i know cables makes a difference)... Some will be shocked by how good my S.Q. is...I will repeat my mantra: No upgrading of an electronic components would by itself be an assurance of an optimal peak audiophile S.Q. not even for the more costly...Cables are not the most impactful upgrades at all...It is an illusion to thought that... 1 Mechanical controlled environment of vibrations and resonance... 2 Acoustical treatment of rooms not only and mostly by acoustic materials, but more than that with S.G. (Schumann Generator modified) and different resonators Helmholtz one and others... 3 Cleaning of the noise floor at ALL levels of the house electrical flowing grid...( I use my onw homemade low costs devices) After that my humble system will blow your mind and ashamed anyone that has paid too much for what they had... Think about that my system cost under 500 bucks... The tweaks cost more but not much more...:) Cables are important like any other electronic components, but only that, no electronic components made miracles...An electronic component made miracle only if you compared in general with gear of a lower category, or compared with gear in the same level but non efficiently treated... The embeddings of a system is the key to peak potential S.Q. nothing else...except for the engineer marketing that need you to buy an upgrade instead of thinking about the embeddings of your actual system... I know my system can be beat, but by very costly one indeed, and preferably by a way better embeddings...But for my ratio price/ final S.Q. my happiness is self contained... :) To the beginners here: dont buy, think.... I know all that I say by experience, because I go with the same gear to sound quality like " shit" to astronomical transformation without any changes except in the embeddings... And my dac is very good, my speakers were the best Mission has ever made, and the Sansui AU 7700 one of the best Sansui... never mind that they were good gear when I listen to these before the modifications in the embeddings, I was more than frustrated...The same system now made me smile at any more possible upgrade because when you have it music is music...Imaging, timbre, dynamic, you know when it is there or not....I will not pay for the 15,000 dollars I need to had a real upgrade of the electronic components...I cannot and I am not too much in temptation now... :) Lesson learned : treat the triple embeddings, dont buy.... |
- 237 posts total