High End and cables and tin ears....


First of all, most of my gear is of the non-commercial kind. In other words, you can't go into your usual places and buy it. I've ordered it online or had it custom made. That said, it isn't so much on the high end but better than the average bear's setup.

My question is, how high end of system do you need to really hear the difference cables can make?

I use Signal Cables in my system. They sound good to me. I've a got a friend that swears he can hear changes when we try out different cables. I can't hear a difference. I may be blessed with not being able to hear the difference and therefore not getting the need to get new cables.

Signal Cables makes several different kinds of cables. Mine are the starter cables, if you can call them that. They do a good job for me.

Which brings about another question. If I can't hear that big of a difference, if any at all, how low in the audio ladder can I go before I finally notice that it doesn't sound good anymore? If I get some really cheap Radio Shack cables will I hear a difference in quality? I've had some Radio Shack cables in my system before for test purposes but I can't tell the difference in one night's use. I need several weeks to get the full treatment.

Is having ears of tin a blessing in disguise?
matchstikman
Mr Rodman99999 has it right. Personally I only change cables when something doesn't quite sound right or I'm looking to gain something.
Why spend money on anything you can not hear. My hearing was professionaly tested. It was as good as it gets. I had a friend over who could not hear the sonic attributes of my system. Why should he or you spend money on something you can not hear.
It's safe to say that if you don't hear any difference on your current system, then you shouldn't upgrade your cables.

You might find that on a different system - not necessarily any "higher end", you do hear very significant differences between various cables.

That's my experience - a long time ago, I tried a few different cables & concluded they all sounded more or less the same. I concluded that cables were just another way for dealers to make profit. Only many years later did I discover that cables can make a real difference (sometime huge) on many systems that even my 50 year old ears can easily appreciate. For me, it seems that the more transparent the speaker, the fussier my ears are about the cables.