2. cables
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Are audiophiles still out of their minds?

I've been in this hobby for 30 years and owned many gears throughout the years, but never that many cables.  I know cables can make a difference in sound quality of your system, but never dramatic like changing speakers, amplifiers, or even more importantly room treatment. Yes, I've evaluated many vaunted cables at dealers and at home over the years, but never heard dramatic effect that I would plunk $5000 for a cable. The most I've ever spent was $2700 for pair of speaker cables, and I kinda regret it to this day.  So when I see cable manufacturers charging 5 figures for their latest and "greatest" speaker cables, PC, and ICs, I have to ask myself who buys this stuff. Why would you buy a $10k+ cable, when there are so many great speakers, amplifiers, DACs for that kind of money, or room treatment that would have greater effect on your systems sound?  May be I'm getting ornery with age, like the water boy says in Adam Sandler's movie.
dracule1
philipwu
214 posts
 
If i have 100k to spend on that TV or any piece of audio gear, the most common sense thing for me to do is to invest that kind of money into my favourite recording stereo firm. Get them to upgrade their hardware, or employ a better sound engineer ect.. 
I guess the materials that they produce would certainly become more enjoyable, wouldn't that be the best bang for the buck? 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
philipwu
149 posts
06-07-2016 9:23am
"If i have 100k to spend on that TV or any piece of audio gear, the most common sense thing for me to do is to invest that kind of money into my favourite recording stereo firm. Get them to upgrade their hardware, or employ a better sound engineer ect..
I guess the materials that they produce would certainly become more enjoyable, wouldn't that be the best bang for the buck?"

We could all sign a petition to stop the overly aggressive dynamic range compression that's been going on for the past 20 years or so. And it's not just CDs but SACDs, vinyl and even hi res downloads. Hel-looo! It's small wonder folks can't hear the difference in high end cables or whatever. 

Cheerios

mapman's avatar
mapman
21,865 posts
 

Thinking audiophiles might change the way the industry makes recordings might be taken of evidence of audiophiles being out of their minds for all practical purposes at least.

 

jl35
3,936 posts
 
better recordings would be great, but $100k won't touch that at all...
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