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
One notable point. Most of the legendary designers of high end audio like Neson Pass, Bob Carver, Arney Nudell, Peter Walker, etc do or did not use or believe in these fairy dust audiophile cables.
They probably don't believe in "audiophile" fuses either.

However, there are well-respected manufacturers who do believe in high end/priced cables being different/better so courses for horses, just like with the folks on this thread.
Lots of notable people don’t believe in things like high end cables, or say wire directionality or aftermarket fuses or fuse directionality and other things that have been around like forever. But that in itself doesn’t mean they’re not true. That’s what we in the biz refer to as an Appeal to Authority, which as you probably know is a logical fallacy. You know, kind of like claiming because Einstein didn’t believe in quantum mechanics that quantum mechanics is not real. Besides, there are lots of other notable and legendary designers who DO believe in high end cables. Do you really think all legendary designers think alike?

How long has the cable controversy been around, gee, gotta be 35 years? I hate to judge before all the facts are in but I suspect the cable debate is not going to go away anytime real soon. Well, hopefully, anyway.

geoff kait
machina dramatica
no goats no glory
Mitch,

"However, there are well-respected manufacturers who do believe in high end/priced cables being different/better so courses for horses, just like with the folks on this thread."

Some of them also manufacture speakers and recommend their extremely expensive cables for their speakers. Incredibly, some of their cables cost more than their speakers. Go figure.

As as my conversation with one of the legends of audio revealed, many of these well-respected manufactures who "believe" in high priced cables use/promote those cables more for marketing reasons than their inherent value. 


Geoffkait,

"Lots of notable people don’t believe in things like high end cables, or say wire directionality or aftermarket fuses or fuse directionality and other things that have been around like forever. But that in itself doesn’t mean they’re not true."

If their claim isn’t true, don’t you think those who claim it’s true need to prove it? Oh wait, this is high end audio. Sorry for even suggesting that. 🙄

All jokes aside, from what I recall there have been several published blinded AB tests to test differences in sound between cables and even between amps. But as we know, the results are always the same and not in the favor of cable manufacturers. But that’s another whole can of worms.

Einstein and his refusal to accept quantum mechanics. You have a point there, but he was right about so many other things like gravity waves, space-time, black holes, photo-electric effect, etc. Who knows in the future some genius will turn quantum mechanics upside down and prove Einstein was right. 😏
Drac,

I agree there is no further point in interacting on this subject as we are not connecting on the important issues. Whether you realize it or not the discussion we attempted to have has little to do with audio or cables.  

You appear to me to be a very unhappy person. Concocting irrational positions to justify an attempt to lift yourself above others will only add to your burden. Look within; focus on the pathology of that which drives your need to behave in such a way. Its the only only way out. Good luck with the journey.