2. cables
  3. 124957-818

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
grm
149 posts
 
Hi,
What is the definition of a genuine Audiophile? I'm new to this hobby and entered it believing its about the music and to a lesser degree the playback hardware and wires. I have spent more on my music collection than on my system. I definitely get more excited about a great recording than on a new piece of wire, not that wire and hardware is not important, as I also believe it important for a system be able to resolve a great recording from a lousy one. For example, I just recently purchased a "Ultra HD 32-bit PureFlection" Miles Davis, Kind of Blue CD. I found the SQ of my system has been significantly upgraded simply by owning a great recording. What is unfortunate is how many lousy recordings there are out there. I also believe that if you are one who can spend a $100k on a system, a lousy recording will still sound lousy.

Thanks! Am interested in reading responses regarding the definition of what a genuine Audiophile is! 
jl35
4,032 posts
 
one of the most interesting points you refer to, is that many want their system to make lousy recordings sound good, or make all recordings sound the same...as opposed to your system presenting the sound as recorded...
folkfreak's avatar
folkfreak
1,349 posts
 
many want their system to make lousy recordings sound good, or make all recordings sound the same...as opposed to your system presenting the sound as recorded..


Could not agree more, while there are certainly lousy performances I've found that as my system has improved I've been able to find merits in recordings I'd previously dismissed and also found some recordings I'd previously thought to have great sound were only exciting an attractive sympathetic response somewhere else in my system. The last thing we want is homogenization of sound, the purpose of this listener's system should be to enable us to hear into the performance however it was recorded

geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
An audiophile is someone who has found out the hard way that going from Redbook CD to 20 bit CD to 24 bit CD and going to higher sampling rates to SACD and even Blu Ray and hi res downloads doesn’t necessarily guarantee you will actually realize an increase in sound quality. The problem is finding a system that has the resolution, bandwidth and dynamic range capability to explore what you’ve already got, even with the humble and abused Redbook format. Not to mention all the audiophile tricks to improve Redbook and any other digital format performance.

cheers,

GK, MD

mitch2
4,044 posts
 
grm said,
"What is the definition of a genuine Audiophile? I'm new to this hobby and entered it believing its about the music and to a lesser degree the playback hardware and wires. I have spent more on my music collection than on my system. I definitely get more excited about a great recording than on a new piece of wire"
grm, good for you.  Don't worry about becoming a "genuine Audiophile."  Instead, go listen to and/or buy some more music....you will be happier. 
More to discover