Quack System Upgrades

gdhal:

I base my comments on listening. (Are you an electrical engineer? I ask because the one's I've met who happen to be audiophiles don't believe in anything that cannot be measured).

By the way, BJC doesn't believe that burn-in makes a difference either. These things most likely are true with their cables. (I tried their cables in both directions, theirs did not make a difference here. Others I have do and the manufacturer specifies this as well. Regarding burn-in of BJC, I did notice a lack of grain after about 1 & 1/2 hours).

When I bought my latest tt, VPI Classic 3 SE Sig, I felt the need to kind of start over with evaluating cables in my system. I started with the BJC. I wired my entire system with it. While it was acceptable, I found them lacking in transparency, openness etc...

I then began inserting my other well heard cables into the mix just on my front end. The positive sonic differences were easily heard. One great example of this is my Morrow Audio PH-6. It sounds horrible in the opposite direction than what is recommended by Morrow. Another... I bought a new Shunyata Taipan power cord years ago, the dealer said it would take 300 hours to break in... he was right on the money!

Listening is truth.

ivanj
Worst I’ve seen follows. Some years ago: How about the audio show where these wizards, you know "fung shue" (sp) patchouli type folks, who were putting little pieces of paper, some even different colors and shapes under amps, around the demo room, and everyone was transfixed. I think this came out of the UK; if I not I apologize to my British friends. Does anyone remember that grift?

Huh? If everyone at the demo was transfixed wouldn’t that indicate placing colored paper under amps and around the demo room was uh, effective? Oh, you’re probably one of those group hypnosis or placebo effect advocates. Never mind.

Note to self: on a thread about Quack System Upgrades and Snake Oil it’s kind of bizarre that noone has mentioned PWB (Peter Belt) stuff up until now. E.g., the Red X Pen, the Quantum Clip, Cream Electret and Silver Rainbow Foil, last two on Stereophile’s recommended components list for a few years.

geoffkait,

A former friend of mine believed in the Peter Belt stuff.

Cable elevators.  Pure snake oil.  I would use them for aesthetic purposes and as a conversation piece; nothing more.

Blue Jeans cable are a great product.  Canare, Belden and Canare are all studio grade(and used in studios).  BJC makes no wild snake oil claims.  

I have yet to hear a difference between twisted-pair speaker wires of the same gauge.  I find it funny that someone will spend thousands on an interconnect that feeds an RCA jack that then uses bulk copper wire inside the component from the jack to the innerds.  If you upgrade your internal wiring I'll give partial tweeker credit to you.

I also find it funny that people spend big money on digital interconnects.  It's 1's and 0's, folks...as long as they arrive intact, a 99 cent cable is as good as a $10,000 digital cable.  My free Comcast HDMI cable performs as well as a price-no-object cable on my 4K HDTV.  Digital Audio is no different.  1's and 0's...

im a big fan of blind listening evaluations.  My wife and I do them all the time when evaluating choices.  Speakers, pre-amps (tube vs. SS) and phono stages all have very audible differences to my ears.  Cables?  Meh...just buy proper gauge twisted speaker wire and decent gauge analog interconnects and call it good.  Lampcord works fine in a pinch.