2. cables
  3. 128927-305

Most Important, Unloved Cable...

Ethernet. I used to say the power cord was the most unloved, but important cable. Now, I update that assessment to the Ethernet cable. Review work forthcoming. 

I can't wait to invite my newer friend who is an engineer who was involved with the construction of Fermilab, the National Accelerator Lab, to hear this! Previously he was an overt mocker; no longer. He decided to try comparing cables and had his mind changed. That's not uncommon, as many of you former skeptics know. :)

I had my biggest doubts about the Ethernet cable. But, I was wrong - SO wrong! I'm so happy I made the decision years ago that I would try things rather than simply flip a coin mentally and decide without experience. It has made all the difference in quality of systems and my enjoyment of them. Reminder; I settled the matter of efficacy of cables years before becoming a reviewer and with my own money, so my enthusiasm for them does not spring from reviewing. Reviewing has allowed me to more fully explore their potential.  

I find fascinating the cognitive dissonance that exists between the skeptical mind in regard to cables and the real world results which can be obtained with them. I'm still shaking my head at this result... profoundly unexpected results way beyond expectation. Anyone who would need an ABX for this should exit the hobby and take up gun shooting, because your hearing would be for crap.  
douglas_schroeder
douglas_schroeder OP
3,281 posts
 

schubert, the sense of exploration/travel I suggest is also, "an inherent , built in  hard-wired element of being human in all places in all times," as well. How it is conducted, by walking, bicycle, train, plane, or car varies.

You suggest that music is an inherent , built in  hard-wired element of being human in all places in all times. I agree. How it is conducted/enjoyed varies just as travel, by instruments, voice, performing, being an audience, or technologically listening to it reproduced.

In other words, I find your analogy faulty, as both impulses, the car driver and the audiophile, use technology. Tell a person with a 3 hour commute each day that the experience of driving is not important. Perhaps for you and me it is not, but that is not so for all drivers.

Similarly, perhaps it's not important for you to have a technologically advanced audiophile experience. But that is not the case for many such as myself who wish not to simply get from point A to B in terms of listening as cheaply as possible and without a high regard to the aesthetics of the experience.

schubert
7,386 posts
 
Few realize it but the auto culture is driven by marketing forces who make their thought seem like your thoughts .
Many/most humans are perfectly content to remain in one area all their life .
Some are forced to move by circumstances . Many of us, including me, are so far alienated from nature that we move in search for something to fill that void ..
tubegroover
2,320 posts
 
Doug I’ve given up on trying to correlate the quality of sound replicating reality in any way. For that to be even remotely attainable it would first have to start with superbly engineered recordings. However,  I am as you are, in the subjective camp. The objectivists are bound by their beliefs, and in the case of a few posters here, their education and biases. I don’t know them but their comments are typical of folks with preconceived ideas based on prevailing engineering dogma and also possibly what they can’t hear, if they even tried, nothwithstanding Al Marg’s excellent rebuttal. Obviously Al articulates in his typically lucid manner in what might be the cause of why we hear differences/improvements in something as seemingly inconsequential as an ethernet cable.

Doug I like you am interested in an aesthetically pleasing experience. I unlike you, at least it seems based on your comments, have no delusions that reality of a live performance and enjoyment of playback of a performance are really two unrelated experiences, one the experience of what an "audiophile" is attempting to achieve via the dictum of "The Absolute Sound" the other connecting to a musical performance in a meaningful and profound way, they are to me two distinctly different objectives. But as I have commented to others with objectives similar to yours, enjoy your journey!
douglas_schroeder OP
3,281 posts
 
tubegroover, you are on track. I am not intending to suggest that the recreated performance actually can capture the real thing, but will always only be an approximation. However, you and I realize that there are many more levels of sound quality than the subjectivists think. I desire a level of sound quality that can allow me to suspend reality, the same way that suspension of reality is the order of the day in movies. If the movie was poorly made the suspension of reality is poor. In the same way, if the system is poor, the suspension of reality when listening is poor. 


douglas_schroeder OP
3,281 posts
 

schubert, you obviously need to join a car club to gain appreciation of the auto. ;)

I'm not interested in discussing the need for nature; I enjoy taking walks outside, and I recommend you do as well if you think you're losing touch with nature. It seems you can't (don't want to) focus on the topic, which is building superior audio systems. So, I'm done with this conversation. :)

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