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Opening a can of worms

Here is the can filled with opinions. It's been hashed and rehashed to infinity and beyond with no clear result. Since I am a seeker of truth I'll post my thoughts here for the yea and naysayers to debate over. Question is: Are expensive speaker or any other cable in a system worth the exorbitant cost over a reasonably priced cable loom? I thought I'd  experiment myself to find out. My comparison is between Transparent Ultra cable loom and Blue Jeans cable loom on a pure stereo system comprised of Proceed PAV,  Proceed PDSD,  Krell Kav 250, Musical Fidelity A3cd, Sony Ps4300 TT and B&W 803D2 speakers. All sources were used by this experiment using identical playback material. Cables had in excess of 200 hrs burn time and all were identical in lenght. The only variation were the connector manufacturers.
One change that occurred during this 4 week long endeavor was that I'm firmly seated on the sharpest picket on the fence.
My result is that I'm now a believer that there are audible differences in cables. I also believe that these differences are minute and one has to really listen carefully and for a long time to discern these differences.
Now to the crutch of the matter, $$$$$, As we all know Transparent Cables would reside in the upper tier of Audio Cable expense.  Blue Jeans Cable on the other hand falls into the lowest tier of expense (well maybe not lowest but low nontheless )
One would think then that the Transparent would be far superior to the BJs. Not really! Yes the highs were a little cleaner, mids a little tighter and lows a tad more pronounced but not by as much as one would expect. Soundstage was somewhat more open and airy and depth was somewhat more defined with the higher priced cable but again less than one would expect. 

Now for my personal opinion regarding the cable debate: expensive cable looms are slightly better than reasonable priced looms, if a dollar equals a penny to you then by all means opt for the higher priced loom, if a penny equals a penny don't be ashamed for opting for the best you can do. The differences are so minute that it's not worth going into debt over. BOTH looms sounded superb on my test system and I would be happy with either loom.

Now let the debate begin, just know I'm a fence sitter and not in one camp or the other
128x128gillatgh
dualmarantz
18 posts
 
All my experience is out of date--I sold audio in the ’90s and knew a fair amount about it then. Not any more.

The only cables that I ever heard that sounded "better" than average were AudioQuest Lapis (I think that was it--pure silver interconnects, in the "stone" named series--not the higher-end Diamond), and a pair of Nordost speaker cables I liked so much I kept them for years. The former had most effect on imaging, the latter on clarity. Otherwise I listened to a whole lot of wire and always believed there were very slight audible differences but nothing you wouldn’t quickly get used to. The task of finding the "best" wires is a true fool’s errand. Add directionality, burn in, freaky tweaks, different makes and models in different positions in a system, etc., and there is literally an infinity of combinations possible. Many of which seem to sound reasonably close to each other!

That’s no fun. Audio should be fun.

What I like better is adjusting a system’s sound by tube rolling. Finding the tubes that do what you want is a very satisfying way to adjust the sound of a system. Now that’s fun. I’d rather do that to adjust a system’s sound to my liking.
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whitestix
720 posts
 
Kosst is my audio muse and tells it like it is.  GK espouses nothing but nonsense as usual. I certainly get the notion of run-in of gear -- speakers for darn sure, and tubes and electronics to a lesser degree, as well as wire.  At the end of the day, if you believe that your cables sound demonstrably better after 500 hours of run-in than they did after a few hours, then I must admit that you are the better judge of that than me.  I can't think of an objective way in which to affirm that conclusion other that than confirm bias. 
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,832 posts
 
@kosst_amojan

" Nobody ages steaks until they rot. Wine goes corked all the time. A lot of things have an optimal aging period, but forever is never it. I think this cable burn in jazz is pure snake oil. I’ve never heard it. Caps breaking in is extremely subtle. I think a lot of people just hear what they want to."

I never implied an infinite aging period as you seem to imply in the quote above.  Corking wine?  Really? Who the hell does that?  If they do, their palate gets what it deserves!

Can’t relate at all to what you are espousing. It’s actually enjoyable to hear from one day to the next how a cable dielectric forms to the wire within it. Most interesting, and a refutation of the "expectation bias" argument, is that oft times during the burn-in, there are periods where things sound worse. It is not a linear, predictable process. You know when the "forming" is over when the sound achieves a consistency. Again...this is why many cable manufacturers offer the trial period. There can be times when that burn-in period is completed that you are not satisfied with the sound and it’s time to visit UPS.

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