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
kosst_amojan
Why on earth would I advocate a position based on a premise that I don't believe in?

Costello: Well, all I'm trying to find out is what's the guy's name on first base?

Abbott: Oh, no, no. What is on second base.

Costello: I'm not asking you who's on second.

Abbott: Who's on first!

@nonoise 

You are very clever. Great rebuttal. I still haven't got an anwer why some folks prefer the sound of fuses and wires over the faithful reproduction of the source!
@shadorne 
The way I see (hear) it is that no component, in and of itself, is a faithful reproducer of music. They are what the designers think they should be, researched and developed in house with ancillary equipment they have on hand such as sources, speakers, cables, etc. They all fine tune it to what sounds best and hope it's good enough for everyone else.

Anyone who's been to a manufacturers place and been in one of their listening rooms is privy to what they use for playback purposes. They usually have a few different speakers, sources and what cabling they like. It's fairly representative of what's out there but it's hardly extant. 

Having said that, the place I visited was a famous brand name with a higher end brand that is very well respected and very costly and all they used for cabling was the cheap crap that comes with a $50 DVD player. I couldn't believe it but I certainly heard it. $5K amp driving $7K speakers with generic cabling and it sounded like crap. The guy went on about the sound and how superior the drivers were and all I could think of was did he drink his lunch? I still bought the unit I came for since I got it for half off and when I got home, it sounded so much better in my system which retailed for about 1/6 the cost.

Now can anyone claim that what I heard at the costly name brand factory was faithfully reproducing the source? Simply replacing those red, white and black cheap as hell ICs and zip cord speaker cable would have woke that system up. I've heard that gear at audio shows with better cabling and it can really sing. Sometimes, tweaking can not only fine tune a system but make up for cheap, cost cutting steps made along the way.

All the best,
Nonoise
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