DO CABLES REALLY MATTER?

There is a huge difference between "knowing" and "striving to understand."  When we cross over to "knowing," we get locked into a belief system and become argumentative in defending it.

If the "knowing" includes "You get what you pay for" and "Everything makes a difference," then we become the target of con artists preying on those belief systems.

That's not to discount "Looks cool" as a reason for purchase.

Well here we go! Everything in Audio is not a con. It’s a business. People develop a product the sell it for a profit and it’s up to you if you want to pay for it. Yes, I KNOW EVERYTHING MAKES A DIFFERENCE. Some differences you like some you will not. It’s up for each individual to decide. If it helps you ultimately to get the sound you seek then maybe it’s worth it to you. Some people Mark THIER gear up to insane prices and you have to decide if you wanna pay it. I get that you can put great sound together at cheaper prices. However, I do my research before I make my purchases I see what technology and R&D is used to make the product. I usually get a demo of what I’m thinking of purchasing. Usually i get an in home demo if possible. I follow this method even with cabling. I try to not to buy sight unseen or heard. A lot of people in this hobby do. I try not to. You wouldn’t spend money on a car if you didn’t test drive it so why should you spend the same or more in Audio without testing it in your home. I’ve had some dealers get turned off by me wanting to do this. But I just go somewhere else if they do. So that way you KNOW if it works in your listening enviorment. I also took the liberty to go out and listen to the insanely priced gear to see what I heard that was different. I thought the insanely priced stuff when matched and set up properly could be spell binding. The Raidho speakers plus Solutions electronics did this. However you could get a nice house for what that gear costs. Which is crazy so you get the best you can afford and get a sound you like and roll with it. If folks don’t let you demo then don’t go there. It’s too costly at times to make a mistake with gear at certain levels. There are those who play in the low end. There are those who spend more and there are the guys who go all out assault regardless of price. Decide what you want try to hear it in your listening enviorment that way you know! Looks cool is great but if the Sonics are not there it don’t matter!

Huh? Rules?! There are no rules in high end audio. The streets in high end audio city don’t stop at the edge of town. They keep going. No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher’s dirty looks!! It happens all the time, people follow the wrong....you know...

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The problem with a $1000 system is finding budget speakers which do fast, deep bass. Bose have always been clever at how they handle the extremes, and many regard them as them as the high end in not only prestige terms but also sonically.

In fact my neighbour has a Bose system and she seems happy with it. It would be a waste of time to discuss sound quality with her as she regards us audiophiles as a little strange (if not exactly mad). 

I think that's the main reason why really good loudspeakers can cost a lot of money. My current speakers have a FR of 35Hz-20kHz ±4dB and that's good enough for the occasional Jazz, Rock or Reggae if required. For many years I didn't even bother with low bass being happy to settle for bookshelf models which had a reasonably vivid midrange and not too much of a sting up top. 

In fact the old adage about a good midrange making you forget what you might be missing is one that I found to be true when I listened mostly to Pop and Vocal.

However nowadays I do want to hear what Peter Hook or Ringo Starr were doing in the studio. Any system with little below 60 Hz would just feel too limiting now matter how refined.