Thiel Owners

Well...trying to keep this related to Thiel...

Having recently completed a very extensive auditioning period of a long list of speakers from $6,000 to around $20,000 or more retail (some new, some used), virtually every single one of those speakers were hooked up to a wide variety of high priced speaker cables (including Nordost and other well regarded brands), attached to systems with expensive interconnects, expensive AC cables, power conditioners etc.

Somehow, despite all of those items that should have accumulated some impressive gains over my cheapo cabling, none of that seemed to give them much of a leg up on my system. In every case I found my system competitive (and usually better/preferable) in every way, whether it was detail, smoothness, organic quality, timbral nuances, imaging, you name it. My system did not seem hampered in any way at all.

So for me, I'm confident in where I have allocated my money and time - which is to the right speaker (and good room set up).  

I love my Thiels!

(I don't plan on selling my Thiels, only augmenting my speaker collection as I love speakers).

andy2

nice deduction on the Acoustic Zen cables.  Over the years, I have spent the most time, owned, Transparent Audio products.  From my previous system I endorsed the Super IC and PC.  Very good for little money.
Imagine my surprise when I had more than several opportunities to audition the top-tier Ref, RefXL and OPUS cabling systems.  Beyond belief.   Happy Listening!

I'm with prof on cables.  In my experience they make such a small difference compared to other things that I've always considered them of negligible interest.  I don't really consider myself an audiophile and I'm at a very unaudiophile stage of life with two small children.  I find speakers make the biggest difference, having enough power makes a big difference, the room makes a big difference, the preamp makes a big difference, DAC makes a difference.  

Room treatments make huge, easily measured and easily heard differences.  I've got a digital EQ hooked up to the sub in one system and that makes a very noticeable difference.  I have a measurement mic and I found my peaks, knocked them down at most 4db and it's still a huge improvement.  I've also done this in the past with bass traps and various foam absorbers when I had my system in the basement.

I'm not someone who believes cables make no difference but I don't believe that the high end cable market is primarily about improving performance.  I think it's mostly tone controls and accessorizing, comparable to putting a bunch of decorations on a vehicle or something.  Power cords are, to me, the most egregious example of this.  You can spend thousands on a cord for a component that takes a few watts.  How can this make sense when you could just make the component battery powered and disconnect from the grid entirely?  Wouldn't high end manufacturers be offering battery powered components or, at the very least, have an option to feed the component with DC from a far better power source than AC?  There are hardly any battery powered sources or preamps out there.  

 

There are hardly any battery powered sources or preamps out there.  

It's a matter of practicality. 

I have tried Nordost, Straight Wire, Kimber, Analysis Plus, Better Cables, JPS Labs and Synergistic Research.  Although different cables seemed to be to do different things tonally occasionally, it wasn't until I arrived at Synergistic Research that I heard an appreciable difference in my system.  This was when SR's element series cables came out.  They simply blew me away.  I had always been extremely reluctant to spend very much money on cables but the differences I was hearing were undeniable (for me, an undeniable improvement).  I eventually went SR throughout the system at some considerable expense.