jrpnde says:
I am confused....There are plenty of folks on these these forums that are VERY knowledgeable about electronics, electricity, and circuits. There is an extremely wide price between the "junk" cables that came with a product and the super, extremely expensive ones that can be had.
I ask this question......how sophisticated must a system be to truly hear the difference in sound from a modestly priced cable and the super expensive ones? Is it just a matter of money?
No it is not just a matter of money. And it doesn't take a very sophisticated system. What it does sometimes take is some fairly sophisticated hearing or listening skills.
Its actually 50 years, half a century, since Julian Hirsch misled a generation with his "wire don't matter" mantra at Stereo Review. Heck, I bet most of the people today who doubt if wire matters don't even have any idea how their skepticism can be traced back to Julian Hirsch.
What's amazing about this is how long its been since his view has been out of date. Sure back in 1970 he could say prove it and nobody had hardly anything that sounded very much different than anything else. By 2000 though it was pretty damn obvious you can do an awful lot better than stock power cords, patch cords, and lamp cords.
The situation today, and which has been the case for many years now, is you can actually totally justify spending more money on speaker cables, interconnects, and power cords than on all your other equipment put together. Read that again. Every word. Because its true.
Here's how I know. Not think. Know. As in been there, done that.
First time was the now retired Stewart Marcantoni had me listen to this one system he put together at Weekend Environments. Sounded fantastic! We played a bunch of stuff, all amazing, and then he told me: the wire and power conditioner in this system cost TWICE AS MUCH as the speakers, CD player, and amps. TWICE!
I'm not saying spend twice as much on cables. I'm saying it has been PROVEN that if you do so it is not a waste. Not at all.
But that was a pretty high end system. What about normal folks?
My father in law, although worth millions was the kind of guy who could never see spending hardly anything on a stereo. So when his died he gave me a budget of only $1200 for the whole thing. With that $1200 budget I got him a CD changer, integrated amp, bookshelf speakers, power cords, interconnect, speaker cable, and cones. Fully tweaked out and budgeted it all came in just under $1200.
Putting it all together at my place to burn in and make sure it all sounds good before delivery I was really surprised at how darn good it sounded. I mean if you are thoughtful and plan it out and don't forget details like power cords and cones. Tweaks beat components. Every. Single. Time.
But then I thought, like the OP, what would happen if..... so I took one of the $500 interconnects from my system and... damn! Totally transformed that little budget stereo! What if I try this $600 power cord? Boom! Same thing! $500 speaker cable? Now well over twice as much money in cables as components and I could hardly believe how good this thing sounded.
People will dispute. People will argue. These will all be people who have never done this. I have actually done it. It works. Its true. And this was years ago, and the developments since have only made it even more true.
Quality cables are essential to every system regardless of budget. They call it a system for a reason. Everything matters.
