A little History lesson on, "High- End" cables:
I think everyone will enjoy the encounter between Blue Jeans Cable, as used by Brayeagle and by me, and Monster Cable. You can Google the combination or check out this link: https://www.audioholics.com/news/blue-jeans-strikes-back Monster bit off more than they could chew that time. |
Jimski - I am a beta tester for almost 20 years for GroverHuffman.com cables. He uses an air dielectric (patented) with flattened ribbon conductors. The shielding is immense with a combo of copper braid dipped into a solidified solution made of copper, nickel and tungsten powders to eliminate EMI/RF and other nasties from the cables. The worst cables I've heard have also been in the $5k to $70k region. High Fidelity magnetic cables were the worst offender sonically and pricewise, heard at audio shows and in private homes (who's owners switched to GroverHuffman and Nordost cables). Some good sounding, affordable cables include my friend's and Triode Labs. I'd rather listen with Blue Jean cables than many of the really expensive cables. I admit that the finest audio system I've heard used ultra expensive MasterBuilt cables (which may have derived from NASA or other military uses adapting for audio). |
Beyond a certain point, with respect to materials and assembly costs, a $5,000 cable is not better than say a $300 cable. What you hear are small differences-- like flavor notes between a varietal of wine. Is a $500 bottle of wine "better" than a $50 bottle. No. Just different. If the market decides they prefer one over the other then demand can drive costs. But for the winery to claim they have some kind of unique patented magical grapes and that this is why they have to charge $500 for that bottle is 99.99% booshwa. Cables are, without question, one of the greatest scams in audio. Many of their claims defy basic science, and their pricing has absolutely nothing to do with costs and everything to do with selling a myth of their own creation. So what to do?-- buy them, listen, live with them a while, and if you can afford them-- then just enjoy the music. Once you get into the hundreds of dollars you're going to be buying well-made cables-- no better and no worse than cables costing ten times as much, just small system dependent differences. The rest is just a marketing story that was made up in order to sell them to you. |
