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What is wrong with audiophiles?

Something that has happened countless times happened again last night. Ordinary people over for a party listening to some music easily hear things audiophiles argue endlessly don't even exist. Oh, its worse even than that- they not only easily hear but are stunned and amazed at what they hear. Its absolutely clearly obvious this is not anything they ever were expecting, not anything they can explain- and also is not anything they can deny. Because its so freaking obvious! Happens every time. Then I come on here and read one after another not only saying its impossible, but actually ridiculing people for the audacity of reporting on the existence of reality.

What is wrong with audiophiles?

Okay, concrete examples. Easy demos done last night. Cable Elevators, little ceramic insulators, raise cables off the floor. There's four holding each speaker cable up off the floor. Removed them one by one while playing music. Then replaced them. Music playing the whole time. First one came out, instant the cable goes on the floor the guy in the sweet spot says, "OH! WTF!?!?!"

Yeah. Just one. One by one, sound stage just collapses. Put em back, image depth returns.

Another one? Okay.

Element CTS cables have Active Shielding, another easy demo. Unplug, plug back in. Only takes a few seconds. Tuning bullets. Same thing. These are all very easy to demo while the music is playing without interruption. This kills like I don' know how many birds with one stone. Auditory memory? Zero. Change happens real time. Double blind? What could be more double blind than you don't know? Because nobody, not me, not the listener, not one single person in the room, knows exactly when to expect to hear a change- or what change to expect, or even if there would be any change to hear at all. Heck, even I have never sat there while someone did this so even I did not know it was possible to hear just one, or that the change would happen not when the Cable Elevator was removed but when the cable went down on the floor.

We're talking real experience here people. No armchair theorizing. What real people really hear in real time playing real music in a real room.

I could go on. People who get the point will get the point. People who ridicule- ALWAYS without ever bothering to try and hear for themselves!- will continue to hate and argue.

What is wrong with audiophiles?

Something almost all audiophiles insist on, its like Dogma 101, you absolutely always must play the same "revealing" track over and over again. Well, I never do this. Used to. Realized pretty quickly though just how boring it is. Ask yourself, which is easier to concentrate on- something new and interesting? Or something repetitive and boring? You know the answer. Its silly even to argue. Every single person in my experience hears just fine without boring them to tears playing the same thing over and over again. Only audiophiles subject themselves to such counterproductive tedium.

What is wrong with audiophiles????
128x128millercarbon
atdavid
736 posts
 
Based on the op's own words:
  • He cannot even get the number of cable elevators right (says it was 4 one time, 6 another time).
  • A convenient "engineer" comes up with a red-wine challenge, that makes no sense with experienced wine drinkers especially at a white-wine tasting party.

When I look at those things, to me, this story just appears made up.




millercarbon OP1,934 posts11-13-2019 1:24am

The improvement from a set of cable elevators is flat-out obvious.

Like I said the first time, one friend noticed he could hear the difference removing just one. One. On one side. Out of ----- 6 ------. Sound stage collapses, midrange and treble loses its detailed smoothness, grain and glare increases, depth flattens and the whole stage that was deep and wide becomes flat and almost in your face.




Ordinary people over for a party listening to some music easily hear things audiophiles argue endlessly don't even exist.

Okay, concrete examples. Easy demos done last night. Cable Elevators, little ceramic insulators, raise cables off the floor. There's ----- four ----- holding each speaker cable up off the floor. Removed them one by one while playing music. Then replaced them. Music playing the whole time. First one came out, instant the cable goes on the floor the guy in the sweet spot says, "OH! WTF!?!?!"

Yeah. Just one. One by one, sound stage just collapses. Put em back, image depth returns.


millercarbon11-10-2019 4:40pm

prof
3,482 posts
 
atdavid,


I have no idea what is wrong with audiophiles, but if you look close enough, you may find clues.



Yeah, this is one of the more ironically named threads isn't it?  ;-)


My cabling would give the OP nightmares.  Regular old Belden speaker cable, 45 feet long, run from one room to another down floors, along ceilings, back up in to another room where it comes out and runs along a shag rug to the speakers.   I actually bury the cable in the shag rug which makes for a very neat "no cables" look.   Gawd knows the monsters that are traversing along my cables.


And yet....


Doesn't seem to damage the sound at all.  The speakers I just bought sound better in my home than in the store when they were hooked up to Nordost cables, power conditioners etc.  My system sounds at least as good (better IMO) than some friend's systems who have tens of thousands of dollars worth of audiophile cables, conditioners etc.


Poor me.  I'm really missing out on these audiophile tweaks. 
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
This all started back in the 80s when Enid Lumley wrote an article in The Absolute Sound describing her Cable Tunnels which, if you can believe it I build some. Three sections of pine 2x4s, made into a tunnel, wiped down with vegetable oil with small eye 👁 hooks on the inside top 2x4 every foot or so. Then string is used to suspend the cables Inside the tunnel from the 👁 hooks. Voila’! 🤗 And yet, this sort of thing hasn’t caught on among the general public. 🤡
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Bingo!! We have a match! atdavid and prof. Do they win a prize? Maybe some Cable Tunnels? Carpal Tunnels? 🤗
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon OP
12,531 posts
 
Based on the op's own words:
  • He cannot even get the number of cable elevators right (says it was 4 one time, 6 another time).
  • A convenient "engineer" comes up with a red-wine challenge, that makes no sense with experienced wine drinkers especially at a white-wine tasting party.

When I look at those things, to me, this story just appears made up.

In my best Walter White: "You got me!"

Or maybe if you would try half as hard to see the big picture as you do trying to find the slightest niche to argue you would understand. Read it again. There's Cable Elevators the trademarked product and there's cable elevators the generic ceramic insulators. 

So under my speaker cables on each side are three Cable Elevators and one generic cable elevator. So there's your four, and there's your six. The cable elevators sit real close to the amp and were left in place. Only the three Cable Elevators on each side were removed. 

Rather baffling how this is the one tiny detail out of everything that tipped you off to this all being one big fiction. Meanwhile the reality of being trolled on a Trumpian scale eludes you. Why, its almost enough to make me wonder if you might be related to a man named Clouseau?

Oh well. Either way, still Exhibit A in the museum of What is wrong with audiophiles?

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