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Are cable recommendations worth anything?

I am a Denafrips dac owner. I use the Denafrips Facebook site for the same reasons I use this site.

Discourse, basic information and hopefully some enlightenment.
Recently one of the contributors asked the default question of "Can you recommend RCA cable brands that match well with Denafrips from dac to amplifier?"

Am I the only person that is confused when someone asks an open-ended question like this about cables?The sheer variety of "highly recommended" cables, lends me to believe that the cables are much less important to the sound than the component itself. Recommendations ran the gamut from the Tellurium Q Black Diamond cables at $1,100 CDN per metre, to the Blue Jeans cables at about $50 CDN per metre.

How does that make sense and how can this possibly help the poor slob that asked the question?
128x128tony1954
millercarbon's avatar
millercarbon
12,531 posts
 
Questions like that make no sense. Not because cables don't make a difference, but because it completely misunderstands the difference they do make. 

There is no such thing as the best cable between this and that. This and that do not care the slightest what is between them. Its you. You are the one and only thing that cares. If you are serious about building a music system that sounds good then that is the one and only thing you can afford to be concerned with: how it sounds. 

For how it sounds you can forget what is connected at either end and focus entirely on the sound. Because sorry, but the system matching guys are wrong. A cable with a wide deep luxurious stage is gonna be like that no matter what. Its not gonna magically change and become flat and lifeless just because you didn't find the right match. Synergy. Balance. Whatever. All BS. 

So first you must know what you value most in a component. Which component? Doesn't matter! If you want a deep wide 3D sound stage with beautiful presence and dynamics then you want that from everything. You do not match some hyper articulate crap to balance out whatever. You want it all, each individual piece, to be that way. That's the question you ask: What cable will give me a big bold dynamic 3D sound? And I answer: Synergistic Research. Or you ask What will give me thin hyper analytical: Nordost, Transparent. Like that. 


hilde45's avatar
hilde45
4,900 posts
 
People I know who have been focused on cables for many years basically take this approach -- they establish a price point around which to try several, they get someone like the CableCo or others to send them a few pairs to compare, then they listen attentively and return either all of them or all but one. A good dealer will be able to at least attach an adjective to a cable, as MC did above, and then it's up to you to negotiate a trial.

In my case, I took what seemed like a good recommendation, found it used (50% off or more) and when I heard it, it sounded fine and I have just moved on. I went with Analysis plus cables.
ebm
9,311 posts
 
Depends on your system and your wallet.I using PURIST by far the best cables i have had in my system Blue Jeans are good for jeans.Cables co is good if you like to pay near list price.
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