Cable curmudgeon


I'm not an 'audiophile" but I like to think I have a good ear having been a professional musician (principal wind player in major symphony orchestras) for 50 years. A number of years ago going into an excellent audio equipment store I talked with, what seemed, a knowledgeable salesman.  Being a musician experienced in audio systems but not expert on all the equipment out there I had some questions concerning high (over-priced?) end cables. The salesman assured there was an audible differencet in a demo room switching back and forth etc.  After a few minutes I noticed the sound coming out of only one channel.  He complemented me on my "good ear."  Hmmm? A few years later when setting up my home system I investigated speaker cables. Two sets of Monster, stranded standard cable, solid core copper (used for alarm system) attached with like connecters. There was a difference.  However, not in terms of better or worse: bass and treble were acceptable as was clarity loud and soft.  Differences were esthetic- like asking "whose the best tenor" (I like Plácido).  Now I know as a musician used to live (i.e. un-amplified) music that all I hear coming out of a loud speaker is perforce ersatz.  But most everything today comes out of a loud speaker whether a rock concert or a hi-fi system so perhaps my opinion is curmudgeonly. But, for me, spending oodles of money on hyped cables, well... I  liked the solid core for my alarm system- still do.

 

exflute

I wouldn’t use colored components with rolled off highs to assess any cables.

How do you know the Mac system 'failings' were not the cables? One AQ swap changed it from beautiful to beastly.

 

 Mac/B&W D3 combos ... simply gloss over too much detail to be useful in accurately determining the subtle yet critical differences between cables.

Not my experience at all. While not my cup of tea, Mac makes some lovely gear and stellar systems can be assembled with the right choices of LS & cables.

 

Whenever a customer wanted to hear the differences in cables I deferred to other more neutral and transparent electronics so the differences could be more readily heard.

Wasn't that rather pointless? Since cables interact with the hardware and the effects are largely system dependent, unless you are demoing on similar equipment and program the result could be WOW, meh or BLECH when the poor schlub gets them home... hence the burn-in scam.

 

Well those are just silly arguments I’m not even going to bother responding to.  Let’s just say we live on different planets and leave it at that. 

Yes good cables makes the difference, especially if you are willing to listen and open to what good cable can do.

Well those are just silly arguments

If one can make an excellent system awful w a single cable change, it stands to reason that the correct cables can make a less than stellar system much better.

Unless one subscribes to the nonsense that cables on their own have properties that do not change relative to the devices connected.

If one bothers to pay attention to impedances, cables become much more predictable.

Bottom line is cables make a difference and manufacturer hierarchy is solely $$ driven.

 

@wesheadley I'm not a tube guy or a vinyl guy so I'm not really hip to your equipment but it looks like your system is well thought out and you have a real sweet setup. You appear to have good taste, I bet you're pretty discerning and you seem like a pretty bright fella.

Based solely on my own experience with cables, I guess you could say I sort of did a jump hop and a skip from the cheap s**t I guess most would consider the equivalent of lamp cord, to real entry level higher quality cables that made a small difference and then made a decision to explore some really nice cables as I collected some sweet gear.

The way our brains process the cues from our systems is one of the things that intrigues me about our shared hobby. My own experience has shown me that when we clean up the power signal, and provide an unimpeded signal path IF we're using equipment that's well engineered and the pieces are paired well with other components the music just sounds different. I personally don't care if others can perceive it or not. It's extremely subtle but it's what makes this difference some folks around here have also discovered. Sometimes you just don't know what you don't know. 

The approach that seemed the most legit to me was Nordost. Boy, you talk about some expensive s**t. But I shared all that to say this: I'd be willing to bet if you performed your own proposed challenge with the range of Nordost cables that it would make a believer out of you. By the way, yeah, if you come up with a unique idea and create a superior product and you can get people to pay you a silly amount of money to own your stuff then rock on. I'll even go out on a limb and say the more you charge the more it's gonna make the right folks want to own it. For me, it's not a matter of coveting stuff. Music is how I get my jollies and I'm willing to part with some pretty big hard earned bucks to achieve it.

This is sort of starting to sound like I'm a fanboy but I guess you could say I am. Check out the science behind their design. I bet you're gonna think it's relevant. And I want to apologize in advance because to outfit your cool system with a complete loom at a level that's gonna give you what you're looking for (in spades), it's going to be expensive as f**k. Ha ha ha

But watch what I'm sayin. The end result will be that those silly cables will let your awesome equipment play your music in a very uncolored fashion. When I first achieved it, even when I got close, it actually seemed a tad awkward because it was different from what I was used to. But the different types of bias folks talk about around here are very real. The one thing that'll change as you explore the upper range of Nordost is the bass. I mean there are improvements in other areas as well, but that's the one area that made the biggest difference for me.

I bet you're a Valhalla kind of guy.    : )