Cable curmudgeon

@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.    : )

Did the OP get kicked off the forum, or was he just performing for us?   

+1 Thyname & Soix

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.

Actually, the relationship between the 'bass' and the ear's 2-5kHz most sensitive region. Cables have almost zero effect below 100Hz. And probably just for your LS [type].

Nordost's can be a nasty load for some power amplifiers which can have any number of audible consequences.

tunefuldude

Thank you for your very thoughtful response to my comments regarding cables.

I have not tried Nordost yet-- but I will go over to their site and start doing some reading.

I don’t trust my first reactions to an equipment change unless the change is huge and obvious (something say, my wife would also notice), but I do believe that subtler differences will reveal themselves over time once I’ve had a chance to listen to a lot of different music. For me this is usually weeks or months.

I do believe that analog chains are sensitive to more variables than I am probably even aware of, and that the mix of gear and the quality of the power driving it make a huge difference in sound quality.

My main point is always the same. If you are not happy with the sound, first try improving the room acoustics as much as you can. Then, for vinyl in my case, look to the phono cartridge as that’s at the beginning of the chain, and there are real and obvious differences between cartridges. Then the phono preamp. Assuming you have good amps and preamps, look to the speakers and their positioning.

Ultimately, once you hit a certain level of quality, have enough power to drive your speakers, etc., after getting all of that out of the way, then sure, play with some cables.

My only point about cables is that price does not equal quality beyond a certain point-- what I have noticed are differences, like you might notice between some quality wines of the same varietal. They don’t just keep getting better and better as you spend more and more per bottle.

You clearly know your system, and you hear what you hear-- and in your case you like what you’re hearing from the Nordost cables. Many people have told me the same thing, so I might give them a try-- from turntable to phono preamp, from there to preamp, and from there to the amp. That’s a complete circuit and over time the changes will reveal themselves to me usually. I’m overall pretty happy with my system. The next major change I want to try is to buy a Primaluna tube amp and see how I like that sound. I’ve been on solid state for a very long time now, and I’m curious about how tube output will sound on my Genesis III’s.

Thanks again for taking the time to write what I consider to be a kind and useful reply, absent the usual insults, quips, and cultish dismissals.