Tony lol. Exactly.
One of my friends after listening to my system asked why I needed two subwoofers, pointing at Pass Labs X260.8 mono blocks.
Neighbors are just as qualified.
I see the issue with ABX blind testing
I’ve followed many of the cable discussions over the years with interest. I’ve never tested cables & compared the sound other than when I bought an LFD amp & the vendor said that it was best paired with the LFD power cord. That was $450 US and he offered to ship it to me to try & if I didn’t notice a difference I could send it back. I got it, tried it & sent it back. To me there was no difference at all.
Fast forward to today & I have a new system & the issue of cables arises again. I have Mogami cables made by Take Five Audio in Canada. The speaker wire are Mogami 3104, XLRs are Mogami 2549 & the power cords are Powerline 10 with Furutech connectors. All cables are quite well made and I’ve been using them for about 5 years. The vendor that sold me the new equipment insisted that I needed "better" cables and sent along some Transparent Super speaker & XLR cables to try. If I like them I can pay for them.
In every discussion about cables the question is always asked, why don’t you do an ABX blind test? So I was figuring out how I’d do that. I know the reason few do it. It’s not easy to accomplish. I have no problem having a friend come over & swap cables without telling me what he’s done, whether he swapped any at all etc. But from what I can see the benefit, if there is one, will be most noticeable system wide. In other words, just switching one power cable the way I did before won’t be sufficient for you to tell a difference... again, assuming there is one. So I need my friend to swap power cables for my amp/preamp & streamer, XLR cables from my streamer to my preamp, preamp to amp & speakers cables. That takes a good 5-10 minutes. There is no way my brain is retaining what I previously heard and then comparing it to what I currently hear.
The alternative is to connect all of the new cables, listen for a week or so & then switch back & see if you feel you’re missing anything. But then your brain takes over & your biases will have as much impact as any potential change in sound quality.
So I’m stumped as to how to proceed.
A photo of my new setup. McIntosh MC462, C2700, Pure Fidelity Harmony TT, Lumin T3 & Sonus Faber Amati G5 & Gravis V speakers.
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@tonywinga Yeah, these are the same people who have the contrast and sharpness controls cranked up to 11 on their TVs and think Bose makes good stuff. Oh well. |
It would seem they were disappointed because they were expecting a noticeably higher sound difference between your system as compared to what they have at home. The analogy: I imagine it is the same for televisions. You could put an average 4k tv in a room with an ultra expensive TV. I might see some difference, but the difference would not at all hinder my enjoyment of the programming. But to a TV buff, the difference is monumental. |
The drain-circling that purported cable audibility causes could be avoidable. … A fellow HiFi guru says “I perceive no difference”, well, that poor soul doesn’t have sufficiently well-trained ears and/or resolving enough kit to cut it. A musician says “I perceive no difference”, well, that player’s instrumental experience is too narrow. A conductor / music theory prof says “I perceive no difference”, well, live music and stereo playback are two different things, so that maestro’s comparing apples to oranges. A studio recorder/mixer/masterer says “I perceive no difference”, well, HiFi components that reproduce those recordings somehow reignite sonic elements lost or masked by gear-inattentive negligence of those techs who made said files. Then another forum avatar types “I do perceive difference…”, and no experience or credentials need be forthcoming: that fella understands! The anecdote rolls into a collective mindset convinced of reality despite lacking enough general curiosity to rigorously test it. And yes, anyone who swears cables are audible components and got upset by the term “snake oil” or someone insisting no difference could possibly exist, that’s the same tendency using different words, guised in an analogous package of pseudoscience. The two polarized mindsets can be much more alike than some folks seem to recognize. I really like the tv analogy @jetter - well-chosen! |
very well said ... +1
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