WHY CABLES MATTER!

kevn

You see, getting into hifi audio is much like getting an education, albeit one in listening, and hearing. In a similar way photographers learn how to ‘see’ better, an audiophile learns how to hear, and listen better, for nuance, inflection, and above all, timing. And as with a typical education, one cannot just head straight to college, 

Everyone new to hi-fi audio should know what they are getting into. 1st thing they should know is all audio systems in the world sound un-natural. Whatever people pay (money and effort) for the audio gears, it won't get remotely close to the original music. If they knew the hi-fi audio sounds un-natural, people won't be frustrated so much with the audio sound.

However, just a day or two into my journey/education, I began to feel that something didn’t sound right, glorious as it was. There was something in there that did not sound realistic, that the performers sounded distant, like a thin cloth separated me from the music. 

That thin cloth (sound coloration, glare, veil) between you and the speaker will be always there. In below video, all audio systems in the world behave like a left speaker which is veiled. If you say anything while your audio system playing, you will hear similar sounds like the left speaker.  Alex/WTA

So this video, which we are listening to on our phones/computer is supposed to show us how bad music reproduction is by comparing it to a natural voice speaking at the same time- through our computer/iphone speaker. Mr. Spock would say that is illogical. That speaker sounds bad with or without his natural voice talking over it. That much I can hear on my iPad.

I have and so has everyone else heard people talking in front of their speakers and they still sound great, fantastic, realistic.

If an outdoor PA speaker is your idea of hifi no wonder the low opinion of the art.

Just another sham.

If hifi really sounded so bad the industry would have died out long ago.

In 1910, Thomas Edison marketed his new phonograph with stage shows. He had his phonograph and a live singer on stage behind a thin curtain. He would have the singer perform or he might play a record on his phonograph and then ask the audience to decide if the performance was live or was it the recording. He sold a lot of phonographs. And they weren‘t cheap.

+1 @tonywinga Silly premise @mihorn .

@kevn i enjoyed your post and response. The funny part is you got folks telling you that you are not smart enough or intelligent enough to hear the difference in different cabling. Man continue to do you. I think it’s kind of arrogant for some guys to think they are so much smarter than everyone else to the point where cable believers are suckers and cable deniers are the Einstein’s. I honestly think that if you let a random guy tell you on the internet what you are hearing or not hearing in a system that he or she will never hear then you are the sucker for taking his advice.

About 8 months past since this oft-repeating thread first started , it has now bottomed out into an entirely predictable opposing binary choice, with no chance of movement on either side.

On both sides, their respective “John the Baptist preaching in the wilderness” posts are mired in an intransigent Mexican standoff, that strongly craves that it’s high time to simply and mercifully shelve this futile thread .

I have no doubt that the naysayers hear no change in THEIR systems (emphasis added) ….. fine.

but the Brits have a bespoke expression in their lexicon to best express the notion that applying the same naysayer opinion to all other audio systems - and especially high-end systems - as gospel : “ Bullocks!”

Choose wisely, and carry on.