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It Pegged the Needle on My "BS Meter". Now, I'm A Believer. Ever Happen to You?

Okay, here you are. Feeling pretty good about yourself. Your high end audio knowledge base is extensive. Ears fine-tuned. You can sling words around like "dampening factor", "air gap flux density", and throw in the occasion "dark background" or "micro-dynamic" just to let those around you know you’re not a high performance audio lightweight.

Then, there it is: you are presdented with the utterly ridiculous. After the initial automatically triggered chuckle, the "reasonable" part of your brain assembles a list of the number of reasons why this makes no sense at all. You hit the eject button and move on to more sane topics, like alien shape shifting. But, the topic gets revisited. Most likely an acquaintance or industry associate asks: "Have you tried this?" You put on your best poker face and attempt to keep a friendship intact while explaining in no uncertain terms why they are out of their cotton-pickin’ mind.

After defending your space and putting up your best efforts to not come within 100 meters of this "thing", you give in to the pressure(s) and give it a listen. And then ... "what the heck just happened?!!" You are flabbergasted. Not only did it make an improvement. You have to look at the guys you just labeled as certified lunatics -- and admit they were right.

Ever happen to you?

The first, and most memorial for me .....

Monster Cable CD Sound Rings

The sonics first generation CD players were not, uh, as advertised. They had more grain than a belt sander with 60 grit attached. A bit later Yamaha introduced a new (lower priced) player with "oversampling" that filed the burrs off a bit But, still not even close to an analog experience in my view.

Then the Monster rep showed up and dropped off a little package of CD Sound Rings. Per the rep, these little boogers reduce "jitter" in CDs and make them sound better. I just couldn’t hide the obvious smirk, and "promised" to listen to them. He left. They sit on the desk along with literature, open invoices, and a pretty full todo list. I’m not sure what provided the nudge for me to give them a listen. But, I finally opened the package, stuck one (literally) to a CD, and closed the drawer. Music started playing. It was at that precise moment that CDs became listenable for me. And, opened the window for a lifetime of open-minded, audio experimentation.

Similar experience(s) anyone?

128x128waytoomuchstuff
boomerbillone
355 posts
 

USB cables make an enormous difference. I started out with the original Dragonfly outoard DAC. I used a USB cable that I had ued with a computer printer. Out of curiosity I bought a used Wireworld Silver Seven and a lot more fancy words and tried it out. Gobsmacking! I have since purchased a Zafino cable which is even better. A cable from Analysis Plus is as good or bettter. But, you should know that cables and DACs are fussy about what matches with what. What works well on one model may not work so well an a different mafufacturers unit. It's just like why the Burger Barons offer so many variations on the basic burger. Happy Liatening!

P.S. Sorry, but somebody's got to say it: If you don't hear any difference between interconnects, it just may be because you amp/speaker wire/speaker combination does not have enough "resolution" to let you hear the difference. Try some of that free speaker wire that some consumer junk comes with. (Something like 20 gauge zip cord.) Compare that with what you are normally using. If you don't hear a difference, you do not have a good package. Sad, but true.

boomerbillone
355 posts
 

Hi Guys! Sorry, I meant to say original Meridian outboard DAC. The original Dragonfly plugs directly nto a USB slot and doesn't need a cable. My oops!

waytoomuchstuff's avatar
waytoomuchstuff OP
1,098 posts
 

@ddrave44 

"After market power cords."

Same here.  I was dragged kicking and screaming into this category.  And, have never looked back. 

patrickcarey
21 posts
 

I’m late to the party.  After reading through this thread, I really like the comments here.  It’s pretty rare to see such a cohesive group and intelligent commentary.  
I will say that on my “journey” I was a cable denier and interconnected denier, a speaker, cable, denier, and pretty much everything denier.

Years Later, I understand, and have heard that everything affects the sound.  Surprise!

I started my journey with receiver for surround-sound

with Amazon, basic cables, and some decent speakers, focal aria 936.

Think my biggest surprise has been with interconnects specifically, digital coaxial cables.  I’ve got a set of audio quest, cinnamon, carbon coffee, and diamond cables. 
They all have differences.  The biggest difference is between as you might expect the $800 diamond and the $100 cinnamon cable. 
It took me a long time to concede this. 

it’s a heck of a hobby and it can really be expensive. Glad to see I’m not the only nut out here.

 

hheedah
27 posts
 

Two instances come to mind.

One: I bought some 14 gauge speaker cables, 12', "pure copper wire", banana plugs each end - sounded terrible, totally threw a wet towel over the sound (Rotel and Paradigm gear). Went back to the spooled speaker wire. Sounded way better. Cables matter. Hmm. Heard the debate for years. Heard the difference myself.

Second, listened to a very high-end system Stenheim speakers and CH Precision gear. A/B tested James Taylor's vocals with/without a small weighted plate on top of the CD transport. Clearly smoother highs with the plate on top. Not that I'll ever drop $300K on a system, but I certainly heard the difference.

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