"After market power cords."
Same here. I was dragged kicking and screaming into this category. And, have never looked back.
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?
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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. 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. it’s a heck of a hobby and it can really be expensive. Glad to see I’m not the only nut out here.
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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. |
@patrickcarey Following up on your cable journey, any way to estimate or better yet know, which speaker cables will sound good with which gear? Goes for interconnects too. I have Kimber speaker cables, Ascent series, and they sound good but I fell into them and would like to find cables that may take the edge off the ribbon tweeter. Whaddya think? Trial and error or is there a way to figure it out? |
Yeah, great question. I stayed with AQ as a brand and tried a number of their cables, both interconnects and speaker cables. I have heard enough to know now that , for example, the AQ 'water' cables do roll off slightly.. or maybe it's the more textured presentation of the top end. I've had some mogami rca cables that really rolled off the top end, but also threw a wet blanket over the speakers. Usually, however most want more detail and texture. So, I think it's really tricky to use cables to try and tune your system. Still, having said that there are some cables I prefer on different systems in my house. I have an Arcam SS the avr 850 paired with Focal 936 and that system needs more detail and air as the arcam is pretty dark, so AQ work well there. I wonder if you are hearing a ringing or are otherwise unhappy with the top end you maybe should be looking at your amp + speakers. I can suggest one cable, and you could try it and make sure your vendor has a return policy so if you don't like it, you can get your dollars returned. That cable is the AQ coffee interconnect. |
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