@antigrunge2 Reasonable except that is not the way they are sold in my experiance. Could it be because if they were they might be susceptible to testing?
What Speaker Cables Taught Me About Audiophiles
Hold on tight because none of this story ends up where you think it will.
Ages ago I did a half-blind speaker cable test with friends in the building who loved Jazz. The amp was a Yamaha P2100 with Focal profile speakers. Cables were Mogami vs. Wireworld. Source was a CD player through a Theta Casanova preamp / processor (oh how i miss it).
I thought i was going to impress my friends with how great the Wireworld Silver 7s sounded. In particular the imaging I thought was so much better than through the Mogami Sound Runners.
To the surprise of many "scientists" here, my friends did in fact hear a noticeable difference between the two sets of cables. They absolutely preferred the Mogami.
I was a little shocked. I tried very hard to keep a poker face, and not guide them either way while switching. They could not see which cables were connected from their listening location.
What happened? Did they not understand how much better the imaging was with the Wireworld?
Well, actually they did and they didn’t care. Richard and his wife did notice that but felt that the loss of treble and beat was not worth it. Hands down for them the Mogami was the clear winner.
What this taught me was:
- Speaker cables can make a small but noticeable difference
- The improved imaging came at a cost of treble energy
- Most listeners wouldn’t make the trade. They’d rather have the tempo and foot tapping experience over my precious deep into the room imaging.
Over time of listening back and forth between my Wireworld collection and Mogami or DH Labs pure silver IC’s and Mogami speaker cables I’ve given that up. I think my neighbors were right. I’d rather have the beat and energy. It’s a fetish I was giving up far too much for.
I'm definitely not encouraging you to overhaul all your cables, but rather saying that we audiophiles need to be conscious that sometimes our preferences are unique to our culture and that the "normal" consumer may not share them at all.
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@jonwolfpell wrote:
+1 Image specificity with a live performance of symphonic music is another area that in its reproduced state can take on an unnatural degree of precision and accentuation even. While it's possible to do so with a stereo system, my take is that a heightened degree of image specificity stems from or is being brought to the forefront of the perceived experience not as much due to the recording itself (if at all, really), but rather because of a lack of capturing and balancing other vital aspects of the recording such as sheer scale, dynamics, natural warmth, texture, low end capabilities and a holistic/coherent sensation, whereby a focus on detail, airiness, specificity and an overall thinner presentation takes the front seat. Some of these what I'd call 'deficiencies' are physically rooted in the speakers themselves, while also and maybe not least coming from a preference among many audiophiles on imaging and details.
My findings and preference as well.
Single point source, time aligned or panel speakers with full range elements and no crossover divisions in their passband usually have an advantage with regard to spatial acuity. Principally I'd love for this quality to be maintained in a speaker setup, but the question is in which form, size and overall execution such a design is realized for it to be interesting and comply with my specific needs more broadly speaking. Oh, the compromises. It's not that imaging isn't at all important to me (as well), but rather it's about how it feels relatively natural in the greater scheme of the presentation, and how it's balanced with or even takes a back seat to other aspects. @erik_squires wrote:
Interesting analogy, and there may be some merit to it, if only to instill the need to point out that it's odd seeing other aspects of the presentation being at the same time downplayed; why are scale, dynamics and other not deemed important as well, at least in an effort to see them less diminished as a means to "compensate" for or more closely emulate the real thing? From my chair a minority of audiophiles are actually invested and interested in trying to replicate to some extent a live musical event in their homes. |
Biggest improvement I have heard in my system by far is the Bacch4Mac room correction and spatial 3D sound. Simply amazing... once you have heard it you will understand. BACCH4Mac Overview and FAQ | Tom Martin Reports...
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