How much money for your next interconnect cable???

Dazzdax,
I don't know about spending $10,000 on a single pair of interconnects but I do know a thing or two about vintage gear. In my component library I have a pair of Western Electrics 9 watt amps and a pair of Voice of the Theater horns acquired from my local theater when they "upgraded." I've also heard numerous systems based on vintage electronics, horns, and turntables. I agree those old systems were very musical but they did not then, nor do they now, possess anywhere near the resolution, nuance, or holographic sound staging of a modern system with carefully selected cables. Case in point when you upgrade old patch cords and 16-gauge lamp wire found in a vintage stereo, you upgrade overall performance, musicality, and enjoyment for that system.

Think about a vintage Ferrari or Austin Martin. Sure those were great cars, perhaps more inspired then many of today’s super cars, and driving such a car is a passionate experience. However, would you dare suggest these cars could not benefit from modern high performance radial tires? Sure modern high performance radials are more expensive compared to 1960’s bias ply’s, but is that the point? Would modern tires not improve the lap times and overall handling of a vintage sports car and are these gains in performance worth the added expense? To me the analogy of vintage sports cars and their horrid bias ply tires vs. modern high performance radials fits this debate like a glove.

LM

Ghosthouse
"Anyone using ICs from JPS Labs? Have a Superconductor FX between TT & Amp. Have 2 pair of Ultraconductors between CDP/Tube Buffer/Amp and would like to upgrade. The Super is better than the Ultra. I've got a very modest budget...so the $348 x 2 for new 0.5 M Superconductor Qs (Q has replaced the FX) is a stretch. I realize by comparison to some of the ICs owned by A'gon members this is a pitifully small amount - none the less any suggestions about bargain/hi value brands? Used is OK. Imaging, Soundstage (with & depth), Netrality and Transparency (help the speakers dissappear)are the things I'd be looking for (if I'm not re-stating the obvious). Thanks."

I moved from the FX to Slinkylinks and never looked back. They shouldn't be too expensive and so far I've not come across any cable, including most costly ones, which would entice me to change.

Pitiable me--I thought this was a genuine question rather than an invitation to come down front and testify at the altar. But seriously, and w/o rancor: John's point is just right. If you expect to hear a difference, you'll hear a difference; if you don't, you won't. Put tap water in a bottle and sell it for $3.00 a quart, and hydrophiles will wax poetic about its superiority. My question is not whether your 1000k cables sound better to you when you know they're there; my question is whether you and the cable congregation :) can distinguish, in a BLIND test, between $20 cables and $2000 cables. If you can't, then you're paying $1980 for the privelege of being fooled, and that's your perogative. Honestly, I'm not in the least opposed to paying for even slight increases in sound quality; nor am I opposed to aesthetic considerations: well-made cables, like well-made amps, speakers, and the like, are things of beauty, and can enhance one's experience in the way that a freshly washed car seems to drive better. But if I found that those with even supersensitive ears and high expectations couldn't, in a blind test, distinguish between high-end and low-end cables, I'd get the least expensive well-made cables I could find. Would anyone do otherwise?
Cheers,
Stewie

My point is that components, including cables, do indeed sound different. To me it's a given. Everyone is free to believe what they want to believe but why even engage in the conversation if one believes everything sounds the same? Now whether those differences sound "better" is pretty much subjective. And whether that difference is worth mega-bucks is a whole other aspect of the discussion.
The "blind" test is touted by those who believe that objectivity is possible in all this craziness. I don't want to open that can of worms, AGAIN. I believe that there is a place for objectivity but at the end of the day most audio decisions are based on subjective opinion; you like the way something sounds or you don't.
Having said all that, I agree with you Stewie that a certain amount of scepticism is a good thing especially when it comes to all the hype thrown around by manufacturers. I guess the old adage; "trust your ears" is the way to go.

Thanks for your very reasonable post, Rja; I might just make a couple of points, if I might, and then sign off. First, I don't doubt for a moment that components sound different. My new VR4HSE (bought on Audiogon!) sound different from my Kef Reference 3s. The Mullard 4004s sound diffent from the GE 5751s, though that difference is less pronounced. Some may prefer the Kefs to the VRs, and some may prefer the Mullards to the GEs. One would have to be nuts to think that there is an objective opinion about which one is better. It would be like assuming that there's an objective fact of the matter about which color is "best." But the blind test is looking for something very different, and it leaves value judgments aside. The blind test is testing for one thing and one thing only: whether someone can distinguish b/t, in our hypothetical case, 2000k cables and $20 cables. If you can't distinguish the cables in a blind test, then your preference for one set of cables doesn't depend on sound. Imagine for example, that someone could not only distinguish b/t the $20 and $2000 cables, but preferred the way the $20 cables sounded. The test doesn't say: no, it's objectively true that the $2000 cables sound better, so you're nuts. It only says: you can hear a difference between the two. So, if the cable congregation can't distinguish, in a blind test, between high-end and low-end cables, it is objectively true that their preference for the high-ends is independent of sound.

This is not, by the way, a troll. I'd considered more expensive cables about a month ago, but couldn't find a single blind test that showed expensive cables making a detectable difference. If someone could point to such a test, I'd love to see it.