I am sick of cables

Many moons ago, when I lived high above the waters of Biscayne Bay in the Kingdom of Autogonia, I chanced upon a beautiful used Goldmund RCA coax cabilia which I purchased for the princely sum of $1500. The Goldmund was the single most expensive component in my stereo by moonlight system.

One sorry day, my 4 year old nephew destroyed my beloved Goldmund with his teeth becuase he thought he was killing a snake. I was heartbroken and vowed never again to buy an expensive cable.

And so, with a heavy heart, he rode north towards the border.

Kijanki, I had the cables available for a couple of weeks after the setup, so I had time to decide whether I would cash them in or look elsewhere. Synergy can be a large part of any system, and tastes vary, but something clicked big time with the Monster cables mentioned. One caveat, I held on to my pricey PC's...MIT Oracle AC 2 for the Krell and a Transparent MM Reference for the Sony. Providing pure power is not something you can skimp on I'm afraid:) By the way, I still have some MIT Oracle V1.1 IC's around for comparison as well as the Cable Co. Library of cables which I have used to decide on cables...the only way to know is to have something in your own system for an extended time period.

Dave_b - I just wasn't sure if you compared them A-B in the same system. Like with any product there are some very good bargains but there is a correlation (unfortunately exponential) between price and quality (transparency, clarity etc). I don't have extended experience with cables but I tend to agree with Bradleyc that people often use cheap cables to fix certain system deficiencies (calling it synergy) while neutral transparent cables that "disappear" are more expensive. Cables are non-perishable (don't wear out or age) and therefore deserve a little more investment. As it is right now in my system it would make sense to sell IC (AZ Absolute) and get better speakers - but I will buy them eventually anyway.

How can one tell when a cable "disappears"?

Does that mean if I substitute another cable and the sound is the same, that they both disappear? That would seem to make sense if "disappear" means do nothing to change the sound.

But I was under the impression that different high end cables sound different as well. Does that mean that they might not always disappear either?

Personally, I have never heard two ICs that sound the same on my system, so I have to believe that none of them truly disappear.

It is easier and more practical to determine the effect a particular IC has in a particular system versus another one, like any other system component. I feel more able to do this and determine the right "synergy" that sounds best to me than I would to be able to determine that a particular cable "disappears".

A system is the sum of its parts (including room and the ears listening) anyway, so what difference does it make if something does dissapear or not? THe rest of the system is not going to. SO in the end I do believe it is the overall "synergy" that counts.

Its like making soup. The right combo of ingredients works to make good soup. A bad combo will not work as well. Even so, some may still like the soup and others not.

Mapman -- Excellent thoughtful post.

Some of you may be interested in the following, written by the late distinguished speaker designer and manufacturer John Dunlavy.

http://www.verber.com/mark/ce/cables.html

Towards the end of this post, he describes controlled experiments he performed in which audiophiles visiting his studio were asked to compare the sound of various cables to zip cord. Invariably "the largest and sexiest looking cable always scored best - even though the CABLES WERE NEVER CHANGED and they listened to the ZIP Cord the entire time."

Regards,
-- Al