A New Believer


I have listened to many systems over the years, and have never appreciated the difference speaker cables can make to a sound. In fact, I was so skeptical of the sound changes they can make that I have always not bothered with any special type of cables, generally going for generic (and dare I say it) roughly made ANY copper wire plugged in to amp and speaker. Well, imagine my surprise when I decided to do a blind test and listen to what difference cabling can make. Wow, my Vand 3A Sig's had been getting strangled! (some of you guys may want to strangle me if I told you what connects I had been using). So I am now a firm believer, cables DO make a difference.
joshc
Rok2ID,
I have done that test over the short term, in my apartment, with multiple people present, and noone able to know whether I had changed something or not (I had a screen in front of the pre/CDP to allow me to switch cables (or pretend to) and not let anyone see what I had done. I have done multi-hour test a few times. It has been enlightening each time. I can let you know results if you want but people clearly heard differences between cables used.

HOWEVER, what it brought to me was that a certain chain of products sounded different, not that the cables themselves sounded different. I have no way of testing the wires by themselves without attaching such mundane test equipment as pres, CDPs, phono stages, amps and speakers into the mix. Some of the wires obviously had different electrical properties (resistance, capacitance, inductance). I am pretty sure that they all carried music. Some did not do the details as well. I have no idea whether that was "time domain issues", an electrical issue, a resonance issue, or what it was. Everyone heard it very clearly. But what everyone took away was that everyone could hear it clearly on that setup, not another.

If you think that all cables have equal electrical properties, then you obviously have not done enough testing yourself. I have not done the tests with scientific equipment to say that the signal can be changed (which is not the same thing), but I expect that given the way you have presented your ideas (or rather, your attack on others' comments), neither have you. Personally, I am unwilling to believe that the electrical properties of the carrier have zero effect on how the piece at one end of the wire perceives the electrical signal

The nice thing about the 'wire is wire' argument for people like you is that it is easy to be satisfied. You can simply buy the cheapest CDPs and amps which look good. You don't need to worry about tubes vs transistors (it's just wire vs wire) and you don't need to worry about Class A vs Class B vs Class D (it's also just wire vs wire). CDPs are simple - bits is bits. Jitter is a figment of people's imagination or an artifact of the CD manufacturing process. Speakers and phono cartridges you might be able to claim are key, because they are not electronic signal carriers but physical transducers. But everything between tonearm output to speaker input can be garage sale castoffs linked with lamp cord.

But somehow I don't think that's the way you found yourself on Audiogon...
To T_bone:
you make a lot of good points, and I will try to respond to them all.
I would love to have the results of your test. Now we are getting somewhere.
As far as having to involve cd players and the rest of the system, well thats what we are talking about. HIFI systems. Some people are trying to twist this thread into some discussion of physics lab results, but the question is, does wire change what comes out of the speaker. If you can hear a difference, that is actually what you are saying. What happens on the wire surface at a Lab at MIT or some place is not the question. The question is HOW does it affect my hifi playing Beethoven's 9th to such a degree that I can hear it?
To T_bone:
'The nice thing about the 'wire is wire' argument for people like you is that it is easy to be satisfied. You can simply buy the cheapest CDPs and amps which look good. You don't need to worry about tubes vs transistors (it's just wire vs wire) and you don't need to worry about Class A vs Class B vs Class D (it's also just wire vs wire). CDPs are simple - bits is bits. Jitter is a figment of people's imagination or an artifact of the CD manufacturing process. Speakers and phono cartridges you might be able to claim are key, because they are not electronic signal carriers but physical transducers. But everything between tonearm output to speaker input can be garage sale castoffs linked with lamp cord.'

Now this is where you lost me. Why does my position on wire mean I buy the cheapest components? I don't get the connection. Tubes went out Econs ago. I have had class A and class AB amps. My current amp is both. I don't know whether jitter is real or not, but I paid a grand for my CD Player, so I better not hear any. I threw my phono cart away with my Thorens, or at least I threw them into the garage. Your last sentence is nonsense. BTW, I never said amps is amps or cdps is cdps, BUT some very prominent people have, including my guru's Len Feldman, Julian Hirsch and Peter Aczel. So who am I to disagree? BTW, most 'high end" amps cost what they cost to a large degree because of what it took to make them LOOK like they do. And they look GOOD.
To T_Bone:

'but I expect that given the way you have presented your ideas (or rather, your attack on others' comments)'

This seems to be a recurring theme on this site, concerning my comments. Am I doing something wrong? Breaking some rule? If I am, please set me straight. I am relatively new here.
"This is No time to be WASTING money on NONSENSE, such as wire and power cords. And EVERYONE on this site knows it's nonsense." I think this is a good example of what T_Bone may be referring to.