Ddraudt - How can you call me a friend if I am so negative and boring? But thanks, for the title.
No, my writings here have not been negative. If anything, they have been logical with questions of merit. But the only responses back are the same each time: if you don't own or care to audition the HF cables, you should not be in this thread.
As an engineer of 30+ years in both the electronics HW and SW worlds, i know of no engineer who's ideas or products downright put all the "competition" in second or third or whatever place. I do not question Ricks ability. I only point out that the 3 or 4 dominant writers here can't seem to imagine that other products are also candidates for consideration as top performers…..except the next model from Rick.
ARC has been notorious over the years with all the MK2 updates and then the next product that absolutely blows away the previous design. And my own experiences with ARC products over the years showed this to not at all be the case. But this was going on in 2-3 year increments. With the HF cables, this "greatest cable on the planet" is changing every few months. That was my point of the $100k PC is on the horizon if this "evolution" does not stop. This is not negative at all……it is a valid point. And I do not care if you pay $100k for PC's. More power to you, no pun intended. But don't get on my case that I am negative or boring for pointing this out or commenting a new cable design that time and time again results in the greatest audio orgasm of all time.
Rather than the same responses again and agin here, "wow, this latest HF cable is like nothing I have experienced before", take a little time and tell us what are the observations made to come to such a conclusion. Give us specific details such as you hear a third guitarist that before was not "present", or piano delineation is like never before, increased ambiance or harmonic overtones, greater dynamic contrast…..anything, just anything to educate people here what $8900 for an IC or $15k for a PC is bringing to the scene. But I don't see any such comments…just the same ol' things, "wow, wow, wow". Yawn indeed.
When I have written here of cable auditions, tube rolling experiences, preamp shootouts, etc., I go through such detail. And a lot of people reply here or send me many emails for further comments. The bottom line is that this thread totally lacks this kind of detail and sharing. It's just 3 or 4 guys patting each other on the back and sitting at the camp fire singing Kumbaya.