Have cables become somewhat of a snake-oil topic.


I've invested many tens of thousands in high end 2-channel home audio gear and cables. I'm also a musician who has recorded and created mixes in many of the top recording studios in LA, NY and Nashville. These studios most often use the highest quality power treatment, tube condenser microphones, pre-amps, EQ modules, AD/DA converters, compressors, monitors, etc. Obviously, the goal in a recording studio is to capture the realism of the live studio performance for both vocals and instruments, and create a final mix-down that highlights the natural subtle nuances of the performances of each musician.

With that said, my 20 years of informal research inside these studios says that virtually NONE invest in high priced specially stranded balanced interconnects or speaker cables. Instead, various models of a particular Japanese cable is considered the studio "gold standard" and is WIDELY used in the top studios across the country. Now any good mixing engineer is at least AS interested as any audiophile, in all the audio characteristics and variables we discuss ad nauseum in these A-gon threads. So if recording pros are willing to spend hundreds of thousands on electronics and speakers, to capture the natural and neutral sound of a musician's studio performance, why is it that expensive cabling is seen as the snake oil equivalent in the recording industry. (Moreover, I could go one step further and ask why some home audio D/A converters far exceed the cost of the most sought after professional studio D/A converters?.......we'll leave that for another discussion.)

I DO NOT disagree that substituting a Nordost, Siltech, Cardas or various other high end brands into my personal studio rig do not make a difference. There are indeed audible differences between the brands in terms of bass extension, smoothness, imaging, graininess, etc. However, these DIFFERENCES are not necessarily equivalent to an IMPROVEMENT in capturing the natural/neutral details of a given performance.

(I intentionally will not address the mastering process since that has everything to do with radio and marketing execs commercial sales expectations, rather than a true to life presentation of the musical performances.)
jymc
Detlof, this is why try before you buy is the way to go. You want to charge 1K for a set of ICs? Fine, I will think about it if you beat my 0.1K Mogamis. Bring your A game, and I will pay the money.

I just spent 2.3K on two power cords. Yes, they are that good, worth every penny, and they won't be going back. Got another Power cord that runs about 700 that is only marginally better than a $60 cord from Signal Cable. Won't be buying any more from that house.

They guys that are hawking the expensive copper better bring their A game.
Jymc,
I bought a couple of VH audio AirSines with Furutech FI-50 plugs and IECs. Stunning resolution, and they took a bit of a nasty nasal tone out of my Cary amps that I didn't know was there until I heard the amp with AirSines. There was also just a little bit of what Valin calls "scrim" that the AirSines rectified. Finally, there is a clear improvement in dynamics. I had a chance to use a friends AirSines for a couple of weeks and was very impressed. Based on that audition, I expect the Cary's will also exhibit a bit more warmth with some additional burn in. Having lived with my friend's AirSines for a couple of weeks, there was no way I was going to live without at least getting a couple for the Carys. Yes, they are expensive. But as I said, they are worth every penny.
Hi Mezmo - yr point is well put
what exactly is some other wire plugged into the playback chain changing, or adding, or whatever?
Presumably, the idea is to lose as little as possible of whatever sonic info still remains on the medium (i.e. whatever escapes the compressions, the distortions, the filterings, zips cables, noise, (re-)masterings... etc)...