High Fidelity Cables CT-1designed by Rick Schultz

@ddraudt. Thanks for your response. I'm having some more people come and listen in a couple of weeks. Of course I'm in dallas so if you are up this way you are welcome. @ other folks If some are up this way if I'm available on the weekends. I will let people come take a listen. I don't mind for the most part. I want people to experience what the cables and equipment do together. I started on this journey 6 years ago and I've been blessed to hear some great gear. People come to this thread and others to find out what is good and what is not. We want the best sound possible. I've heard stuff I can't afford raidho d5 and stuff I can afford revel studio 2. I like to hear the best stuff and figure out ways to get there. I remember my first nice speaker the martin logan vantage. It went up from there.lol. I remember a guy trying to sell me expensive hdmi cables. Lol and how I ripped him a new one for trying. Then I started trying audio cables and they typically got a little better as I paid a little more. I tried cables for about 4 years then I tried high fidelity then I tried the better ones up the high fidelity chain. They got better and better. I have changed equipment and I might even decide to downsize my equipment now. However, my cables will stay. Everyone do what suits you. It might not make sense to anyone else but do what makes you happy. If you can afford it. Do it. If you can't do cheaper. Just enjoy your system. You will spend more time with it than anyone else. I post on this thread because the music makes me happy. I remember earlier this year when I acted like a 5 year old on this thread. There are times when it got nasty and there are times when I laughed my butt off. I call it how I see it. I haven't changed my cable brand choice for 2 years which is amazing for me. Lol. Others brands are good but this one does it for me. Find a way to listen to whatever you can. If you got cables you like stay with them. I'm looking at the trend here the last 5 or 6 days here and all I hear is blah blah blah. The thread is now all about saying that this person is a secret agent and I'm going to ride a white horse and expose them. It all makes me realize why I started this journey in the first place. I did it for hearing the music in the realist sounding form possible. I get clarity, soundstage, natural timbre, speed, excellent highs,Mids and tight bass. I get great sounding voices. I feel like I'm there. One thing about this hobby is no two people have the same system in the same room. Get there for yourself. Don't let other people tell you what you like and don't like. Don't let others distract from the music. I listen to music. If I want an expose I watch 20/20 or dateline nbc. I like jazz, blues, country, rock and great voices. I'm going to get back to the music. Everyone please remember why you started in this hobby in the first place. Enjoy whatever you have and can afford. All I know is I recommend high fidelity to anyone looking for great sound. I'm turning the channel off and the music on right now. Come listen with me I invite you just don't talk about the show you just watched while the music is on. Enjoy.

Happy Holidays to all regardless of what equipment you use.
BTW; I just received "Midnight Sugar" by Yamamoto, Tsuyoshi Trio and three of their other CD's. I'm listening to Midnight Sugar right now and all I can say is Wow! A very good trio and well recorded, dynamic CD.
Best regards,

@lak that's what I'm talking about. The music on that cd is intoxicating. It is a ealy great recording. My revel studio2 and my high fidelity ultimates plugged in to the arc ref3 give this recording snap, drive and musicality that is off the charts. I like to hear about audiophiles enjoying the music and turning off the background noise. That is a great trio and recording. Very high quality. I'm out in Houston but I can't wait to get back home to fire my system up. I will post another suggestion soon.

@lak I have 2 suggestions for you. One is called "Two Shade" by Gerald Clayton. The other is called "Alive" by Hiromi. These are two really good albums. The other piano album I suggest is called "saturday morning" by ahmad Jamal. He is 85 years old and has been recording for 60 plus years. This last cd is smoking. Lol. Give it a try. This material with the high fidelity ultimates you have will be complete ear candy.

08-11-14: Badman
"System Wide" is unambiguous and includes loudspeakers. They're all just handwaving claims, meaningless and absurd. "3rd party" is a copout, and doesn't stand in any industry. Whose data, whose test did you use? Are they legit or someone you paid to produce false data to substantiate your claims? Laboratories LOVE to have their name referenced when they performed testing, it's free advertising. The only reason it's not mentioned is because it's a sham. Proper test results are a great marketing tool, and if they could do what they claimed, they would be used by military, nasa, everyone and their brother.

It's impossible to reduce "System wide" THD and IMD by 14% in the cables, since the cables are not meaningful contributors of these types of distortion. Cables cannot positively influence the operating behavior of properly working gear in THD and IMD. SNR improvement of 1.5dB is within typical measurement variance- someone's cell phone being in their pocket can make that difference, or broadcast schedules, or freeway traffic, or or or...... but I don't take issue with that 1.5dB claim, which is entirely possible.

Take a look at Stereophile. They measure amplifiers, preamplifiers, speakers, DACs, but not cables- why? Because cables don't show up on measurements in a meaningful way, unless they're broken (and "not nice enough" doesn't qualify as broken). Note that this is within audio cables specifically- when you get into true high power and/or high frequency design, every little thing gets more complex including cables, but we're talking about the audio band here.

Every person disagreeing with me has one simple task to "win". Show meaningful distortion measurements from an audio cable (not claimed nonsense measurements by some unnamed 3rd party, proper measurements with methodology, etc). Any audio cable. If it were a big enough issue to reduce system distortion by 14%, you'd better believe it would have published measurements- just like every other type of gear around. Such testing doesn't exist, because cables don't add meaningful THD, IMD, or most other measureable distortions. Noise is definitely one area where they can contribute but 1.5dB is NOTHING.

While I'm not an audioholics fan, this testing does indicate that there are not significant THD components derived from the cables themselves, which would be a prerequisite for achieving the claimed improvements. These are at levels well below a typical system's noise and distortion floor, even with loudspeakers excluded.

www.audioholics

Use 'em, enjoy 'em, I don't really care- there are legitimate mechanisms by which cables can introduce their own sound into a system. THD and IMD claims of this magnitude are outright lies.
Badman (Reviews | Answers | This Thread)

Badman, I think some of your points are valid. Maybe TBG or someone with Rick's ear can garner a better explanation of said results.

A more interesting topic would be magnetism and audio and its effects on RFI, EMI and potential "timing errors" in the music that was highlighted by software co-developed by Vertex and Nordost: http://www.stereophile.com/rmaf2010/nordost_and_vertex_measurements/index.html

Badman, what are cables doing in your opinion if anything?