Terminitus

[Geoff.R.G]

This +1. You should see what cables are used in a recording studio sometimes. Most of us wouldn't put them in the same room as our system never mind connect them up.

My cable of choice is Van Damme with Neutric connectors, a good balance between cost and reliability and the connectors are GP proof. No cable is GP proof. Live sound, not studio but the same requirements.

[ArloFlynn]

When many interconnects cost more than a thousand and speaker cables run in to the thousands and in a few cases tens of thousands it's almost inevitable that the market will attract the bullshit crew with their misleading claims.

On another forum there was one person that had spent more on cables ans supports than on his actual hi-fi equipment.
And others that had spent more on cables than they had on their amplifier or speakers.

This usually led to me commenting that their approach was "radical".

I started with my tonearm and I swear it made a difference. In fact every aspect I hardwired I swear it made a difference.

I was myopic is chasing the minutiae of improvements. It was what I did after a hard week of being a lawyer.

Looking back I spent to much time listening for differences and not enough time listening, except for times when I was drunk.

O and it was daft and a ball ache. I couldn't unplug anything or move anything.

Being on the sick as given me time to figure out what's important and piss about with equipment and forget the minutiae.

Pareto.

As a very broad general rule. For a given recording, in a given room, 80% of how good it sounds depends on the speakers. Or the analog source plus the speakers for vinyl.

Doesn't make sense to me to focus on the 1% to 5% difference that cables can make, when for the majority of people, including me, there's plenty of scope to improve the 80%.
But then emotions rule over logic when it comes to buying decisions. Because we're Humans and not Vulcans.

Would Spock have a cracking hif-fi system, for the amount of money he spent on it? Or would he have Harbeths because he wouldn't "get" the emotional side of music?

[karatestu]

Like many here, my cables are all NVA. Nothing more is required I won't be changing them and don't plan to buy anything else . The plugs on them make a very reliable connection. Job done.

[Chunk McDaniel]

Spot on Stu. Never heard a dramatic difference in cables till I tried NVA. I am sure there are good cables out there but often wonder about pricing. Even NVA cables cost a lot when you start to reach the top end of things. Never had the money or the inclination to experiment too much. So I guess my experience is limited. I am sure of bang for buck with NVA though.

[Daniel Quinn]

Pareto.

This is a good theory. With hifi I would add that there is a difference between better and just different.

This difference is the hardest to discern and I'm of the opinion that the vast majority of post i read on various fora forget this distinction.

[Geoff.R.G]

One of the reasons given for designing super interconnects and speaker cables is timing and phase relationships. It occurs to me that if the cable used in the studio/concert hall has screwed up these aspects, better cable in the listening room is not going to restore it. All a different cable or connector can do is to not make the situation any worse.

[NSNO2021]

One of the reasons given for designing super interconnects and speaker cables is timing and phase relationships. It occurs to me that if the cable used in the studio/concert hall has screwed up these aspects, better cable in the listening room is not going to restore it. All a different cable or connector can do is to not make the situation any worse.

As I continue to improve my system my ability to pick up the small, often very transient details in a recording has highlighted the above and as a result I have a small and slowly growing collection of CDs/LPs that will end up on ebay or given to a charity shop because they are literally the are going from bad to worse.

Thankfully on the flip side good stuff becomes very good and great records lift my spirits and make me feel happy and at one with the crazy world we live in.

[savvypaul]

Pareto.

This is a good theory. With hifi I would add that there is a difference between better and just different.

This difference is the hardest to discern and I'm of the opinion that the vast majority of post i read on various fora forget this distinction.

Difference is hmmm. Better is OMG.

In other words...

...if I can discern through critical, objective listening, that is a difference...

...but if the change makes me more engaged and wanting to play more and more records, that's better.

[Geoff.R.G]

Pareto.

This is a good theory. With hifi I would add that there is a difference between better and just different.

This difference is the hardest to discern and I'm of the opinion that the vast majority of post i read on various fora forget this distinction.

Difference is hmmm. Better is OMG.

In other words...

...if I can discern through critical, objective listening, that is a difference...

...but if the change makes me more engaged and wanting to play more and more records, that's better.

Pretty much any change will make a difference, whether the difference is an improvement is another matter but I agree with your definition of better.

[Lindsayt]

One of the reasons given for designing super interconnects and speaker cables is timing and phase relationships. It occurs to me that if the cable used in the studio/concert hall has screwed up these aspects, better cable in the listening room is not going to restore it. All a different cable or connector can do is to not make the situation any worse.

As I continue to improve my system my ability to pick up the small, often very transient details in a recording has highlighted the above and as a result I have a small and slowly growing collection of CDs/LPs that will end up on ebay or given to a charity shop because they are literally the are going from bad to worse.

Thankfully on the flip side good stuff becomes very good and great records lift my spirits and make me feel happy and at one with the crazy world we live in.

There is a huge "Yeah but" to this.

Best taken with an example.
Comparing my EMT 950 with TSD15 to a SME 20/12a with Koetsu, I can more easily pick up and hear the small low level details on the SME rig. But relatively speaking, the SME set-up sounds as boring as hell. I keep willing it to belt out a tune when the chorus kicks in. To let its' hair down and to forget being oh so polite and prim and proper and restrained sounding. But it never does. It never jumps into Cocker at Woodstock mode. Where it belts out a tune and hits me in my brain through my ears with both barrels.

The SME is dynamically compressed in ways that the EMT isn't.

It's a no brainer. Certainly for the right hemisphere of my brain. The side that deals with emotions.

Is the SME actually better at preserving small details? I don't know. It might be. Or it might be that because there's less contrast in the volume of transient peaks vs the low level instants that there's a psycho acoustic effect going on. Where with the EMT my mind is focused on the loudest instants. The fractions of a second where the drumstick hits the drum-head. The instantaneous moment when a guitar string is plucked. The times when the vocalist gives it their all. With the SME there isn't that series of smacks round my head to focus on. There's a polite caressing of my ears from the other side of the room. Like a warm relaxing bath - which is OK on XTC's Somnabulist, but not OK on every fucking record.

Out of the the 2 vinyl sources I know which one sounds more like actual musicians singing and playing in my room.
And which sounds like an electro mechanical reproduction of music.


Having said that, comparing my EV Sentry III speakers with Creek CAS4040 amp to ATC 11's with a Hegel H360 amp it was very clear that the ATC's were smoothing over the dynamics AND masking the detail, especially in the midrange which sounded crude on these tiny low efficiency 2 way speakers.