Mark admits to being out of audio for eight years. How many cell phones have been sold in that time? We are being bombarded DAILY with increasing amounts of rfi! I have found in my system the single ended cables sound as different from each other as components do. When using balanced, the difference is minimal. I have a/b'd $100.00 monster mic cables with $10,000.00 nordost Valhalla balanced in a $80k system. Barely percievable was the difference. Blindfolded doubt I could tell. Single ended anyone should be able to tell. -and while your ac is limited by the romax in the wall, what's the first thing your component sees? The cord coming out of it. Haven't we all see what happens to the TV when someone in the house using a different circuit turns on a vacumn or micro wave? I for one don't want that pollution getting to my stereo. Speaker cables as well are very suseptable to rfi.
Now, are these "tiffany cables" stupidly over priced? ABSOLUTELY! Some are quite costly to make, but by the time the distributer and retailer double and re-double the price it is totally out of line, there's NEVER a sale, or any nogotiation. Which is not to say these companies don't deserve to make a living. I like to physically see and hear a product in a store first. But perhaps if there were more direct sales manufacturers, the retail prices would experience downward pressure.
I have a fair amount of top monster cable products, while they aren't "fashionable", they do most of what the best cables are capable of, and I can justify the price, as they are aimed at the mass market. Another hi performing resonable price line is Custom Cable Company, they really blow away competitors for a fraction of the $.
For the record, I worked 20+ years as a live & studio engineer and performer, in the US & internationally. While I never got wealthy, I do spring for good cables in my home recording studio (16 track 2inch analog) as have an increasing number of my associates. Glass fiber optic cables for digital studios, etc.
Bottom line: we all have to live w/in our tax bracets, but to ignore the science of interference causing audiable artifacts and robbing fidelity from those who care about it is dening yourself greater enjoyment!
Now, are these "tiffany cables" stupidly over priced? ABSOLUTELY! Some are quite costly to make, but by the time the distributer and retailer double and re-double the price it is totally out of line, there's NEVER a sale, or any nogotiation. Which is not to say these companies don't deserve to make a living. I like to physically see and hear a product in a store first. But perhaps if there were more direct sales manufacturers, the retail prices would experience downward pressure.
I have a fair amount of top monster cable products, while they aren't "fashionable", they do most of what the best cables are capable of, and I can justify the price, as they are aimed at the mass market. Another hi performing resonable price line is Custom Cable Company, they really blow away competitors for a fraction of the $.
For the record, I worked 20+ years as a live & studio engineer and performer, in the US & internationally. While I never got wealthy, I do spring for good cables in my home recording studio (16 track 2inch analog) as have an increasing number of my associates. Glass fiber optic cables for digital studios, etc.
Bottom line: we all have to live w/in our tax bracets, but to ignore the science of interference causing audiable artifacts and robbing fidelity from those who care about it is dening yourself greater enjoyment!