ngjocky.. it's why almost everybody I know has a few favorite discs, (I have been using a Diana Krall disc forever) that they know really well. I play something, I hear something different, not sure what it is. So I play it again with the old component, the I switch it again, just listening for that passage, and eventually, if I am lucky I figure out what it is. Then I figure out if I like it. Here is a perfect example, I was trying some Nordost Valhalla interconnects. I heard a wider soundstage immediately vs. my reference, only slightly less deep. But then I kept listening, and there was something bothering me. So I took out a cd called Ucross, and there was no body to the bass relatively. It almost hurt my ears. But for six or seven other cd's, it wasn't immediately noticeable. So do ya want a soundstage, or do ya want fuller bass... or do you ya trash both cables to find the wider sound stage with the fuller bass? And therein lies the crappy part of cables.. the differences are generally subtle, it takes a while to figure out where the diffs are, and then if ya haven't found the perfect cable, ya try again. And then there are the times I am wrong. I remember a very respected reviewer loved some fibre optic cables, loved loved loved. He had them for months I think, and compared them against other cables. Come to find out he liked a very flawed cable, which after an even longer time bothered him, and which measured as it turns out terribly. Sometimes, like when I changed my preamp from a digital preamp, the differences are very apparent, and sometimes they are good, sometimes they are bad, and sometimes I'm still not sure which trade-offs I prefer. Confused yet?
Cheers,
C
