Are audiophiles still out of their minds?


I've been in this hobby for 30 years and owned many gears throughout the years, but never that many cables.  I know cables can make a difference in sound quality of your system, but never dramatic like changing speakers, amplifiers, or even more importantly room treatment. Yes, I've evaluated many vaunted cables at dealers and at home over the years, but never heard dramatic effect that I would plunk $5000 for a cable. The most I've ever spent was $2700 for pair of speaker cables, and I kinda regret it to this day.  So when I see cable manufacturers charging 5 figures for their latest and "greatest" speaker cables, PC, and ICs, I have to ask myself who buys this stuff. Why would you buy a $10k+ cable, when there are so many great speakers, amplifiers, DACs for that kind of money, or room treatment that would have greater effect on your systems sound?  May be I'm getting ornery with age, like the water boy says in Adam Sandler's movie.
dracule1

Showing 1 response by jhconnor

I totally understand both sides of the cable argument. For years I was very judicious with regard to how much I spent on cables and power cords. As the quality of my system improved the more noticeable the changes in cabling became.

One year at the RMAF I went to a workshop on cables. The point of the workshop was based on the benefits and synergies of having "consistent" cabling throughout one’s system. The demonstration was eye opening. From that point on, I made it a goal to work towards that end game. The next step was to find a cable/ cord manufacturer that I liked, trusted, and most importantly felt was a reasonable "value". I’m sure that the big name cable manufacturers make solid products but I wasn’t convinced there wasn’t too much mark up for marketing and dealer profit built in to the cost of their products.

Through research, a little luck, and maybe a little divine intervention I was fortunate enough to meet Frank Dickens. Frank owns Silent Source Cables. After many, many hours of discussions and research I began the process of switching my cables over to Silent Source. My system is now completely Silent Source along with a couple Silent Source PC’s as well. All I can say is the results are absolutely incredible. I have absolutely zero regrets for "investing" the money in his products. And, I have made a trusted friend who is the best resource I’ve ever had for audio advice. The likelihood of me changing my gear around his cables is far greater than me changing his cables out around my gear. I feel like his cables give me the ability to fairly evaluate literally any change I make to my system.

So, in my opinion, there is good stuff and bad stuff out there. Good values and not so good values. I don’t disagree with the premise that there is some snake oil being peddled out there. But, I don’t think it’s fair to paint the whole segment with the same brush.