"I think it most often happens with budget systems."
Happy Halloween.
DeKay
Are cable “upgrades” just as likely to make your system sound worse?
Many of us with highly resolving systems have found that speakers cables and interconnect cables can improve the sound quality of our systems. But are they also just as likely to do the opposite?
A few months ago, I “upgraded” to a renowned speaker cable, and immediately noticed more detail and resolution. I was so pleased I also “upgraded” the interconnects. But with more time I realized that the trade-off for more detail was a thinner sound with diminished tonal richness. Thus began a maddening series of attempts to fix the problem – different speaker cables, different DAC, different streamer, and now even a 30 trial of a new amplifier to try to overcome the thinness and find a more natural tone. It finally occurred to me to replace the out-of-sight-out-of-mind interconnects (with my original interconnects), and immediately the problem was blessedly solved.
Have others experienced this frustration? What recommendations do you have to avoid such fiascos?
64 responses Add your response
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High-fidelity sound reproduction, psychophysics, and auditory neurophysiologyhttp://boson.physics.sc.edu/~kunchur//Acoustics-papers.htm "Cable pathways between audio components can affect perceived sound quality", M. N. Kunchur, Journal of the Audio Engineering Society, vol. 69, pp. 398–409 (2021). pdf file (also please see the paper's official AES Forum) |
I think it most often happens with budget systems. This happened to me when I was just starting off. If you have high quality components, typically a better cable or interconnect will be more transparent and impart less of a tonal shift… so great interconnects just tend to improve things. But if you have doubled down on highly resolving a real transparent interconnect can tip you over. But if this happens, then you likely have component mismatchs. The mark of synergistic components is you want more transparency in the interconnects and this should be what you are getting by upgrading. |
Very seldom do people report a failed upgrade. There is a lot of confirmation bias and often people who don't even know what good sounds like often report great improvement, often directly proportional to how much they spend and how much they had to drink during the testing. If they make the report the same day they did the upgrade, I don't trust it much. Once you have upgraded to high quality cables, I think the difference is exaggerated. I look for real technical differences in the cables I upgrade to. For example I like low mass connectors and super high quality copper or copper/silver/gold allow for analog. (note that allows generally degrade conductivity so if you're looking for higher conductivity, avoid sterling silver which has a lower conductivity than copper. Avoid any alloy. That said, conductivity isn't always the key and Mundorf has done some good research). for digital I like solid silver wire as I think digital has such high data density that the improved conductivity helps. My ears confirm. Of course I validate with my ears. I never consider an upgrade to be successful until I've listened to it for a week, return to the old component, and can clearly conclude the old component is inferior. If I'm not sure, then I call them equal and this happens more than you might think. Jerry |
@wester17 - Were you happy with your DAC, amp and streamer before you changed the cables? |
I have had a similar experience. I needed a little more sparkle at my top end, and the obvious choice was a Nordost Valhalla II. It did exactly that, but they took a little warmth from the midrange, albeit the midrange is now clearer. It was a tradeoff that I was happy with. I think many cables sound different, but not necessarily better. Although frustrating at times, that's what makes this audiophile disease kind of fun! |
According to the rules of placebo effect , it should sound better if that’s what you had hoped for! 😁 Honestly, what we prefer is always subjective, but I’ve definitely had cables that I didn’t like, or at least that had traits I didn't want in the system, and couldn't live happily with. A good return policy from your seller can be really useful....or better yet, a dealer or friend who will loan cables.
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