Cable Break In for the Naysayers

@raam

And some people believe there are tooth fairies. 
I prefer that which works for myself, so we agree on that much. I will not use that personal experience as a foundational edifice upon which to hang an Abdolutist Audio Ideology that I expect others to adhere to.

@amtprod 

Not sure what it is exactly that I nailed but you are welcome! 🤗 🙏🏼 

@ozzy

I will put my system up against any out there and I’ll bet that it comes out as equal to far better than any out there 99% of the time, at any price point.

I will also say that once you arrive at the quality level of my system, it’s mostly subjective: what sounds good to me may very well sound like a crapper to you and vice versa.

Please note in the link below that I do not bother to include cables in my list of system components. I do include the room designer. If people only spent 1/10 of the time discussing room design as they do cable design, they might find themselves getting some genuine improvements to the sound of their system.

“…I just experienced cable break in firsthand…”

Good for you! Some of us ascribe that to the placebo effect. I’m one of them. In my 55 years experience since building a Dyna70 at age 14, I have had plenty of time to experiment with dozens of cables. In all that time, I perceived differences in only a few, and that perception could be ascribed to my mood as much as any concrete material quality of the cable, and certainly nothing that justified the outrageous sums that were being asked for them. I do have brand name cables, but they are only because they are the least expensive of the ones that I settled upon after all the experimentation. I cannot tell you what they are because I settled this question for myself decades ago.

Imo those sums of money are instead better on room treatment. If 1/10 of the time was spent discussing the science of room acoustics instead of cables, we would all be better off.

I just got off the phone with my audio engineer. He has 40+ years experience in the industry. Besides building and repairing audio gear and guitar amps, he is also a recording engineer. He is also a guitarist and in the blues hall of fame.

We were talking about other issues but at the end I asked him about The Cable Wars.

it was a good 10-15 minute discussion but the Cliff Note version of his response is this: it’s all about the Benjamins. Make people believe, and you make more money. At the end, he said at best, cables may - may - make 1% difference, if that. The money is better spent elsewhere.

He agreed that far more attention should be put into room acoustics, that is where there is still a relative dearth of knowledge: witness how many times concert halls are redesigned and they still get it wrong.

I will conclude by posing the following question.

Suppose for the sake of argument - pun not intended - that it is absolutely true that cable interconnects make a big difference. Why then, is this philosophy not applied to all the internal wiring through all the components in an audio system: turntables, CD players, amps, preamps, speakers … and I am thinking in particular about those two skinny little braided wires that connect the spider to the cone.

I anxiously await the informed responses.

@atmasphere

BTW, a few years ago I said that I was disappointed in the sound of the recording that you did of the Mikis Theodorakis / Pablo Neruda “Canto General”.

I played it for the first time since I got my amps back from being away for months for refurbishing. My engineer said that due to the 40 year age of the amps, many parts - not just the tubes, which were running at only 60% of full strength - were at the end of their useful life. Without going into details at the moment, other than to say that he discovered an error that Julius Futterman made in his design over 50 years ago that for some reason everyone missed all of these years and that he corrected - it appears that the problem was with my aging - and ailing - amps and not your recording. My bad!

https://www.theaudioatticvinylsundays.com/about

“….Sorry, but your system looks like a beginner’s system. Like we all started out with. It may be good for home theater though….”

Who exactly, is this directed at? You are sounding like a troll now. 

Why on earth did I respond to this thread? I must have gotten out of the wrong side of bed this morning. 
 

Carry on. I’m outa here. 

“…But if you had the audio equipment and ears you would be a believer.…”

This is the giveaway with Ozzy. He just wants to argue his superiority over everyone else. The scientific basis for his assertion is non-existent: his expectation is instead that we bow down and revere his anecdotal experience as A Thing handed down from The Gods at the Summit of Mt Audio, where I presume He Himself fancies he resides.

Now I’m outa here.