Cable Costs Relative to System

Oh, one more thing I forgot. Brizonbiovizier, if you are using filters on your speaker cables you are greatly reducing the frequency extension of any cable used and it wouldn't surprise me at all that you hear no differences.

It would be like trying to judge different grain levels of camera lenses after putting a non reflective coating on the lens that hurts the performance of all the lenses but hurts the top performers worse making them close to the same.

You have awsome power cables. There are steals and rip offs in high end just like anything else. You should not exceed 20% of the cost of the system in cablles because there are some $1000 cables out there that are better than $4000 cables. The best cables I have ever heard are the new Essence cables. Essence is the company that actually builds your power cables and line conditioner under a different name. FMS is also real good but hard to find.

The reason cables cause as much controversy as politics is because most companies that have a great sounding cable made it by accident and can't duplicate the performance in other models because they don't know how. I have heard expensive cables sound bad and expensive sound good. I have heard some cheap cables sound good too.

Add to the confusion the fact that a lot of respected audio equipment is not as good as believed and you have cables compensating for bad equipment like Firestone did for Ford.

The way to really hear huge differences in cable is to have electronics capable of bandwidth in the mega hertz ranges. There are 4 or 5 good cable engineers out there that understand electrons on a molecular level and those are the ones that make the best cables regardless of the price. Most of these companies of course are unheard of brands that magazines ignore and so the true artists go hungry as they always have.

Some of these people have had their designs stolen from well known names who can't design beyond their first fluke.

Everyone, I would like to expand on what I said do to the post Brizonbiovizier made. I won’t repeat some things so just read my post to bring you up to speed on my opinions.

Cables make a huge difference IF the components in your system are well matched, IF the equipment is capable of outrages bandwidth, IF the room the system is in is not over damped or rings, AND IF multiple ingredients a performance are equally important to the listener such as:

Dynamics,
Height perception,
Width and depth of sound stage,
Relaxed detail (not forced)
Roundness of instruments.
Reflections of sound in space,
Texture,
Tonal stability
Leading edge speed
Natural decay
Recreation of distant ambient noise
Breathing of emotion of the artist.

I have done double blind tests several times in my career including tests done at Harmon International and at the Audio Institute in Canada. I picked the brand of electronics, speakers, and cables 96% of the time and when I have explained to people what to listen for while with them one on one, over half the people were able to get scores above 80%.

The audiophiles I know that don't hear differences in cables are the ones that can only concentrate on one or two things at a time.

These are the same people that can't drive with their knees on the steering wheel while they eat and talk on the phone at the same time.

Nothing wrong with that but you can't tell others there is no difference in cables any more than I can tell you there is a God. One day we all will know for sure.

Come to my store, I will show you differences. My biggest customers for cables are the engineers that told me cables can't make a difference. Some of them are on this sight as believers.

Fact still remains that we only know how to measure 50% of what we hear. The human brain and healthy ears can detect all frequencies, dynamics, and differences in compression at high volumes vs. low volumes with multiple instruments compared to solo instruments and phase relationships with all of the above all at the same time in real time and no scope can come close to that.

Same way humans can have insight and sense trouble without direct sensory information. It is because we have souls that are far more capable than we give credit for.

I will agree that if basics are right, you can get good sound without spending tons. I'm just the kind of guy that can tell big differences in tires, cloths, soap, spices, and women.

"anecdotal evidence is not sufficient" Call Dr. Floyd Tool, director of National Research Council in Canada. He only believes in specs and he will tell you I heard all the differences presented to me, well at least 96% of them.