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I see the issue with ABX blind testing

I’ve followed many of the cable discussions over the years with interest. I’ve never tested cables & compared the sound other than when I bought an LFD amp & the vendor said that it was best paired with the LFD power cord. That was $450 US and he offered to ship it to me to try & if I didn’t notice a difference I could send it back. I got it, tried it & sent it back. To me there was no difference at all.

Fast forward to today & I have a new system & the issue of cables arises again. I have Mogami cables made by Take Five Audio in Canada. The speaker wire are Mogami 3104, XLRs are Mogami 2549 & the power cords are Powerline 10 with Furutech connectors. All cables are quite well made and I’ve been using them for about 5 years. The vendor that sold me the new equipment insisted that I needed "better" cables and sent along some Transparent Super speaker & XLR cables to try. If I like them I can pay for them.

In every discussion about cables the question is always asked, why don’t you do an ABX blind test? So I was figuring out how I’d do that. I know the reason few do it. It’s not easy to accomplish. I have no problem having a friend come over & swap cables without telling me what he’s done, whether he swapped any at all etc. But from what I can see the benefit, if there is one, will be most noticeable system wide. In other words, just switching one power cable the way I did before won’t be sufficient for you to tell a difference... again, assuming there is one. So I need my friend to swap power cables for my amp/preamp & streamer, XLR cables from my streamer to my preamp, preamp to amp & speakers cables. That takes a good 5-10 minutes. There is no way my brain is retaining what I previously heard and then comparing it to what I currently hear.

The alternative is to connect all of the new cables, listen for a week or so & then switch back & see if you feel you’re missing anything. But then your brain takes over & your biases will have as much impact as any potential change in sound quality.

So I’m stumped as to how to proceed.

A photo of my new setup. McIntosh MC462, C2700, Pure Fidelity Harmony TT, Lumin T3 & Sonus Faber Amati G5 & Gravis V speakers.

dwcda
audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,324 posts
 

 

 

dwcda OP

9 posts

….

That’s my concern with the cables I auditioned. There could be differences but they’re very small and not worth the cost to me

I mentioned this in one of my posts earlier in this thread if you recall. Even if you will hear a difference is it worth it to you. But then you stated you thought you heard an improvement and when you switched back to Mogami you realized it’s all the same. No difference. Not a thing.

Cable evaluations can only be concluded -

  • I hear the difference, like it and can’t unhear it, I just have to have these cables.
  • Yes there’s a difference but I don’t like the effect
  • I hear the difference but it’s too small to justify the investment.
  • I hear no difference at all.

There’s also another category that flat out deny there could be a difference without even trying anything. This is the give me scientific evidence, blind test, measurements crowd.

In either case, it make absolutely no sense to argue and try to convince anyone. As I said earlier, the arguments fall on deaf ears.

OP - your room acoustics when addressed will be a better ROI than cables, in the current state of your system. Revisit cables after if you still feel the need to explore. 

dwcda OP
51 posts
 

OP - your room acoustics when addressed will be a better ROI than cables, in the current state of your system. Revisit cables after if you still feel the need to explore. 

I've decided to put some of the money I would have spent on these cables towards a second sub. I've moved the existing sub to the best spot as indicated to me by crawling around on the floor while it played in my chosen listening spot. The ceiling brackets arrive this week allowing me to mount two of the panels on the ceiling at first reflection. The diffusion panels are mounted front & back. I think I'll be good. When the MEN220 arrives I'll be ready to see what it can do to the overall sound.

nagel
48 posts
 

2nd subs are a great idea for any large room, but make sure you play sound through those cables while they settle or burn in 24/7. Most high quality cables will change quite a bit over 5 days, and it's so tempting to skip this step and completely miss what a cable actually sounds like. The choice of transparent cables is also questionable to me because, in my very limited experience with them, they aren't that transparent. They have an RLC network inside to match the impedance and you already have autoformers in your mac amp. IME, the first win for better cables is more detail, transparency and clarity, and for me, especially in the presence to treble frequencies. If you think cables make no difference, try some high end nordost! Not a good fit for every case, but they score high in clarity.

audphile1's avatar
audphile1
4,324 posts
 

OP great! I noticed an improvement when I added ceiling panels as well. Strongly encourage you to treat side walls if possible 

mahgister's avatar
mahgister
12,745 posts
 

No way someone can hear differences from a youtube video  if his system is in a non optimized room with an unbalanced system...

 First in these conditions i cannot judge like if i was there , but what is bad will be perceived clearly if your system is very well balance ...Mine is ... I dont need blind test and i dont need to prove anything ...

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