Newbie to the awesome audiophile world

OP, as a rank noob I'll go out on a limb here and re-emphasize not to spend 25% of your budget on speaker cables unless you already have or already think you have refined listening sensibilities.


MC will predictably blast me for this....and that's okay. That's what we're expecting and we're expecting him to tell us he gets paid for his consulting and if we don't then our opinion is to be discarded. And he well may be correct.

But here is my reasoning for this: I recently acquired a Bryston amp, a Classe' pre amp and pair of Aerial Acoustics 6T towers connected to the amp with a pair of Transparent G5 Super cables. This pair of 10' cables sell new for $2000 and are not considered particularly high end. This whole system is worth about $20,000 new...at least. Don't worry, I'm not bragging, I did not pay for them and I don't get to keep it all.


As you might expect it all sounds quite good. In fact, amazing to my ears. Well as I was shuffling all this gear around I did not want to fool with those gigantic, stiff, cantankerous speaker cables and just used a pair of Transparent's lowest end basic 14 gauge cable.

I could hear a difference. But guess what? Not much.


Then later, for various reasons I used some high quality off the shelf no-name 12 gauge speaker wire.

Guess what? I could not hear any appreciable difference between and the basic 14 gauge Transparent cables.


The moral of this story IS NOT that cables don't make a difference. The moral of the story is that for most people beginning in audio without a trained ear or particularly critical SQ needs, cables are not likely to make a $500 difference in your listening experience with a $1500 system.

You wouldn't be wrong to take MC's advice. He's an expert. But you wouldn't be wrong to take mine (and other member's) advice either since I've done the two bit test for average ears.

And you can always upgrade cables later, right?


Disclosure: I'm keeping the Aerial Acoustics 6Ts and will be buying a modest amp for them and I will NOT be using the no-name speaker wire. But I won't be spending $500 on speaker cables either.

Tip: Check out the "Music" forums here at Audiogon. You'll get great advice on good recordings and source material without all the arguing and posturing. Really pretty cordial over there.
George

Agree about the investment advice. I'm selling a deceased relative's high end system for the executor. The gear is 5  years old and like new. Top names. Most of it is being offered at less than 1/2 the new price and I'm not getting any interest.

I think in addition to budget we need to know where the OP is coming from in terms of listening experience and expectation as well as where he wants to go.

OP, if your listening experience with high end audio is fairly low then that is a huge advantage as far as I am concerned. Inflated tastes are expensive.


And I agree with rok2id about what you can get for the money these days.


I have a modest $500 system at my cabin that sounds great to me and I enjoy it every time I'm there. It does not sound like my primary system but it most certainly doesn't sound 40x worse even though it cost 40x less.


Does that have anything to do with my lack of experience? My lack of critical listening/hearing ability? Sure could. But if I can't and won't ever be able to distinguish and appreciate some minute sonic distinction then it certainly does not make sense to pay for that distinction.

While I think listening to various speakers and amps in high end shops or on loan in your home is great advice............it isn't very realistic for most people. Most of us do not have high end audio shops nearby and even if we do the selection is likely to be limited especially when it comes to speakers that only cost $1000 a pair.

My recommendation: Find a pair of speakers that review well and meet you budget. Find an integrated amp that reviews well, meets your budget and technically meets the requirements of your chosen speakers. Chances are it will sound great and you will love it. Buy some large gauge high quality speaker wire, cut it to length and put decent quality banana plugs on them. This is simple and cheap. No need to spend 25% of a $2000 budget on cables yet. Do that later if you feel like you need to. 

Then spend time positioning your system in your listening room and hearing the differences. Then spend time getting the highest quality source material you can get. I'll be pilloried for this but don't expect crappy recordings to be made un-crappy in reproduction no matter how good your system is.

Don't let anyone suck the fun out of it by making the process painful. And don't get sucked into never being happy with what you have...unless that makes you happy.

Sent you a PM. Will probably list them all here on Audiogon soon since only one subwoofer has moved via Craig's list.

Good advice from @mossyrocks and while I agree that collecting CDs is not practical per se, I am one who still thinks it is a good idea. And I'm still collecting. CDs are cheap. There is great data out there on what the good recordings are. There are tons of them available. And once you buy it you own it. And for music that you actually own I do not think there is a lower price option than used CDs. Not saying anyone _needs_ to go down that path, but I would not discount it either.

I do not purchase a CD for everything I listen to but I do purchase one for everything that would be on my long term "playlist". I do books the same way. Kindle or iPad is fine for light reading I'm not likely to come back to, but for the stuff I consider important.....I get the hard back.