Drugs are for a reality that can't handle people.
So What Is Real?
There is a newsletter I subscribe to because the guy seems to talk about reality and not what some sales dude wants to sell you. mwaldrep@aixrecords.com Now the funny thing to me is that all these cable specialists of high dollar remedies for flawed playback are somehow going to magically change what you hear and will then rise above the abilities of the music file limitations and recording engineers. A dumb wire that is used to create the hi-res recordings so sought after is not somehow suitable for the playback of the same. The following is from Waldreps newsletter and I fully agree. I love this guy and he is a light shining through all the smoke and mirror BS of high end audio. I confess I too am a cable denier and incapable of hearing "
further uptick in micro-dynamic jump
" but love the delicious word salad these guys create to try to describe something that is not there. I can see the cable guy sitting there with his buddy. Wow did you hear that uptick in micro-dynamics!! You just know that's how he would talk, right?
As an aside here how does one become a professional listener? What is the criteria for attaining this lofty goal? How do you know when you have arrived and what governing authority sets down the requirements for such a thing so you know you are not deceiving yourself and others? Is it a nebulous category that is assigned to you when you spend a certain level of money or do you have verifiable and provable abilities above the norm as recognized by a large group of people including recording industry engineers, professional sound installers and high end audio system owners? In other words anyone but cable sellers?
The following is from "Dr. AIX Post for January 25, 2020"
" Cable Nonsense
As an aside here how does one become a professional listener? What is the criteria for attaining this lofty goal? How do you know when you have arrived and what governing authority sets down the requirements for such a thing so you know you are not deceiving yourself and others? Is it a nebulous category that is assigned to you when you spend a certain level of money or do you have verifiable and provable abilities above the norm as recognized by a large group of people including recording industry engineers, professional sound installers and high end audio system owners? In other words anyone but cable sellers?
The following is from "Dr. AIX Post for January 25, 2020"
" Cable Nonsense
What is it that Art Linkletter used to say? Kids say the darndest things. Well, it seems some FB audio group administrators, audiophiles, high-end audio salespersons, audiophile society officials, and manufacturers also say things that make little or no sense when talking or posting about cables.
I usually steer clear of FB posts or online magazines that promote high-end audio cables. It's just never safe to present with science, established electrical engineering theory and practice, or objectiveness when cables are concerned. A recent exchange on a familiar FB audio group page resulted in a member calling me a "cable denier" because I advocated for science and physics in evaluating power cords.
The thread basically dismissed my comments because I'm a member of the professional audio engineering community. Audio equipment salespeople, FB administrators, high-end audio marketing managers, and the general audio buying public are claimed to be better and more reliable sources of information when it comes to recommending expensive accessories and cables. According to the gentleman below, they are capable of listening in ways that audio professionals can not.
One commenter wrote:
"Mark is a pro and speaks just like one, but he is not a professional LISTENER, like you (Writer's NOTE: the guy offering the ultra expensive power cords), I and so many others in the high-end industry. Interesting is that most so-called experts are also naysayers who work in the recording industry, not in the high-end industry."
What does this statement actually claim? That professional audio engineers and producers do not know how to listen? That spending one's professional life in front of speakers in a control room doesn't require listening?Maybe...just maybe...the engineers responsible for producing the recordings that are played back in these guys high-end systems are correct in their assessment of power cords and expensive USB/Ethernet cables. Image that!
Can you really trust a gentlemen that just launched a new cable company that offers a 6-foot power cord for $3150? Oh and this person also believes that cables are directional! BTW They are not.
Here's a couple of additional comments...
"Cables can make a difference. I’m glad I can hear those differences it truly enhances the experience. I have been a dedicated audiophile and in the industry for over 45 years and have been able to identify those differences since my first experience with Smog Lifters in the 70’s. I search for and usually discover great products that deserve special attention by people looking for the last bit of resolution and coherency. I’m truly sorry for those that wouldn’t hear the difference."
Here's a comment from an individual that swapped a normal Ethernet cable for an expensive one.
"...the Vodka seemed to remove a layer of film for superior textural reveal. There was also a shade more tonal depth and recording space ‘air’. Most noticeable of all was a further uptick in micro-dynamic jump."
I don't know about you but I cringe when I hear people talk about audio in such terms. And this after listening to a commercial album and then stopping, swapping the cable and relistening. It's unbelievable.
I could pull quotes from cable reviews all afternoon but I think you get the point. When anyone starts spewing nonsense about power cords, digital interconnects, or network cables, run away. Keep your wallet in your pocket and unsubscribe from that group or online magazine. Their motivations are suspect. They either want to sell you something (usually at very high cost) or are dependent on advertising dollars from the companies they write about or the individuals they interview.
"Showing 7 responses by taras22
Having been behind the curtain for several decades couldn't agree more. |
Speaking of the idea of professional listeners....one the people listed above, Barry Diament, who very nicely fits in the professional listener category ( and successful to boot )...was once chased off a forum because he drew on his vast experience and success and tried to speak truth to nonsense. The response he got was much less than kind and he just got up and walked out the proverbial door. Nonsense won, and our wee audio circle lost access to the opinion of someone who really counted. So yes indeed sometimes it seems.... The greatest impediment to advancing an audiophile system is the audiophile. :( |
https://www.klipsch.com/news/klipsch-refreshes-iconic-cornwall-speaker-enthusiasts-get-first-listen-at-rocky-mountain-audio-fest-2019
" ... * An updated passive network features premium grade AudioQuest® internal wiring. ..." From the horses mouth sort-to-speak...sweet. Had heard a couple of Klipsch speaker sets that were modded this way and in those cases it made for a very positive change. But to have the real, and stated authority do that, wow. |
I suspect the former had more to do with improvement over the latter....just saying.... Quite likely the case. Like in the examples I heard I never heard those changes as separate changes just heard the gross before and after. That being said the original cross-over parts, which I did see, were pretty low grade so almost "quality" part would have been an improvement. "And here we have a cable, which is, in effect, a capacitor, and having a better made one can't bring out more in the original recording like a better amp or source can? " That being said capacitor types do have different sonic signatures that most experienced listeners can, or should be able to hear. After-all most can detect amp differences and caps play a significant part in their sonic differences. And yeah wires have capacitive effect but its a bit more complex than just that. From what I've been led to believe. a capacitor can act as a simple crossover in a 2 way unit....perhaps in the 'better' cables, this capacitance is minimized, But....isn't this still like a very primitive bit of eq? Might be more correct to say that negative parts of the capacitance effect are minimized just as higher grade caps have less of a negative impact. Bandwidth related issues being one example. |
The most important aspect of any power cord, interconnect or speaker cable is conductivity. All other properties are secondary. Some recent developments in cable design seem to strongly indicate that bandwidth may well trump conductivity as the most important aspect ( at least for audio) Conductivity is admittedly important in the quantitative sense whereas wide bandwidth is critical to qualitative issues such as reduced cable generated noise, and noise floor. |
Holy Crap! Just did the math. 18,000 LPs (and not counting the CDS and 78s he boasts) equates to buying a LP every day for 50 years. I’m throwing out the red BS flag on that one. Nahhh, accumulating that number of albums over a relatively short period of time isn’t really that hard ( especially if the albums were bought as collections, or bought used during the period when the digital "revolution" caused an absolutely massive glut in the used record market...albums were often going for $2 a pop and snagging a few boxes of genuine gems on each visit to a well stocked record store was standard fair for many collectors in those days ) Heck I have about 10,000 albums and it was easy and cheap to assemble that collection ( and it could easily have been much larger but I was picky )....and btw I have several friends who have collections twice as large that were bought largely during the same period. Read, not that unusual, and fairly easy to do in the right circumstances ( that glut was one of the few things that was great about the advent of digital ). And as for the costs of that room....have been in that end of things for quite a while and have done several rooms like that....and the stated costs are not at all out of line. The thing is these projects involved doing serious heavy duty work/design, whereas most modern "stick" houses are crap cookie cutter construction executed with crap materials. Bottom line, real construction costs to produce real quality custom structures are real high in the relative sense. |