What an awesome thread! I love it! :) The first three posts hit the nail on the head in one way or another - that being the simple FACT that nothing we have to work with in audio is truly neutral. Everything on this planet produces a sonic signature of one type or another when energy is applied to it, and to assume that it doesn't is pure fantasy.
Audioengr wrote: "If the average audiophile spent his time trying to weed-out the tone control cables and get some neutral cables, then all that would be left is to determine the right synergy between his or her components."
Audioengr, do you have stock in FedEx? UPS? :) Reason I ask is I cannot personally imagine the amount of cash *I* would have had to spend over the years shipping an endless variety of components in order to obtain perfect, ideal synergy between designs from different manufacturers from every corner of the globe. Tongue in cheek of course but no doubt FedEx and UPS certainly benefit from all this insane audio buying activity.... Doncha think?
To that regard, I would personally rather be paying the shipping costs on 1 pound cables vs. 50 pound components. Am I crazy?
Audioengr wrote: "In some cases also preamp-amp synergies are important"
Hmm... I cannot think of a single instance where preamp "synergy" is NOT important. It doesn't take an audio engineer to understand that resistance applied to the lowest level signal in an audio system and / or amplification of that very same low level signal could potentially do the most to alter that signal -- or does it?
So from your statement about preamps - I gather you don't view them as too important. What about source components? Are they important? Also you're forgetting what may in fact be the most significant "component" in any system - the room.
IMHO, cables are a god send - tone controls or not. I would rather place a cable in my system than undergo a 6 month construction project to correct the acoustics of my home.
Audioengr wrote: "If the average audiophile spent his time trying to weed-out the tone control cables and get some neutral cables, then all that would be left is to determine the right synergy between his or her components."
Audioengr, do you have stock in FedEx? UPS? :) Reason I ask is I cannot personally imagine the amount of cash *I* would have had to spend over the years shipping an endless variety of components in order to obtain perfect, ideal synergy between designs from different manufacturers from every corner of the globe. Tongue in cheek of course but no doubt FedEx and UPS certainly benefit from all this insane audio buying activity.... Doncha think?
To that regard, I would personally rather be paying the shipping costs on 1 pound cables vs. 50 pound components. Am I crazy?
Audioengr wrote: "In some cases also preamp-amp synergies are important"
Hmm... I cannot think of a single instance where preamp "synergy" is NOT important. It doesn't take an audio engineer to understand that resistance applied to the lowest level signal in an audio system and / or amplification of that very same low level signal could potentially do the most to alter that signal -- or does it?
So from your statement about preamps - I gather you don't view them as too important. What about source components? Are they important? Also you're forgetting what may in fact be the most significant "component" in any system - the room.
IMHO, cables are a god send - tone controls or not. I would rather place a cable in my system than undergo a 6 month construction project to correct the acoustics of my home.