WHY DO PEOPLE FEEL THE NEED TO COMMENT ON CABLES AND EQUIPMENT THEY HAVE NEVER HEARD?

Measurements can be important. But musicality along with those are important.  I want ear pleasing sound above all else.  

@kota1 i will say this. Having a great room helps tremendously but a really great amp in a bad room is still gonna perform well. If it is a great amp. Great amps don’t need perfect room acoustics they just don’t. It would help but you still gonna get a great sound. 

@everyone. I posted this because the ears should always be the judge. I’m not the one for a lot of technobabble. I honestly posted this because I see people posting all of these studies, graphs, charts and opinions about how we can’t hear differences and it’s confirmation bias and it just drives me nuts. How can you comment on something definitively that you have never listened to.  Then in addition to that I just think we are in this hobby to listen. Your ears should be your first judge. 

I totally understand. It depends on your preferences and situation design and science matters but sound matters the most.  My music brings me joy and piece. Yes I have an expensive system but I enjoy it. Some people like cars. I love audio 

Look I been doing this audio thing for 20 years. I have heard some really good gear. I have heard some well built, good sounding gear. I have heard really good reasonable and expensive priced type gear.  For some people a system that is under 1,000 or 10,000  Will do just fine depending on the components and their tastes and what gear they have actually had a chance to hear. Do I need an expensive system to enjoy it? NO! But chances are the gear that I tend to like will usually cost more because of what I’m used to and the sound preferences I have.  To each his own we all have different paths to get where we sonically wanna be.  I think it’s important to hear gear at all levels and price points  to get an idea on what’s possible 

@kota1 definitely understand. My room is a difficult one. The stuff that I have works for my room and my listening tastes. I got lucky for part of my journey. I worked for an audio company that I did collections for as a lawyer. The part owner was an audiophile so I got long 3 to 4 month demos on equipment that I didn’t have to buy. The owner was a lawyer like me but would switch gear and I would get to listen to it until he sold it in my home. I also worked with a couple of other guys as well. Even with that I did spend quite a bit of money.  I’m in a great place now with my INFIGO METHOD 4 DAC AND METHOD 6 AMPLIFIER AND MY GATOFM6 SPEAKERS ALL INFIGO CABLING. Yes I work for Infigo now which has allowed me some access but I’m very happy with my system. I’m really enjoying what we are doing and pleased with the music. This journey is truly different for all of us. 20 years in and happy. No gear  switching just listening 

@oddiofyl i can agree with that. Some companies have great reputations, product signatures and things that they excel at. Nothing wrong with commenting on things you have experience with. That is kind of where I’m going with this. Some people will doubt it before they hear it. If it’s doing something different that they can’t personally figure out it’s a no go. Some even shun innovation because before it wasn’t possible. These are the kinds of things I’m referring to 

@oddiofyl i can agree with that. Some companies have great reputations, product signatures and things that they excel at. Nothing wrong with commenting on things you have experience with. That is kind of where I’m going with this. Some people will doubt it before they hear it. If it’s doing something different that they can’t personally figure out it’s a no go. Some even shun innovation because before it wasn’t possible. These are the kinds of things I’m referring to 

@jeffrey125 working with Infigo audio happened naturally. We ended up meeting as part of a show team 5 years ago. Hans started his company and realized how enthusiastic I was about audio and I have a good ear for it. I have learned from guys that put 30 to 50 years in this hobby we call audio. I always want to hear and experience different great sounds. There are many different ways a system can please you and sound great no matter what the cost is. I always look at it from a standpoint of actually experiencing the sound of the gear for yourself. Science is important but my ears are the important to me. Is it musical, low noise floor, engaging and puts a smile on my face then I’m good. That’s what we are trying to do. We even loan out cables at no cost to allow people to actually hear them 

@mapman glad you enlightened us.   We’ll get a good pair of headphones and be happy!  Lol. 

@mapman Was just joking with you don’t take it too serious. I have my preferences. You have yours. What’s worth it to me is not to you and that’s ok. But all I say is hear it before putting it down.  It’s fine 

@dayglow you said it perfectly in my personal opinion. The HEA the little nuances like space, dimensionality, image placement, soundstage depth, width, height, noise floors, treble decay. These are just a few things that for the most part the High End typically does better.  For some folks it’s not worth it. But to some of us it’s like having a concert in your room anytime you choose. Some can and will pay for it. Others won’t. 

@mapman i agree with you.  I posted this because I see a lot of that happening.  I see a lot of generalizations. I see a lot of spec talk unrelated to actual sound. I see folks that think you are not hearing what you are hearing and they will tell you what you hearing. Which is crazy to me 

@kota1 that sounds nice. Man. Enjoy it all. I been lucky in this hobby but your setup sounds like it can do it all on demand. That’s a good place to be. 

@everyone I’m not negating the room plays a huge part in sound but I do believe in the high end gear if it’s really good. If you place high end well built and designed gear in a really great room and acoustic environment it sounds like heaven. I’m not going to negate the room especially the treated rooms at all but at the same time place high end gear in a really great environment if you have matched it properly and it is designed well you truly can hit it out the park. However all of us don’t have the perfect listening environments but a lot of us can still get great sound. 

@everyone I do get what you are saying about people not talking about how much the room plays a part. Just cause you spend a lot of money doesn’t mean you have a great system either. It is a lot of things. EQUIPMENT, ROOM, MATCHING, CABLING ETC. All of these things can play a part. Now I will say a better matched mid fi system can beat a hi end system if it’s matched properly and placed in the right environment. Some folks sell you stuff that doesn’t work well together just because that’s the brands they sell. I get that part too. 

My room is crazy. It’s not the best room. It has high ceilings. Wood floors and  I can only place my speakers so far apart and can only place them 2-3 feet from wall. I’m going to be honest. When I take my system to a local show like I did when I had my last amp in dac I got amazing sound in that carpeted room when I had someone come set it up properly. I even had my sub guy come in and do placement because he does that as a regular job as well as he has become really good at placement angles etc. But I have gotten really great sound in my room.  I’m extremely happy with my system. I’m not gonna lie it’s the best I ever had. But one thing that I could do that most couldn’t is that I had a 2 month demo of the amp and dac in my room before I purchased because of my relationship with the company.  The whole reason we lend out cabling at infigo audio is to let buyers try before you buy in your i environment. That’s important but mist in the end can’t allow it in their business model and logistics. 

@designsfx the owner of infigo was working with another company and when he decided to start infigo he told me about the amp and I kind of blew him off the he said he would fly from Canada to my place in Dallas and he did it. We listened to my amp on Friday. Then on Saturday we put  his amp in let it play all day to let it burn in a little and open up. Then on Sunday invited most of the same 10-15 folks we had over the previous Friday. His amplifier blew my 9k integrated out the water. Which for 8 years was my reference. That’s when I decided to work with Hans. I truly saw he was an audiophile at heart. Some folks wanna just sell gear he actually enjoys improving the gear. Pushing the limits and getting the gear to sound better. Reducing noise floors, cutting out distortion, building power conditioning inside the equipment. Isolating internals so that the heat generated limits distortion. In our Method 4 dac. He literally showed me the measurements of each dac chip that we use and each chip down to the 10,000th of a point and he uses a program to update that dac that will allow it to use its settings to limit distortion in the second and third harmonics that is created by the differences in each Sabre dac chip. He even isolated each dac chip from each other. I chose to purchase the gear instead of just keeping it on loan from time to time because he is actually doing things to improve the sound. In addition to that he has done it in a way that still sounds musical. I chose the gear because of it. I chose my Gato Fm6 speakers in a similar fashion because I knew the owner of Gato was a former lead designer at gamut audio whom makes super high end speakers. The Gato along with my Infigo gear and cabling has me in ear heaven right now. I got a great speaker that competes with more expensive ones but Infigo electronics with my Gato has me in a good place. Expensive but really ear pleasing place.

@everyone I’m not downing anyone else’s equipment but I have learned in these years in the hobby that materials, matter, parts matter, technology matter, transformers matter, isolation, matters, shielding matter, cabling matter, implementation of technology matters, eliminating distortion matters, equipment design matters, proprietary programs and technology matters especially in the high end. I know my system costs quite a bit of coin but I chose each piece based on what was in it and how it performed. To some I spent too much but at least I’m musically happy. I’ve seen people spend more and be unhappy and less and be happy. At the end of the day it’s up to what you like, can spend and willing to spend to get there. Some folks it’s not worth it but for me music touches my soul and in my current system it really does that for me. I have an Infigo method 4 Dac. Method  6 stereo amplifier, fluvius streamer and all infigo cabling going into gato fm 6 speakers and I’m extremely happy with the results. For others their happy place is with what they have. Enjoy it. Some people like watches, cars, jewelry for me it’s audio. Whatever you like just enjoy the music. I enjoy mines.  

@tvrgeek i agree with most of what you are saying.  Innovation has been a game changer in audio. We have some great improvements in the dac and amp market. I also agree that some attack others just because they have an expensive system. The take it upon themselves to tell you how much of a fool you are and what you are not hearing. We designed our cables to be shielded from outside interference also nit to be a bottleneck to allow the music to flow through.  

Wife not allowing that in the condo. Lol. 

The level of components also matter when factoring cables in sometimes as well