2. cables
  3. 1395942919

Would appreciate feedback on logic

I've connected all my speakers with Radio Shack 12 ga zip wire. OK, the speakers make sound and I like the sound. That's all I can say at the moment. My listening room has hideous acoustics with small area, one side wall concrete the other side wall opening onto a larger open space, speakers forced to be inches away from back wall that's concrete block, poured cement walls elsewhere, thin pile carpeting on floor (basement), etc. and to top it off there's a huge steel home gym in the middle of the room. Now, I'm interested in seeing if a change in speaker cables may benefit my system. I reached out to a couple of manufacturers who offered home trials and was very transparent regarding my current environment. No cable manufacturer wanted their products trailled in the listening environment I described. OK, here's the logic question - good or bad, if cables made a real difference, would that difference not be detectable more or less in any listening environment? I have 5 pages of listening notes focusing on a set of reference music from Bach to Judas Priest, describing specific passages or features in the piece and what I'm hearing. If cables made some difference, would not a difference be detectable? I have a $700 budget for speaker cables and am not interested in acts of faith here. I'd rather make my own from Cat 7 ethernet cable than drop $700 on vendor attestations.

I'd be interested in knowing if my thought process on this is in error, and if it is how I should approach speaker cable auditioning.
rg500g

Showing 1 response by rar1

rar1's avatar
rar1
1,811 posts
 
Since you realize the limitations of both the room and the set-up of your equipment, I would also think that you have some ideas as to just how much of an improvement different speaker cables are going to make.

If you view putting together a system as three logical processes ... 1) choosing the speakers 2) choosing the equipment 3) choosing cables, accessories, and tweaking ... you are in process #3. I have found that process #3 enhances to a limited degree the speakers and the equipment and does not make up for huge deficiencies in the sound.

So given your room and speaker set-up situation, any differences you hear by changing speaker cables are most likely not going to be all that major or significant. You may perceive a difference and that perception may be important to you, but that would be about it.

Since you asked specifically about cables, I am not sure if you are looking at other things you might be able to do to tweak the sound. Cables would not be the first thing I would be tweaking. I would look at something like a graphic equalizer or a BBE Sonic Maximizer . I have used a BBE in a basement listening space with success.

Rich
More to discover