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Cable Survey

The idea for this thread came from @sautan 904 op titled “Who thinks $ Speaker cable really better than generic 14awg cable?

My reply:

From op:

SO WHAT DO YOU ALL THINK? OR I AM THE LAST PERSON TO FIND OUT THAT EXPENSIVE CABLE JUST A RIP OFF?

Some are, some are definitely not. It really is a matter of discovering what brands out there (and there a lot) offer the best performance for your money. Some are really worth the money and clearly they offer a big increase in sound quality. It seems the dealers you used were not very discriminating about what brands they carry. This does not surprise me since I have found many are not well informed. You really need to seek out somebody who has compared different makes of cable and really believes in what they are selling.

So I thought it a good idea to pool knowledge on this subject and make a list of what people are using and why. This is my current preferences:

Speaker: Hi Diamond 7

IC XLR: Hi Diamond XLR 3

USB: Vovox

Ethernet: AQVOX, Vovox

Power: Belden

The Hi Diamond speaker cable was so much better than other cables I have tried to date. The increase in musicality, depth and detail in bass, increased sound stage and cleaner more detailed top where some of the benefits I had with this cable. The same can be said of their XLR interconnect.

The Vovox I have only been able to compare with some generic cables, and it is much clearer than those. I intend trying some other brands in the near future and I will post my findings.

Ethernet cables I find make a difference and I am currently using both Vovox and AQVOX, compared to various generic makes and the blue Meicord these are both much preferred, opening the sound stage and lowering the noise floor.

Power cables I haven’t so far experimented with a great deal, I’m using heavy Belden cables that are part of a dedicated mains spur arrangement, so that each individual piece of equipment has its own spur. In order to test cable types I will need to introduce a mains block (Shunyata?).

toetapaudio
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 

Geoffkait: Whoa! Appeal to Authority Alert! Big time! 🤔

To which mmrkaic replied,

"My dear friend, there is no appeal to authority here, just an explanation why I don’t fall for pseudo-scientific BS that is peddled by many in the audio community.

Incidentally, the actual logical fallacy that you insinuate is more accurately called "appeal to improper(!) authority". Having an advanced degree in physics is not an improper source of authority, when we discuss physical phenomena, such as electric conductivity."

>>>You’re doing it again. That’s an Appeal to Authority, you know, when someone tries to win an argument by bringing up education or degrees, or by name dropping some big authority, even when it’s in the field of interest. Otherwise, anybody could win any argument simply by listing his credentials, which could get a little silly, no? Besides, two electrical engineers or physics majors can completely disagree about almost any argument you wish to mention, especially when dealing with how electricity works. Obviously they can’t both be right. Please observe just how many electrical engineers and even physics majors dispute that there are audible differences among power cords or that wire directionality is real. Capish?
toetapaudio OP
474 posts
 
@wig thanks for the heads up on Nanotech sounds interesting.

Anybody had experience with Sablon?
mmrkaic
33 posts
 
@geoffkait 

Several points here.

1. I stated my credentials simply to elucidate why I reject the pseudo scientific narratives about "the sound of cables". There was not argument from you or anyone else that needed to be refuted on its merits. So, no argument from authority happened here.

2. But, let's make this exchange interesting. Do you want to discuss cables? Fine, lets do that.

a) As a starting point -- what proof do you have that different cables result in different sound? Have you conducted any blind tests and recorded the results? Can you demonstrate statistically significant results that support the claim that cables influence sound? Can you show me your data, the conditions of the experiment/test and your statistical analysis?

b) Have you measured the voltage at the speaker's terminals when you used different cables? What differences have you found? Have you listened to the same cables in a blind test? What statistically significant differences in the subjective perception have you found? Show me your data, the conditions of the experiment/test and your statistical analysis.

c) Have you correlated the price and the subjective performance of different cables in a blind experiment? What have you found?

d) Does it matter? I will not convince you and you will not convince me. :))


don_1's avatar
don_1
94 posts
 
GET SOME CABLES FROM A DEALER LIKE BLUE JEAN CABLE OR SIMILILAY PRICED CABLE COMPANIES  AND YOU'LL NOTICE NO DIFFERENCE AND SAVE YOURSELF PLENTY OF CASH!   ALL THESE FANCY CABLE COMPANIES SAY THIER CABLE WILL DO WONDERS FOR YOUR SYSTEM.  ALL THE PHRASES USED ARE UN MEASUREABLE SUBJECTIVE CLAIMS,  "WIDER SIDE STAGE, , MORE TRANSPARENT," ETC.  SEE IF THEY WOULD DO A BLIND TEST BETWEEN THEIR CABLES ,( USED TO BE CALLED SPEAKER WIRE UNTIL THEY RAISED THE PRICES AND HAD MAKE THE PRODUCT NAME  JUSTIFY THE EXORBADANT COSTS). ,., AND SOME GERNERIC CABLES. WONT HAPPEN!  ALOT OF THESE BIG COMPANIES GET THEIR WIRE IN BULK FRON CHINA, AND THE LIKE AND YOU PAY A HEFTER PREMIUM! iT'  FOR THOSE THAT CAN AFFORED TO PAY 5K -10K FOR SPEAKER WIRE I UNDERSTAND AND IT MAKES YOUFEEL BETTER. MANY OF THESE WIRES LOOK AWESOME.IT;S LIKE HAVING THAT ROLEX WATCH , FINELY MADE, AND ITS A STATUS THING. TELLS TIME LIKE A THOUSAND OTHER WATCHES. THIS IS MY OPINION WITH 40 + YEARS IN THE BUSINESS.  SO PUT YOUR HARTD EARNED $ INTO YOUR SPEAKERS, WHICH i BELIVE HAVE THE LARGEST EFFECT IN QUALITY SOUND.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
Whoa! Another excellent example of Appeal to Authority. Once I read, "I have 40+ Years in the business" all the errors in the screed suddenly made sense. For example, just one of many errors, high end cable manufacturers don’t get their wire from China, they get it from Japan. Geez, everybody knows that. Oh, by the way, your spell checker is kaput.

Note to self: How come these loud vociferous newcomers threaten everyone with blind tests? Didn't they get the memo that blind tests don't mean anything?

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