2. cables
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Are cable recommendations worth anything?

I am a Denafrips dac owner. I use the Denafrips Facebook site for the same reasons I use this site.

Discourse, basic information and hopefully some enlightenment.
Recently one of the contributors asked the default question of "Can you recommend RCA cable brands that match well with Denafrips from dac to amplifier?"

Am I the only person that is confused when someone asks an open-ended question like this about cables?The sheer variety of "highly recommended" cables, lends me to believe that the cables are much less important to the sound than the component itself. Recommendations ran the gamut from the Tellurium Q Black Diamond cables at $1,100 CDN per metre, to the Blue Jeans cables at about $50 CDN per metre.

How does that make sense and how can this possibly help the poor slob that asked the question?
128x128tony1954
soix
8,729 posts
 
@tony1954 — Thank you Tony.  All good.  Water under the bridge.
tony1954's avatar
tony1954 OP
897 posts
 
@soix 

Thanks.
ahofer
225 posts
 
I think the short answer is they are only worth something if the recommendations are a) to make sure the connectors are well-made b)wider gage for longer runs, and c) the cable you already have is probably fine.  Those are the only things scientific evidence suggests at this point, despite the occasional furious snowstorm of denial.
soix
8,729 posts
 
Those are the only things scientific evidence suggests at this point, despite the occasional furious snowstorm of denial.
Well, I listen with my ears not scientific instruments.  Not too hard to hear differences between cables IME.  Whether the differences are improvements or not is another matter entirely. 

ahofer
225 posts
 
Well, I listen with my ears not scientific instruments.  Not too hard to hear differences between cables IME.  


I don't find that argument at all compelling, as the scientific evidence covers audibility as well, with thousands of blind tests.  And if you are confident, there are many opportunities to prove that you can hear a difference for money.  No money has been claimed.  There's just zero evidence that such a claim is true, so the reasonable assumption is that the difference you are hearing is a placebo effect.
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