Cable curmudgeon


I'm not an 'audiophile" but I like to think I have a good ear having been a professional musician (principal wind player in major symphony orchestras) for 50 years. A number of years ago going into an excellent audio equipment store I talked with, what seemed, a knowledgeable salesman.  Being a musician experienced in audio systems but not expert on all the equipment out there I had some questions concerning high (over-priced?) end cables. The salesman assured there was an audible differencet in a demo room switching back and forth etc.  After a few minutes I noticed the sound coming out of only one channel.  He complemented me on my "good ear."  Hmmm? A few years later when setting up my home system I investigated speaker cables. Two sets of Monster, stranded standard cable, solid core copper (used for alarm system) attached with like connecters. There was a difference.  However, not in terms of better or worse: bass and treble were acceptable as was clarity loud and soft.  Differences were esthetic- like asking "whose the best tenor" (I like Plácido).  Now I know as a musician used to live (i.e. un-amplified) music that all I hear coming out of a loud speaker is perforce ersatz.  But most everything today comes out of a loud speaker whether a rock concert or a hi-fi system so perhaps my opinion is curmudgeonly. But, for me, spending oodles of money on hyped cables, well... I  liked the solid core for my alarm system- still do.

 

exflute

Hi there @bruce19 and @onhwy61 

 

Crikey.  A moderator just removed my previous post.  What was wrong with it??

I guess Soix must know the moderators.

Hey Soix, hold up listening to those cables for a few minutes.  Have a break.

Sad day if he continues to publish this bile against @exflute 

@clearthinker 

Since seeing your posting of prog rock disdain on a recent discussion and now your strong support of this new two posts OP while insulting long time members, I would really be interested in seeing pictures of your system. You know, so we know who you really are in this audio endeavor. Because frankly, it's hard to take you seriously without it. At least for me.

@exflute your observation is valid and results of your comparison probably accurate and as such you MUST have a good ear to detect the variances between these two specific cables

Where you've stubbed your toe that has brought out some of the claws and venom of this forum, is both cables you tested are mediocre at best

larryi has summed it up very concisely and now the forum sommeliers are trying to correct your path

It's also not as simple as swapping one of the Monster cables for something higher up the food chain and connecting it to entry level electronics and expecting to hear the virtues of the upper end cable

Entry level electronics are not capable of  rendering the benefits of an upper end cable and thus you would likely report back that based on the cost you're disappointed in the performance of the cable as compared with the Monster.  What would be letting you down in this example would be the electronics not the cable

Do not let these responses wear you down, this is a great place to learn and the members cast a wide net of skills and opinions

Happy listening and enjoy the journey

It’s.. like... a cadre of strongly opposed street fighters moving from bar to bar, trying to wreak havoc on each other whenever and wherever they can, under some false pretense, at the drop of a hat ---while they trash establishment after establishment.

 

if they can’t get you through working in integrity, as that is clearly not working...

they’ll commit to a grinding down in repetitive lunacy.

Anything at all for their war effort... for the ill thought out and anti-intelligence, anti-thinking, anti-invention and anti-’upward, forward’ crew.

They’ll do anything to press their opinions and incapacitates upon all others, out of FOMO on the capacities scale of human skill sets and intellect. I just warned y’all about this in another thread. They just don’t understand and they will commit to anything, anything at all (in the repetitive insistent intrinsically blind fondling of their own egos), to make their thoughts into your reality.

No choice, really, as one’s capacity to discern and think, imagine, extrapolate, etc... and thus hear... threatens their future - threatens it...simply via existing.

~~~~~~~~~~~

One can explain to a person why they can't and are not hearing such things, and do it in the kindest most humane way possible... but every inch, word and moment of that explanation will be hated, hated to the very core, on the instinctual level. Human nature.

So they can't and won't listen, it's simply not possible..

@exflute, the quickest way to start a fight in an empty audiophile bar is to start talking about cables, connectors, etc. I've auditioned equivalently priced equipment & systems hooked up with multi-thousand dollar speaker cables, uber expensive connectors, audiophile-grade wall outlets & wiring, sound conditioners, etc., etc., etc. compared to considerably more modestly-priced cables & hook-ups in the hundreds of dollar range and, sometimes, less. Some speaker cables for systems in the unobtainium class actually do need to be bigger, more sophisticated and, by definition, are more costly to manufacture and, thus, cost more. However, for most of the systems that mere mortals can afford, like anything else in this world, if you think you can hear a difference and/or an improvement in sonic fidelity between ... say $12,000 speaker cables over $200 cables and you like that difference and think it's worth the extra cash, then go for it. Always trust your ears! The rest is marketing, advertising & merchandising.