The differences can be verys subtle. If too subtle, I figure they're worth ignoring. Case in point, I just tried for the first time three of those Black Diamond Racing cones. My intellect said, "You know better than to think there'll be a significant difference in sound using them..." My heart said, "you never know...!" Tried them. Virtually zero effect. Should've known! Beat myself mentally for 72 hours over that...
If there was a sleight difference, not enough to elicit excitement. If you have to strain and guess, "AM I hearing a difference," then even if there IS a difference, it's not worth it. Put the money on other component upgrades. Room tuning IS definitely worth it IF you have reached the point of a certain level of cost of components and in most cases you have a dedicated room. Sticking all kinds of absorbtion devices etc in a large open-ended living room is using giant band aids to fix a largely unfixable problem.
If I had a system worth less than $2k I'd buy a lower end set of cables from a well known manufacturer, such as Kimber, Audioquest, etc. The higher up you go in components, the more attention you can spend on cables. But, yes, it usually takes exchanging out the entire set to hear a significant difference, and that difference will not typically be as significant as a component change, especially a component with new breakthrough technology such as digital amps or Rega's new laser assembly in the Apollo. (Yes, I purchased Apollo about three weeks ago - HUGE leap forward for the economical audiophile!
I have grown tired of swapping multiple pairs of cables in "stacked" speaker setups, in biamped configurations, etc. I must be getting older, don't want to bend over awkwardly and get stiff back from 35 minutes of redoing the wiring.
Oh, the results can pay off handsomely. I'm glad I went through it all, the buying, selling, redoing, etc. Now I feel I've got some good wiring going.
But I am happy that I'm moving toward a more streamlined system, with single wired speakers and one amp instead of two etc. Pure, clean, less mucking around.
Now that I've been through all this, I feel I've got great sounding cabling for MY current system. Switch components and I'd have to go through a lot of it again.
That's the frustrating thing about it; every component is system specific in its sound.
You've just gotta keep putting puzzle pieces together until you see the picture, er, the sound the way you like. If you're not willing to do that, then turn it off or resolve to do something else, like read, while you listen so you won't be driven crazy listening for problems in the sound.
If there was a sleight difference, not enough to elicit excitement. If you have to strain and guess, "AM I hearing a difference," then even if there IS a difference, it's not worth it. Put the money on other component upgrades. Room tuning IS definitely worth it IF you have reached the point of a certain level of cost of components and in most cases you have a dedicated room. Sticking all kinds of absorbtion devices etc in a large open-ended living room is using giant band aids to fix a largely unfixable problem.
If I had a system worth less than $2k I'd buy a lower end set of cables from a well known manufacturer, such as Kimber, Audioquest, etc. The higher up you go in components, the more attention you can spend on cables. But, yes, it usually takes exchanging out the entire set to hear a significant difference, and that difference will not typically be as significant as a component change, especially a component with new breakthrough technology such as digital amps or Rega's new laser assembly in the Apollo. (Yes, I purchased Apollo about three weeks ago - HUGE leap forward for the economical audiophile!
I have grown tired of swapping multiple pairs of cables in "stacked" speaker setups, in biamped configurations, etc. I must be getting older, don't want to bend over awkwardly and get stiff back from 35 minutes of redoing the wiring.
Oh, the results can pay off handsomely. I'm glad I went through it all, the buying, selling, redoing, etc. Now I feel I've got some good wiring going.
But I am happy that I'm moving toward a more streamlined system, with single wired speakers and one amp instead of two etc. Pure, clean, less mucking around.
Now that I've been through all this, I feel I've got great sounding cabling for MY current system. Switch components and I'd have to go through a lot of it again.
That's the frustrating thing about it; every component is system specific in its sound.
You've just gotta keep putting puzzle pieces together until you see the picture, er, the sound the way you like. If you're not willing to do that, then turn it off or resolve to do something else, like read, while you listen so you won't be driven crazy listening for problems in the sound.