Are audiophiles still out of their minds?


I've been in this hobby for 30 years and owned many gears throughout the years, but never that many cables.  I know cables can make a difference in sound quality of your system, but never dramatic like changing speakers, amplifiers, or even more importantly room treatment. Yes, I've evaluated many vaunted cables at dealers and at home over the years, but never heard dramatic effect that I would plunk $5000 for a cable. The most I've ever spent was $2700 for pair of speaker cables, and I kinda regret it to this day.  So when I see cable manufacturers charging 5 figures for their latest and "greatest" speaker cables, PC, and ICs, I have to ask myself who buys this stuff. Why would you buy a $10k+ cable, when there are so many great speakers, amplifiers, DACs for that kind of money, or room treatment that would have greater effect on your systems sound?  May be I'm getting ornery with age, like the water boy says in Adam Sandler's movie.
dracule1

Showing 8 responses by o_holter

I've used JPS cables over the years, from basic to SC3 (Aluminata top model = too expensive for me). I find there are two factors, do I like this sound profile or not, and then, how far up the chain can I afford to go. Yes, SC3 sounds better than the original SC, although both are enjoyable in my system. This whole process of cable fitting does make the system sound better, but it is no revolution. Better boxes make more difference than better cables, supports etc.
Jafant
I use Kimber KCAG from my turntable to my phono preamp (Aesthetix Io partial eclipse upgrade)  and then JPS SC3 from the phono preamp to the preamp (Einstein the tube mk2), JPS SC2 from the preamp to the Atma-Sphere MA-1 amps, and JPS SC3 to the Audiokinesis Dream Maker speakers. Works very well.
Knowing the brand and being on the lookout meant I got most of these cables reasonably priced, 30-50 pct of new retail.
So-so - calm down folks.
Yes there is much overpriced cable and yes there is good value to be had too.
Regarding JPS - I had a broken SC3, and they fixed it, for no cost. Even though I had bought it used so they had no obligation to do it. That’s good business sense - in my book.
There are shams I am sure but there are also many people genuinely trying to make better sounding cable.

If you dont know why, ask how...
Geoff:
"One assumes you must be one of them socialists. "
Accusations aside, we have a problem of overpriced cables, AND real life differences.
What about sticking with the empirical method, everyone who has long term listening experience with different cables speak up, the rest keeps silent?
Oystein
thanks whattsperchannel. I have a dedicated high duty circuit for my sterero which works well. I tried star grounding in my system, could not quite make it work however.
Cables are about electricity. Thinking about my own experience over the years, the main jump forward was making a separate high grade audiophile circuit, ca ten years ago. I contracted an electrician and we did the job together. At first he protested, was this big cable really needed, we had to drag it halfway around the house. I assured him it was. The cable runs into a breaker box with three local circuits, two 15 ampere and one 10 ampere (230 volts). The system sounded much better on this circuit than the 10 ampere "lamp circuit" already in the room, so I have never looked back.
tayie - thank you for the link, I will investigate, but please respect, many here at audiogon are not engineers, myself included. So if you can say a bit more, fine. What are the main points of Hirsch concerning the current debate, in your view?