Ttrhp, much depends on the cables you auditioned, and the equipment used. Yes, it is entirely possible that the cables you listened to were not different enough from Home Depot wire for you to hear it. Not all expensive cables are great. I was very skeptical about wire/sound differences initially. However, I experimented, and it was proved to my ears that there are dramatic differences, especially between the really cheap zip-cord and "freebie" interconnnects, and well-designed/constructed ones that augment your system's characteristics. I demonstrated this again to myself just last night. I was having a right channel problem and removed the interconnects to see if maybe the IC's were the cause. I swapped them out with some generic $3 IC's, and sure enough, my good IC's had a loose connection in the RCA connector. The generic ones worked good enough for me to identify a bad connection in my others, but BOY, did they sound terrible. I only listened to them long enough to solder the connection on my good ones. I couldn't get those cheapies off my system fast enough. Bottom line, there are differences, and they are not small ones. Good cables, whatever type, are important and need to be part of a good system. They don't have to be expensive, they just have to be good. My DIY cables work very well in my system. I'm not going to say I couldn't get better, but they are good. Expensive cables can be great, or garbage, depending on the design and its compatibility with your system. Also, if your system is not very transparent or revealing, the differences could be somewhat masked, making them hard to hear. But, that doesn't mean that these differences are not there. They are. I usderstand your skepticism, as I was once a skeptic. However, there is now no doubt in my mind at all about the significance of cable improvements. Read alot of these cable threads. Either there is a rampant case of mass delusion among audiophiles, or there is a real matter to be addressed. We may be obsessive, but nobody on this forum is willing to plunk down thousands of dollars for something they cannot hear any difference in. Sean could tell you alot about the resistive, capacitive, and inductive differences that are measureable in cables, and how they relate to working with your system. There is much more to it than making the connection between outputs and inputs.
"EAR VS Cables"
guys,
first of all.i want to thanks all the fellows audiogon on here helping me finish my system..i am pretty much completed everything but cables.after 3 months reasearching about cables on here,and i am still confuse of which cable to buy..i ve tried(borrow) home depot cable Vs $1000 cable,to be honest,i can not tell the difference whatsoever.I am an electrical engineer for 11 years ,and to me there is no theory that support the differences on cables.anyways,is it because i am not at the level that my ear can tell the difference? Am i going to get there one day? the question is..should i spend the money now on cable or stick with the cheap affordable cable?my ears can tell the difference between tube and SS,but fail on cables..when i say cables.i mean inter-connct,power cord, and speakers wire. ..please help.
first of all.i want to thanks all the fellows audiogon on here helping me finish my system..i am pretty much completed everything but cables.after 3 months reasearching about cables on here,and i am still confuse of which cable to buy..i ve tried(borrow) home depot cable Vs $1000 cable,to be honest,i can not tell the difference whatsoever.I am an electrical engineer for 11 years ,and to me there is no theory that support the differences on cables.anyways,is it because i am not at the level that my ear can tell the difference? Am i going to get there one day? the question is..should i spend the money now on cable or stick with the cheap affordable cable?my ears can tell the difference between tube and SS,but fail on cables..when i say cables.i mean inter-connct,power cord, and speakers wire. ..please help.