home made speaker cable vs. the big boys

I've made Homegrown Audio solid silver cables from their $39.00 kit. Used high content silver solder and, except for some slight lack of bass in a direct comparison to AQ Quartz, they were just as good if not better through the rest of the range. I just turned up the subwoofers a bit and compensated. They are a great bargain. Had them for over two months so I have a good feel for what they can do. The kits even come braided now. Their burn in wasn't really that long - I think they peaked after about 20 hours or so. I used Atma-Sphere MP1 and Golden Tube SEP1 preamps with Atma-Sphere MA2 MKII rev 2 monoblocks. Both CD and vinyl comparisons. I also tried them on my turntable with less success. During a conversation with Ralph Karsten of Atma-Sphere I asked him what the factory uses for their "reference" speaker wire. Answer was Belden copper microphone wire. The reason the cable companies get away with legal robbery is because YOU (meaning all of us in this hobby me included) let them get away with it. Do any of us really think that they would continue to try to traffic, er market, $1K+ interconnects or $10K+ speaker wires if nobody would buy them - especially when they literally cost pennies on the dollar to produce at the high volume levels they turn out? Their marketing and advertising budgets are enormous and they drive the amrket. You can get pure silver three braided strand cable for $25/meter right now from Thailand. The company's only caveat is that they don't recommend lengths over 5 meters. Just terminate and have at it. And they're making a profit. Every cable has some effect - its own sonic signature (or lack thereof?). But every totally blind test done (very few people will ever take part in these type of tests, especially if they are in the industry) yields surprising results. Yes, you can hear subtle differences between speaker cables or interconnects, but the "high priced spread" doesn't necessarily come out on top. I would not bet against a really good home made interconnect or speaker wire. You'll NEVER hear hundreds or even THOUSANDS of dollars of difference and just as often as not you will think more in terms of relative equivalency while noting that some cables have cleaner treble while others offer more bass extension. Once you've been burned in one of these comparisons you'll know why the "pros" at the magazines never take part in them. Besides the loss in advertising revenue..............

You can bet your bottom dollar that there was a special deal cut between ANY cable manufacturer and recording studio, etc. if that recording studio's name or personnel names appears in an advertisement, press release, or marketing release. Quid Pro Quo. Want to bet that the studio either bought the cables at "cost," got them for nothing, or have them installed at no charge (on loan)? You bet that there is no special deal - you lose. It's called professional courtesy or trade discounting. It is done all the time. (Speaking of reference cables - Atma-Sphere, as I said before, makes their own "reference" cables from Belden pure copper microphone wire. A lot of DIY's swear by it). One last thing - most of the recordings of CD's today are better than a few years ago, but they could be much better still. Five more years and they'll be there - and you should be able to take advantage of their sonic superiority to today's recordings with your NEW audio system (CD transport/DAC). Cables won't make much difference in the final product (during recording) - software and post processing are where the "secret sauce" is at when making a recording sound the way it (finally) does. And post-processing is just software in the digital domain. The upsampling/oversampling schema of today is child's play compared to the algorithmic development of tomorrow. Cables don't even enter into the recording equation at that point, which is just a little less than they do today. Remember in recording CD's - it is bits and bytes in the digital domain. As long as the data gets from one point to another uncorrupted, that is all you need. Then you can post process it all you like. Why do you think there is so much lip-synching going on these days by "stars"?

No_money - you're missing the boat. Digital bits and bytes are just that. Digital. Which means that it doesn't matter what cable, interconnect, patch cord was used in the process. I can take those bits and bytes and run them through some pretty sophisticated algorithms and make them sound like anything I want, regardless of what type of link was in the chain. Monster is often mentioned by recording studio people. Yes, you can polish a turd, in your vernacular, because the ultimate quality of the recording as presented on the CD (let's exclude vinyl right now) is a reflection of the talent and quality of the recording engineer and the producer of the recording. Plus how much money is allocated for post-recording production. So if something is "colored" in the recording process (not) then the producer and engineer can take care of it during the final mixing process. Fagan and Katz are recording gods, to be sure, and the Grammys mentioned by Trelja are testament that too many of us put our (misplaced) faith in exotica when it is the talent of the producers and engineers that make your recording sound as good (or bad) as it does. Can your playback gear truly reproduce what the producer really heard as his final mix? Ludwig could make anyone sound good, bad, or neutral REGARDLESS of what wire is in the chain - it's called talent. These people have great ears and passion for music. Plus they are able to pull performances out of musicians that sometimes the musicians thought they were incapable of. Go take a totally blind "taste test" some time. It's embarassing to see Monster and Belden (not to mention Radio Shack and DIY'ers) cables place as high or higher than the mega bucks stuff being shoved down our throats by clever marketing playing on our ego. Finally, speaking of producers, look at the variety of artists and studios used by Mutt Lange - cables never compromised his talent or quality of his production.

Ludwig chose Transparent because he was paid to endorse it. And being the wizard he is, Ludwig can polish a recording to sound the way he envisions or "hears" it to be when he undertakes the project. There is no magic in wire but there is magic in his mastering and mixing. He would turn out the same product using Rat Shack or Transparent, because he is talented and never loses focus on what he wants the final product to sound like. He just doesn't take the money and run. He is an artist in his own right and a perfectionist. The digital bits and bytes are transported down the wire, Transparent or Rat Shack, uncorrupted. It is what he does after the data is stored that is the pure mastery of his production. If you understand anything about algorithms and how digital data can be manipulated to do just about anything you want it to do (or how you want it to sound), you know this to be true.

It is never by accident that somebody mentions a product by name...... More often than not the marketing people use the information to their best advantage. You may never see what they do but within the industry that information is used to promote their product. At dealer meetings,at trade shows, on road trips, etc. they use that information and they pass it along to dealers who use it to promote their products to the end user. Eggleston probably put their products into that studio at pennies on the dollar, just like Transparent did. That's what makes the world go 'round. Not saying that the products don't have quality - they certainely do. But a deal is always cut and the marketing people know that they can count on the studio (or producer or whomever) to mention their names at strategic times. And the deal is usually implied, not implicit. Just think if you were in that position - some company came into your studio, you were updating older equipment, and they offered incredible deals to displace a competing product. You agreed that their product was as good (not necessarily better) as the older brand name product - or if you were building a new studio and you got deals on everything you could to keep your costs low without compromising quality - not necessarily making better sound but making equivalent sound on a lower budget. If you were a good businessman you would do the same thing. But what goes around comes around. Quid Pro Quo. Ain't the cable that makes the recording - it's the producer/engineer team plus the budget the record company gives them to work with. And the sophistication of their software. It is just business and profit margin. Nothing else.

Mr. Ludwig's recordings are great because he is simply one of the best at what he does and his excellence is reflected in the body of his work. The few others mentioned in this thread all share that same excellence, regardless of where they do the final mix or where the master recording is made. These people are artists in their own right. We might not know them personally but we know the body of their work and that excellence paints a true picture of their integrity as professionals.