Too good a post to waste


On a thread that is a running example of the textual equivalent of nonstop cat videos. So here it is again.


I could understand the cables are snake-oil doubters and take them seriously- in 1980. Back then there was no internet, Stereo Review was pretty much it, and Julian Hirsch was the Oracle of all things audio. Stereo Review and Julian Hirsch said if it measures the same it sounds the same. Wire is wire, and that was that. 

Even then though J. Gordon Holt had already started the movement that was to become Stereophile. JGH took the opposing view that our listening experience is what counts. Its nice if you can measure it but if you can’t that’s your problem not ours. 

Stereo Review and the measurers owned the market back then. The market gave us amplifier wars, as manufacturers competed for ever more power with ever lower distortion. For years this went on, until one day "measures great sounds bad" became a thing.

Could be some here besides me lived through and remember this. If you did, and if you were reading JGH back then, I tip my hat to you, sir! I fell prey to Hirsch and his siren song that you can have it all for cheap and don’t really have to learn to listen. Talk about snake-oil! A lot of us bought into it. Sorry to say.

But anyway like I was saying it was easy to believe the lie back then because it was so prevalent and also because what wire there was that sounded better didn’t really sound a whole lot better.

Now though even budget wire sounds so much better than what comes off a reel you’d have to be deaf not to notice. Really good wires sound so good you’d notice even if you ARE deaf! No kidding. My aunt Bessie was deaf as a stone but she could FEEL the sound at a high enough volume, knew it was music. The dynamic punch of my CTS cables is so much greater than ordinary 14 ga wire I would bet my deaf from birth aunt Bessie could "hear" the difference. Certain so-called audiophiles here, I'm not so sure.

Oh and not done beating the dead horse quite yet, according to my calendar its 2020, a solid 40 years past 1980. Stereo Review is dead and buried. Stereophile lives on. A whole multi-billion dollar industry built on wire not being wire thrives. Maybe the measurement people can chalk up and quantify from that just how many years, and billions, they are out of date and in denial. 
128x128millercarbon
If your audio memory is so short cdorval1 I pity you when your wife calls and you fail to recognize her voice on the phone. Maybe try asking her to talk in small samples see how far you get.
Geo, geo, geo....'daylight come, an we wan go home' *slaps self*...

You would mention direction....😒  It makes me think (I do, on occasion)..

Diode. Gate. Limitation(s). Interference. ChChChChanges....

Which drives this goat's groat back to OFC in the lower gauges, 12 minimum.  The higher the watts, the thicker the stick....

(Low RMS currently....no need to loosen the paint currently....)

I'll wait until a double blind is run on cables ONLY.  All levels set on everything to match db.  EQ to 'flat' as well.

I hope I survive long enough for a quorum on it.....and my hearing as well. ;)
Yeah, how did this "short audio memory" belief enter the dogma?  When you know your system and the music you use for comparisons, you know when you are hearing newly revealed information because you did not hear that before.  And to torture yourself with some double-blind ritual--it's as useless as a dating site. Put the new item in and relax.  Live with it, connect with it emotionally.  My apologies to those who found happiness through a dating site. 
 
@jafreeman , I'd actually support 'SAM', given a parameter or so...

'K....you're blissed out, listening to a 'fav' rendition.

Unbeknownst, some snot has snuck a pair of uberquiet digital switches into your stack and intro'd a deviate cable pair Somewhere in there.

At an appropo moment, the switch is engaged, then disengaged at another proper moment.  And done repeatedly, given the same timing.

Now....assuming this addition was done with perhaps only your SO's co-operation....(and don't retaliate....that's not nice, and likely illegal in some states....)...

Are you Absolutely Positive you'd notice?  Would you leap out of chair, and go stare at the TT?  Flip switches, twist dials. wonder "WT...'?

Or?

Just being the devils' advocate....don't take as a personal attack.
That's not the point....*s*


Question for you guys who think double blind is required because you can't remember what you heard: why do you care?

If you can't remember, why on Earth do you care? 

And just how selective is your ever-erasing memory anyway? Do you remember saying you need double-blind? Can you remember what you're typing for the time it takes to type a word? A sentence? A paragraph? Do you remember your name??? Food- can you remember what a hot dog tastes like? Are you able to remember how to drive? What other things in your life do you find impossible to remember for any length of time?