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Cable curmudgeon

I'm not an 'audiophile" but I like to think I have a good ear having been a professional musician (principal wind player in major symphony orchestras) for 50 years. A number of years ago going into an excellent audio equipment store I talked with, what seemed, a knowledgeable salesman.  Being a musician experienced in audio systems but not expert on all the equipment out there I had some questions concerning high (over-priced?) end cables. The salesman assured there was an audible differencet in a demo room switching back and forth etc.  After a few minutes I noticed the sound coming out of only one channel.  He complemented me on my "good ear."  Hmmm? A few years later when setting up my home system I investigated speaker cables. Two sets of Monster, stranded standard cable, solid core copper (used for alarm system) attached with like connecters. There was a difference.  However, not in terms of better or worse: bass and treble were acceptable as was clarity loud and soft.  Differences were esthetic- like asking "whose the best tenor" (I like Plácido).  Now I know as a musician used to live (i.e. un-amplified) music that all I hear coming out of a loud speaker is perforce ersatz.  But most everything today comes out of a loud speaker whether a rock concert or a hi-fi system so perhaps my opinion is curmudgeonly. But, for me, spending oodles of money on hyped cables, well... I  liked the solid core for my alarm system- still do.

 

exflute
mitch2
3,751 posts
 

Why all the animosity? “Flat earth crowd,” “obscene profits,” “sales poetry,” - who cares what others think about the cables you use? This is not a contest, but you can vote with your own wallet to buy the cables that sound best in your system - it’s all good.
I owned AZ Double Barrel Shotgun SCs and thought they were pretty good but then found other cables I liked better - multiple solid core OCC wires in foamed polyethylene. However, I also like heavy gauge old stock Western Electric speaker cables, manufactured Furutech speaker cables, and cables I made using Jupiter copper in cotton wire. I sometimes switch between them for fun.

wesheadley's avatar
wesheadley
146 posts
 

The reason I'm cable critical is because of the industry's long history of false claims and rampant over-charging. Yes, it is your right as an American to be ripped off. But to take that as a matter of pride just seems very weird to me. You want to pay the stupid money for a piece of wire be my guest!

thyname's avatar
thyname
3,107 posts
 

How much are we allowed to pay for a piece of wire? Thank you. Please provide separate limits for developed countries , developing countries, emerging markets, and frontier countries. Thank you for your service to the audio community!

marks560
5 posts
 

Is this a "dear diary" post? 

wesheadley's avatar
wesheadley
146 posts
 

Everyone is free to be ripped off. It's a free country. That's not my issue. Like I said, my issue is with bogus claims justifying stupid pricing. By all means, spend $10k on an interconnect and tell us all about the blacker backgrounds, better focus, soundstage depth, etc. But you won't be able to rank cables by how they sound in order of price beyond anything made with quality materials and build. You won't be able to tell the difference BY PRICE between a $200, $1500, and $5000 cable and rank them in order of cost because the $200 cable is not better or worse than the $5000 cable. 

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