Are cable “upgrades” just as likely to make your system sound worse?
Many of us with highly resolving systems have found that speakers cables and interconnect cables can improve the sound quality of our systems. But are they also just as likely to do the opposite?
A few months ago, I “upgraded” to a renowned speaker cable, and immediately noticed more detail and resolution. I was so pleased I also “upgraded” the interconnects. But with more time I realized that the trade-off for more detail was a thinner sound with diminished tonal richness. Thus began a maddening series of attempts to fix the problem – different speaker cables, different DAC, different streamer, and now even a 30 trial of a new amplifier to try to overcome the thinness and find a more natural tone. It finally occurred to me to replace the out-of-sight-out-of-mind interconnects (with my original interconnects), and immediately the problem was blessedly solved.
Have others experienced this frustration? What recommendations do you have to avoid such fiascos?
The number of books on that I've read is sufficient enough to be aware of Likely vs. Unlikely. AES papers by Dr Kuncur will only add some fraction of percent to my established knowledge base coming from LIBRARY of my educational sources on maths physics and electro-engineering, Forget about one miserable single book or paper that is trying to prove the point of "cable upgrades". Try to reference chat-gpt on words Likely and UnLikely and you will find a lot more information than on AES papers |
@czarivey Well the good doctor is a PhD in Physics and I am sure you could learn something either way. Chat-Gpt is your deal not my source for information. Very likely that Chat Gpt more wrong than right. Milind N. Kunchur, Ph.D., APS Fellow http://boson.physics.sc.edu/~kunchur/ Cheers old boy.
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I'm probably considered an idiot here, but I bought 12awg OFC copper wire with silver tinning from Amazon ($29 for $25 feet, bought 200 feet), braided it myself, covered with nylon sleeve, and then put on WBT silver banana plugs WBT-USA (wbtusa.com) because I love their screw-down tight connection. Afternoon of work, sound amazing. I think, all in, it was $400 to bi-wire, bi-amp, most of the cost being the WBT plugs (which are costly, as such things go). Considering buying pure 11 gauge silver wire and figuring out how to insulate. |
@davetheoilguy not at all, lots of folks buy quality components and build their own cables, IC, Power, Speaker. I have the patients to set suspension SAG on race cars and motorcycles, dyno tune and build engines. When it comes to audio I am a plug and play guy. For what it cost to build your cables I bought OCC,(better than ofc some say) Silver Center, Litz Constructed speaker cables with WBT connectors, under $400.00. Now I do not have the personal satisfaction you do, unless I go the race track and watch a client wring his stuff out. Been building snow machines as of late. IE 500 is coming up soon the Indy 500 for Snowmobile racers. |
I’ve generally not liked the sound of anything with silver in it, whether it’s touted as an upgrade or not. OCC or OFC is where it’s at for me. Cable deniers: If i passed a blind a/b comparison 20/20 times (statistically significant) in my rig+room on a couple of tracks between 2 cables i own, i.e. i’ve passed such a comparison before... You would refer to me as a scientific anomaly, i.e., there ends your science.
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