Do I need an expensive digital cable?

@richardbrand 

The only reason I'm writing this, Richard, is to use your remark about my $10 mistake as an example. Almost all the columns I have been on  have jokers who put people down. It's intimidating to new people who want to join a thread, people who haven't been around the block as many times as I have, and it's a mindless way of adding nothing to the conversation. 

Again, I reiterate that our hobby is, or should be, about a love of music. And people who do love music and other arts should want to include others. Little snide comments have no place in these forums.

Again, I reiterate that our hobby is, or should be, about a love of music. And people who do love music and other arts should want to include others.

@audio-b-dog this cannot be overemphasized.

Little snide comments have no place in these forums.

As someone who is perhaps no stranger to snide comments, I feel compelled to explain. 

The elephant in the room is that some "audiophiles" are making strident, definitive, and often unchallenged statements about unlikely sound quality improvements that they clamor to have experienced.

Sometimes it will be an overpriced CAT6 cable or Ethernet switch that, if they had bothered to educate themselves about how TCP works, they would know cannot possibly have any bearing on the sound quality of a properly designed system.

It follows that if sonic improvements are heard from a CAT6 cable, then the system was not properly designed; and that if it had been, its owner could enjoy sonic bliss from a $5 Monoprice cable. 

You rightly mention people new to the hobby. Tweak aficionados love to prey on them. Nothing nefarious, mind you, just misery loves company: folks who spent $2,000 on cable elevators want everyone to spend $2,000 on cable elevators, or at least $1,000. They sneer at peasants who do not own cable elevators. They especially conspue "cheaters" who use $1 rebar chairs in lieu of expensive cable elevators. They cast aspersions on the other person’s supposed lack of means and ridicule their "non-resolving" systems. Etc.

This is all very, very far from enjoying music. Gear fetishism becomes an end unto itself. Serious audiophiles (unlike me) know this is nonsense but look the other way for the sake of getting along.

I certainly appreciate politeness and I am quite capable of agreeing to disagree. But this pre-supposes a modicum of mutual respect.

To spout dogma in definitive, this-is-not-for-discussion tones is disrespectful, and folks who open that door shouldn’t be surprised when something they don’t like walks in.

By the way, Bluetooth speakers bring music, and with it solace, to ugly, crappy, unpleasant spaces where we have to spend time though we don’t want to. Think being alone for 8 hours surveying a freezing job site with rainwater dripping from the ceilings. No 2-channel system can help you there, but a humble Bluetooth speaker will. So I say, don’t knock Bluetooth speakers.

As always, just my 2 cents 🙂

@devinplombier 

I agree with you about tweakers, and I think you can add your 2 cents. But it could be in a nicely put question. Like where did you hear that. Or, do you really hear a difference in the quality of your music. Or I have tried that and it didn't work for me.

Guys get caught up in this kind of stuff. Jay Leno with all his cars. (Sorry to hear he was burned fixing one.) I had an audiophile friend who taught at Harvard. He bought a good system with Wilson Sasha speakers, an ARC Reference 3 preamp, Hovland Radia amp (which was handed down to me when he died, as was the ARC Reference.)

But he was a workaholic who spent all his time in the office and listened to his computer for music, while his wife listened to the big rig and really didn't like it. I'm not a fan of Wilson speakers, either. I find them dry. But a lot of people love them. 

He was a guy who grew up poor, and he'd always wanted a primo stereo. He asked me to help him buy it, and it was a lot of fun spending that kind of money on gear. He drove a BMW M series and showed me how fast it accelerated on the freeway. Here was a man with a PhD teaching at the premier college in the world. People have their own quirks. If it makes them happy, what the heck. (I use heck because I have had posts deleted for using stronger words.)

It's probably my age, because I used to be far more judgmental. I think I have a better understanding of human nature. Everybody gets caught up in stupid things. I think of Larry Summers, the once president of Harvard, getting caught up with Epstein. Of course, that was illegal and buying cable for $2k a foot might just be stupid. I say might because I've never been able to try out $2K per foot cable and I'm sure I never will. Next item on my list would probably be a better streamer, but as far as my wife is concerned, my list is complete. I could spend $300 on a piece of clothing, but another $300 into my stereo and she will flip.

@audio-b-dog 

At least @audphile1 recognised a bit of humour when he saw it!

the $10 went into a power cord upgrade on a BT speaker

I note that nobody has seriously commented on my previous serious post, where a serious reviewer for a serious magazine reviewed a seriously priced cable and came to a serious conclusion - that US$4k on a cable got streaming a little bit closer to CD quality.  Wow

@richardbrand 

I find it hard to imagine that a reviewer can be 100% sure that a 16/44 on any of the streaming services is the same master that is on a cd that was used for comparison.

I have a large library of ripped CDs. FLAC, WAV, AIFF. 

I do not have a $4k Ethernet cable but I do use a high quality cable, Audience Hidden Treasure.
CD rips and streaming in most cases are not the same masters. Plus streaming services sound different. And that too invalidates the comparison. 

What I can tell you though that in my system it highly depends on an album I’m listening to. In most cases streaming sound just as good as CD rips, and at times it’s better. It took time, effort and funds to get my digital front end to this level. It’s far from ultra high end, but it’s definitely good enough for me and enables me to enjoy listening to CD rips and streaming.