Audiophiles and Our Chase for Perfection
I'd like to solicit some thoughts and responses regarding some of our idiosyncrasies, taboo's and philosophies as audiophiles, specifically with regards to cabling.
Even if there was some magical fairy dust material that could coax protons and electrons into behaving differently or better; your signal is still going to be subject to the limitations of the “weakest component” in the signal path.
A perfect example of this is speaker cable. You can spend $50 to $100K or more on them, but as soon as they hit the next connection, junction or conductor, for example, the speaker terminal, you’ve fundamentally nullified any “perceived” benefit from those cables. Not to mention the soldering materials and their impact.
And the cycle goes on through the entirety of the circuit; including the connector/lug, back of the lug terminal, more soldering, wiring from the internal lug to the next component, to the next component and so on until you finally come to the wire or cable connecting to the driver, and even then you hit another junction at the terminal at the speaker itself as well as the subsequent wire from the terminal connecting to the voice coil, then the voice coil wire itself.
The bottom line is, there are so many contributors in the path that, unless you tear the entire speaker apart and replace them all with your idea of the “gold standard” or perfect material/component, you're still only going to be as good as the weakest component in the path. At the end of the day, just get some reasonably good 14 to 8 Gauge cables that are made of sound conducting material (e.g. 99.99% copper, or Silver if you prefer) because that same logic can be applied to ALL of the materials in the signal path.
The scenario above doesn’t even consider the influence or impact of all of the predecessor components in the signal path coming from the Amp, CD transport, DAC or any and all upstream components, as they all influence the integrity of the signal.
It should also be noted that the length the signal travels in that speaker cable (perhaps 6’ to 15’ or so) is a very short path in comparison to the rest of the system both pre and post cable connection.
The following is used with permission from Eric Alexander, Founder & Lead Designer, Tekton Design, LLC
"I truly believe audiophiles are chasing illusions, constantly attempting to fill an acoustic void that standard high-end audio simply cannot satisfy. When a flashy new component or wire comes along, the industry reacts with predictable, superficial hype. My 'In Real Life' (IRL) technology directly proves this theory—it delivers the authentic sound and visceral connection that audiophiles have been destitute and desperate for.
+1 @williewonka I have been toying around building my own interconnects lately, and exploring the impact of dielectric materials, specifically cotton. How much you use and how tight drastically affects the sound. Then add geometry, and conductor makeup, and you have quite a palette for adjusting your sound.
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@zizione I prefer to think of my cable practices as "refining" the sound, as opposed to adjusting the sound, simply because with each development the system revealed more and more details rather than changing a particular attribute of the sound e.g. bass, mid or trebble Granted, the details did change the sound somewhat, but also changed the imaging, pace and the dynamics of my entire system resulting in a more realistic reproduction, especially with respect to the micro details of the venue acoustics Regards - Steve
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@zlone Just something to think about. Long ago I decided to evaluate interconnects. I had a system that I knew inside and out. I started with my current cables... don’t remember, they were good. I acquired cables from a dealer friend of mine. He’d send one at a time and let me keep them for a few months. So, first I had to break them in... 200 hours, sometimes a bit less... but you have to make sure they are broken in. Then I came up with a rating system. I think I had about six or eight different variables, which I rated on a ten point scale. I used my original (Harmonics I think the silver plated copper) as the standard. So, then I would do quick A/B and rated them. Then let them in my system and listened for a week or two, Then switch back. The switch back was typically the time all the differences were really obvious. Sometimes I would need to do the two weeks for the reference and the new ones twice. Then I would get another pair... break them in and rate them. So I evaluated about six brands... along the way I found Nirvana... wow. They were $2K per pair and my components were only $5K each... but wow. Worth it. This was about five months of effort and dozens of hours of listening and weeks of breaking in. Anyway, I think you may see the point. If you are going to do this. Consider what you are going to use as a reference. What standards are you going to apply when evaluating. And for god’s sake get a cable cooker. It always seemed too expensive for me... but it would have paid for itself in a couple years. I have spent soooo much time breaking in interconnects, power cords and speaker wire it would have paid for itself in a year or two. Instead I have gone decades without one, would have saved thousands of hours using my main system.
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@ghdprentice Thanks for sharing. Yes, it is definitely a significant undertaking evaluating cables, and it requires a lot of time and patience. Swapping cables in and out to compare is pointless, as they can take days to settle, and as you have found, and weeks to evaluate. My mission here is more to understand what goes into the design and how it affects the sound. Once I know what is possible, I would likely look for something professionally built that comes close. Part of what started this was an upgrade of my speaker cables from firehose size to thin Audience cables. It got me thinking and experimenting with ultra light interconnects. @williewonka Yes, refining is a better term than adjusting. It is uncanny how much sonic latitude exists through design and materials, I have learned a lot. |
Half misconceptions in audio emerge from psycho-acoustics ignorance... The other half emerge because we had different budget, different needs,different biases... Room acoustics is fundamental, hilde45 is right... But physical Acoustics and psycho-acoustics ask for more than standard room materials...We can also use acoustics devices(resonators and DSP ) . It costed me nothing to create my first acoustic room by ears except a tremendous amount of time and experiments... I will never be able to do it again... Tuning by ears asked me 2 years full time ... What i have now in nearfield listening is very good but less, way less natural and spectacular...I enjoy it though...I tweaked my super AKG K340... It is another story... Room acoustics may cost few bucks, if you had time to learn and experiment it may cost nothing (my room was not esthetical though, my sons laugh without end but they were flabbergasted by the complete surround sound with no sound coming from the speakers).It costed time,thousand of hours to set it, but a free room to use...
Sorry but what i experienced with my 100 tuned resonators cost nothing in money but is unesthetical and impossible to implement in a living room... We cannot have esthetical psycho-aoustic experience for free...it ask for a room, acoustically architectured at high cost but esthetical or at no cost unesthetical...I am not crafty anyway perhaps a very crafty person could had build very beautiful resonators ... (if you had a living room and basic acoustics treatment satisfying for you i will recommend you to read about Dr. Choueiri filters to upgrade) My hobby was not just listening music but understanding acoustic, not just with my brain but with my ears... My hobby now is mathematics foundations and methods with A.I. To understand acoustics i need only a book written by a genius...But for maths it ask for many books and i am engulfed by an ocean... What is striking is that A.I. can takes my idea criticize them and use them and help me to develop them...If i had A.I. at the times for acoustics i perhaps would had save one full year of experiments using complex concepts and psycho-acoustics experiments...
I digress now as usual...
I forgot to say that i never chase for "perfection" only for optimization with a low cost system using rules which apply anyway to any system at any price...... I called it once i had reach it the " minimal acoustical satisfaction threshold experience" using 4 optimization process,mechanical,electrical,acoustical,+DSP...
Cables make a difference but so small compare to anything else, especially with a low cost system, that i pass over any cables threads as almost useless and deceptive, not because cables dont matter, they matter, but it is a red herring as many marketing conditioning compared to all others necessary optimization devices and process... |
