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audiophile folklore - cables and claims from manufacturers

The cable debate.

Cables make a difference, sure. 

But SHOULD they?

I have been grappling with this question for the better part of 20 years! 

Fanatical claims from manufacturers, talking about how their cables will improve your system in specific ways, sonically. 

More accurate bass, cleaner midrange sounds, treble resolution... etc. soundstage and imaging, you get the idea.

The fundamental disconnect is - they have never heard YOUR system! 

So then, how do they know what their cables will sound like in your system. Not to mention, astronomical prices on some of these interconnects. The wilder the claims, the higher the cost.

The behavior we should be looking for is passing on the signal, with as little losses as possible. That can be done relatively cheaply, with well made professional interconnects that cost less than 100 dollars in most cases.

If you could build an audio system (all of it) from thrift store finds and cables really did make that much of a difference, then wouldn’t the sound quality scale that way?

It seems many audiophiles I know are in denial. And even worse, some use cables as TONE controls! This is where audiophoolery becomes a religion. Audio dealers promote it, because it impacts their bottom line! 

frank009
jr1000
22 posts
 

I have learned here that smoking dope helps the music.

...and also that OP is a troll!

ericba's avatar
ericba
148 posts
 

Really don't care about all the debates. Bottom line does it sound better in my system or not? The proof is in the puding as they say !

douglas_schroeder
3,329 posts
 

frank009, please list the manufacturer brands of sets of cables that you have compared in your system. Not individual cables, but sets of cables. Thank you! 

bthrb4u
52 posts
 

Hopefully this isn’t some spoof account so a cable manufacturer has a topic which they can use another spoof account to advertise their cables in the comments. Whole lot of BS m these forums like that. I like the ones where it’s a new user but that got this jew piece of gear that in their 20 years of being audiophile and trying all the big name brands (insert here so searches read tags of popular cables) these absolutely smoke them!

bthrb4u
52 posts
 

I personally am a cable guy. 
The difference is in transparency or lack of

cables are actually some of the most Colored things you add to your system.  They are flawed.  These flaws allow cable manufacturers to have numerous ways to “voice” their cables. Then you have brands like iconolast that have literature teaching you about it, then their cables supposedly fix the issue. They have all the numbers that prove their cables are the best. But they’re not. Their cables still fit a category of colored. The other category and best category is absolute transparency. Because iconolast doesn’t fit in this category, you still hear the cable.  But because the cable is “technically correct” it is very bland and far from the resolution other companies achieve.  
Some of the companies that reach transparency category are Zenwave silver, Furutech nanoflux and higher and albedo.  They still have their own sound because a cable can’t be perfect but they’re have a dynamic contrast and lack of constraint that puts them in high end category.  I’ve not tried all the best cables but I’ve tried many. 
I’ve recently tried veritas cables because of a thread where people are preaching them.  I got the aperta se and my buddy got their new flagship. Definitely not anywhere near the level of transparency. They pass current effortlessly, have decent detail but they sound very silvery and their dynamic range is horrible. Too much compression. Allison krauss sounds like a mouse because theres not enough variation in pitch

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