Good, Neutral, Reasonably Priced Cables?

Boy, it sure is refreshing to see some other people taking the beating, and not me, for a change.

Maybe a good suggestion would be for everyone to get rid of their speakers altogether, and replace them with oscilloscopes, so we could all watch the happy waveforms of our favorite music dancing on the screen, and continuously analyzing the distortion products, instead of listening to music.

Now that sounds like fun.

I can just imagine the Audiogon posts then:
"How come my oscilloscope shows more distortion product when I use speaker cable B, than A?"
Or my favorite:
Should we really be using speaker cables on our oscilloscopes, or would it be better to use oscilloscope cables instead?"
Or:
"Does anybody else like to watch steady-state test tone wave patterns?"
Or, the ever-popular:
"Where can I get a cheap cable that will show good waveforms on my 'scope?"

Somehow, I manage to get enjoyable listening, even without ever hooking up a single piece of test equipment to my system. Do I need a 12-step program to release me from the errors of my ways? Or maybe I should have said a "12-step function selector switch?"
:^)

Optimistically speaking though, maybe someday our testing methods will include actually listening to the music. That would be a great day indeed. I find it rather humorous that the only testing method that "does not count" is listening with the human ears in your own listening room. And that there is "no error" in testing regimes, and all error is in the ear or perceptions of the ears, because science is god and cannot be wrong, or more accurately, wrongly applied.

Technology is a means to an end, nothing more. That "end" is listening to the music. If the technology does not improve your listening enjoyment, or even detracts from it, then it is useless. Getting a perfect scope pattern, if it doesn't translate into better enjoyment, is not the goal.

You can't "spec" or "measure" your way to audio nirvana. Audio nirvana is an emotional place which is provided by the emotional content of the music. There is no "emotional content meter" available. Good luck with your other meters.

You can "extrapolate" specs all you want, and try to "presume" that "this" measurement will mean "that" level of enjoyment, but in the end it is "in the ears" and "in the emotions", my friend. That, you cannot measure with a meter, you can only experience it, and THAT is "where it's at".

You can take 2 audio tubes that measure and spec exactly the same, but may come from a different manufacturer, and they sound noticeably different. Why? Do we want to dissect these tubes, and perform sub-atomic testing, so that ultimately we can learn that "matter" and "energy" and "space" are all actually "one", and we have no idea what is at the basis of it all? Maybe you do. But I don't. I want to hear a nice sounding audio system that stirs my soul with music.

What if you found 2 different cables that had all the same measurements exactly, and sounded different? What would you do then? I'll tell you what you'd do. You'd have to accept that your measurements are incomplete, and flawed in concept and application, and that they only tell you rudimentary things. Then, you'd be starting out on the same road that many of us started on long ago. It's in the listening.

Rumour has it the original poster who wanted to recable his entire system without going nuts has committed suicide.

Phew! Sean, Robert, thanks for the eye-exercises. Sean, just gotta disagree with your statement re the inappropriate use of Teflon (or other low DA insulation) in PCs. Whereas one would think that bandwidth constriction is useful for AC propagation, accomplishing it via "dirty dielectrics" is NOT beneficial. As with signal cables, the empirical evidence (our ears) DOES indicate that here too Teflon "sounds" more transparent, less "phasey", etc. No, I can't explain it. But hundreds of A'goners who use my cheap Teflon-insulated PCs agree.
OK, maybe it's the geometry, shielding...whatever. But at $40-70 who cares? Thanks for the Goertz analysis. Ern

Robert: Many of the points that you bring up are valid. On others, i could respond point by point and waste my time, your time and that of anyone else that read it. Rather than do that, i'll keep it short and respond to two statements that you made:
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"Now come on Sean. You accuse me of writing a novel. I said what you said above here with less words! What I said was:

Purity has to do with the level of impurities. We all know that I think. Q has to do with levels of types of impurities.

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You forgot to mention that you did this AFTER posting four "novels" with no such information in any of them. Had you responded to the questions that were asked in an easy to read and respond to form, most of this would have never taken place.

As to the second comment, i'm surely NOT a liberal. Nor am i a CONservative. I'm a socialist, hence my concerns for the average citizen i.e. audio enthusiast. While "liberals" want to give the property of others away in order to "take care of the masses", socialists believe that everyone is responsible for taking care of themselves and earning their own keep. That's why i try to make the masses aware of the facts & figures involved in the equation. That way they can formulate their own educated answers to the questions and decisions at hand. Some will absorb that information right away and respond accordingly, probably saving themselves time, money and frustration in the process. Some will disregard and make their own decisions, with some of those decisions and actions being mistakes. Some of those that initially disregarded the facts & figures may come to realize that the information provided was of greater value than they initially though, but that would be at a later date, explaining why & how they made the mistakes that they did.

As i've said before, i'm planting seeds. Some seeds will grow, some will be stomped on, some will be carried away by the birds and deposited elsewhere, possibly taking root at a later date in an unexpected place. Obviously, i'm not the perfect farmer and the harvest represents that fact. My methods in some areas are quite lacking. As such, some will nurture those seeds, some will pull them up by the roots and others won't know whether they are a plant or a weed.

Another problem is, i think that i've been planting roses. That's because much of the beauty that i strive for has been marred by the thorns that i've left behind. As such, i apologize for the occasional hurt that those thorns have caused and hope that the beauty of the bloom that comes to flourish more than makes up for the damage done.

Thanks all for putting up with me. To those that recognize my motives and have tried to steer me back on course when i've veered, i appreciate your honesty and effort. This includes those that i've had words with too, as i know that at least some of their concerns were fair and just.

Have a safe and happy Holiday... Sean
>

Well Sean, are you going to borrow the cables or not? Five sets and a whole month should be plenty for doing your analysis (dont' cut them open). There's nothing wrong nor it means any loss of face by actually liking them. You could even drive to Robert's place and have a beer with him! If he invites me I'll drive to LaPorte this weekend before moving to Florida...I would like to hear his new demo room.

I think the cables will be a paradigm shift.

Robert, I have never made any claims of being mentally sane. It's not mentally sane to have mini-monitors with 4 inch woofers play at loud volume *hardcore* salsa recordings of full blown, 20+ musicians' orchestras. Yet, somehow it is possible. RX8man had a paradigm shift when he witnessed the Fania All Stars playing in my living room. It's not supposed to be possible...

Good, wholesome foods have crap in them. After chewing, digestion starts and the crap comes out the other end!

With psychic power and primal intensity,