DIB said:Last year I decided to look into the mains cables make a difference debate, and bought myself a mains block, 2 leads, and one of those SBooster thingies. About £300 all in. Ran them for about 3 weeks or so and then swapped back to the stock cables I had previously used. Nope, no difference so sent them back for a full refund. On reflection I'm glad I did explore this, because I'm happy in my own mind now where I stand on this matter. .
CnoEvil said:DIB said:Last year I decided to look into the mains cables make a difference debate, and bought myself a mains block, 2 leads, and one of those SBooster thingies. About £300 all in. Ran them for about 3 weeks or so and then swapped back to the stock cables I had previously used. Nope, no difference so sent them back for a full refund. On reflection I'm glad I did explore this, because I'm happy in my own mind now where I stand on this matter. .
Hi DIB
As a matter of interest, which ones did you go for?
DIB said:The leads and block were from MCRU, and if my memory serves me right £70 per lead and £100 for the block. They were of an excellent quality, very robust build etc. but in all honestly did not offer me any improvement s on the supplied leads and my Wilkinson's extension block.
The SBooster was from Mark Grant and again I could notice no discernable difference on my SBT.
I'm glad I tried them though, just to satisfy my curiosity.
DIB said:my Wilkinson's extension block.
audioaddict said:the system I regret buying was my previous audiolab 8000 series system 8000 cd pre amp 2x mono blocs ,sound harsh and aggressive and did not sit well with at all ...............has certainly put me off expensive hifi
MajorFubar said:Celestion DL6's, when they were current. Liked the sound in the shop, with all the usual caveats of it being an unfamiliar environment, tried to like the sound in my house, but ended up concluding that getting the kind of sound I wanted from infinite-baffle loudspeakers would cost more money than I could spend. Within 18 months I part-ex'd them for some Tannoy 607's which now and again I wish I still owned. Or maybe changed them for the 609's or 611's.
MajorFubar said:It wasn't a typing error, I did mean the DL6, not SL6. I have never listened to the SL6.
CnoEvil said:MajorFubar said:It wasn't a typing error, I did mean the DL6, not SL6. I have never listened to the SL6.
My apologies Major.....I should have known better!
MajorFubar said:I’ll throw another one in, but perhaps the word ‘regret’ is a bit strong. It’s more a tale of caution really: my HRT II+ DAC. Stunning reviews. You will be amazed, they said. Blows-away all built-in computer sound-cards, they said (“they” being countless online reviews and printed reviews in HiFi magazines globally).
At the time of these stunning reviews I was about to receive a £250 long service award from my employer, so I bought it figuring I had nothing to lose. Don’t get me wrong it’s a good DAC but it’s really not £300 better than the DAC in the 2011 Mac Mini it’s attached to. In fact I’m not sure I could consistently pass an ABX test.
BigH said:MajorFubar said:"Even though the standard sound-card in the Mac Mini is one of the best I've heard in a computer, this thing is several leagues ahead."
So what happened?
If I'm being honest, it's a perfect example of hearing huge differences because I wanted to hear them. Sometimes I think the first few weeks or months of living with a new HiFi component are absolutely the worst time to truly evaluate it. Quite often for me, the novelty of hearing something different clouds my judgement, and that novelty needs to wear off before I can truly evaluate whether what i've bought is better, or more often than not, just plain different.