Cypher said:
abacus said:
Do a blind test with your analogue cables and you will find no difference between them, (The only reason they appear to sound different is because you were expecting a difference, it’s just one of the many failings of the human body) and the same applies to digital.
Hope this helps
Bill
I agree 100%.
Whereas I completely DISAGREE, and have a personal experience of a perfect blind test to share. Here goes:
We have recently completed a house refurb and it allows for a new dedicated listening area, which I equipped with:
1) Audiolab 8200CDQ + wired airplay and iTunes;
2) Audiolab 8000M (x2);
3) PMC DB1i wall-mounted, connected using Chord Rumour cable.
Having spent quite a bit of money on new and second-hand kit, the sound being produced was not what I was expecting (Mainly a lack of bass and clarity), and so I began to experiment to determine the weak link
. Given my experience with Audiolab kit (I have a separate 8000S and 8000P elsewhere), I started with the speakers, thinking that their diminutive size was the problem. Having auditioned a number of speakers up to £1000, I settled on the Monitor Audio Silver RX6 and arranged a home audition with the very helpful and knowledeable chaps at Audio-T in Basingstoke. At the second of my visits to their shop, it was suggested that I might want to try some new interconnects, as the ones I was using were quite old and quite cheap (I think I paid about £15 for them 10+ years ago). I was unconvinced, but tried two others in the shop - Chord Chameleon Plus and Chord Anthem. I was blown away by the step up, and whilst there was a difference between the new Chord cables, I felt that the more expensive Anthem didn't justify the extra money. I settled on the the Chameleon Plus, and took them home wih the borrowed RX6s.
When I got home, I plugged in the new cables with the new speakers, and spent a long time listening. However, the bass was just too big for the room - exactly the opposite to the problem I had been having, but I was no closer to obtaining the 'perfect sound; I had been hoping for. I unplugged the RX6s (leaving them in place under the DB1is) and plugged the DB1is back in, now with the new interconnect in place. The difference was startling, but I knew that the new interconnects were in place, so no blind test here.
My wife then returned, having been out since I had unplugged the RX6s and reintroduced the DB1is. I was listening to the live acoustic version of "Hotel California" off the Eagles' "Hell Freezes Over" at the time. She sat down next to me and asked, "Which speakers are we listening to?". I responded "The little ones" (i.e. the DB1is). She asked, "What have you done?". I said, "Nothing". She said, "But it sounds much better." I said, "What's different?" She said "There is a LOT more bass, and it sounds clearer, too. I can hear sounds that I hadn't noticed before - the crowd sounds like they're in the room with us". I said, "Ah, that might be the new interconnects." She said, "The what?" I said, "I bought some new cables that run from the amp CD player to the amps". She said, "You didn't tell me that you'd bought new cables. How much were they?" I said "£100". She said "£100! ONE HUNDRED POUNDS for some bits of copper cable?!. [Pause] Still, it sounds brilliant, and it's a lot cheaper than £700 for new speakers...".
So, my wife was completely unaware that I had bought new cable (this was no accident - I deliberately hadn't told her, as we still have lots to do on the house!) , and yet was immediately able to distinguish that:
a) there was a considerable difference in the sound from the speakers;
b) the differences perfectly matched my (possibly pre-conceived) perceptions.
So, I put that forward as a near-perfect example of of someone who was expecting to hear a system exactly as before, and yet immediately identifying that a component had changed. Not only that, but I had previously been a (gentle) skeptic regarding the difference that a cable could make.
So, whilst you are perfectly entitled to your opinion on the matter, I would encourage all on this (and other forums) to respect the difference between fact and opinion Your opening statement (highlighted in bold) implies a fact, where I believe that none exists. The fact is that my wife heard a distinct difference when she was expecting not to, without any prompting or any suggestion of a test in progress. It seems that it doesn't get much clearer than that.
Toodle-pip!