GSV Ethics Gradient
Moderator
tsaoandy
Well-known member
Hi
Testing out and tweaking sound with cable is a journey itself, I have been on that journey and it is something you definitely should take but not too seriously.
from my experience, synergy is very important when it comes to cable. What speaker cable are you using? Or if you have change cable before and made comparison, make sure analyse why you prefer certain sound signature. It’s fun to be in this hobby but forever changing and not get the sound you like is too frustrating and like I said your money should go in the speakers and the electronics first.
I am a big fan of quality copper cables. Cables I have tried are QED, Sopra, Audioquest, Cardas, Analysis Plus, Siltech and Audience. They’re all well made, I would say QED is all you need. For me Analysis Plus has the best cost/performance ratio, they’re not like Audioquest or Nordus trying convince people that cables should a component(hence you should save up for it)well made, very well balanced, in fact I audition some Speakers awhile back, the dealer put on the flagship Siltech cables on all of them, my feeling was “is that it”? Not saying high end cables don’t sound good, I’m a professional violinist, my violin is only £5000, I frequently tweak with strings and bridge, and bow. It’s that “extra” projection you are after, more nuanced more dimensional, and I have met players whohave never thought that side of things. So try to match your interconnect with the rest of your system. All QED or certain range of Audioquest isn’t bad either(currently using Audioquest)
Good luck
Andy
Testing out and tweaking sound with cable is a journey itself, I have been on that journey and it is something you definitely should take but not too seriously.
from my experience, synergy is very important when it comes to cable. What speaker cable are you using? Or if you have change cable before and made comparison, make sure analyse why you prefer certain sound signature. It’s fun to be in this hobby but forever changing and not get the sound you like is too frustrating and like I said your money should go in the speakers and the electronics first.
I am a big fan of quality copper cables. Cables I have tried are QED, Sopra, Audioquest, Cardas, Analysis Plus, Siltech and Audience. They’re all well made, I would say QED is all you need. For me Analysis Plus has the best cost/performance ratio, they’re not like Audioquest or Nordus trying convince people that cables should a component(hence you should save up for it)well made, very well balanced, in fact I audition some Speakers awhile back, the dealer put on the flagship Siltech cables on all of them, my feeling was “is that it”? Not saying high end cables don’t sound good, I’m a professional violinist, my violin is only £5000, I frequently tweak with strings and bridge, and bow. It’s that “extra” projection you are after, more nuanced more dimensional, and I have met players whohave never thought that side of things. So try to match your interconnect with the rest of your system. All QED or certain range of Audioquest isn’t bad either(currently using Audioquest)
Good luck
Andy
Gray
Well-known member
I dare say that many more people would hear your violin tweaks than would hear any cable swap Andy.
record_spot
Well-known member
These days, I just use Fisual. Their Havana XL is well built, has good quality locking lugs to securely connect the cable to the component or the speaker. The XL is around £40 a metre pair, the standard Havana is about £35 and the Rio is about £25.
The RCA are QED the toshlinks are just cheap 1s both Amps are Marantz pm 6005 and a PM7000n the speakers are 12.3 wharfedale..
Nico69
Well-known member
Optical is better for CD60 into the PM7000n than RCA? Is this what you are saying? Are you thus using the PM7000n DAC?
Please clarify what you mean.
YES Optical is better using a PM7000n and a CD60. Sounds much better too me.
Nico69
Well-known member
WayneKerr
Well-known member
Congrats
So you prefer the DAC in the PM7000 over that in the CD60.robdmarsh
Well-known member
You do know that this is a really a DAC comparison and not really a cable comparison?
robdmarsh
Well-known member
If you're just comparing cables, stick to the same type of cables with the same sources and amps. While we're at it, I've just upgraded from Chord C-line interconnects to Chord Clearway. Pretty noticeable difference - more focus, better leading edge to notes. I really think some of you non-believers should give it a go, just saying.
abacus
Well-known member
It was a double blind test of course where you noticed the differences, if so please post the results so that they can be verified by others.
Bill
WayneKerr
Well-known member
I'm not about to turn yet another thread into a "cable debate", you are more than entitled to your beliefs and opinions and if they float your boat then good for you.
Personally, I firmly believe if you want to hear true and very real differences try upgrading your kit instead of playing around with cables. If you can hear differences in cables then you will be blown away with a kit upgrade... and it'll probably work out cheaper in the long run
Edit: Your cable spend over time must be approaching the cost of your kit... it would be like me spending £12K on cables... never gonna happen!
Last edited:
daveh75
Well-known member
Fixed it for you. Objectivity isn't a belief system.
Conversely, maybe some of you 'believers' should give double blind testing a go, just saying.
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robdmarsh
Well-known member
robdmarsh
Well-known member
Interesting you've brought that up I was trying to work it out the other day. I think it's about £320, which I admit is quite a lot when my hardware costs south of £2k. As you know, I have tried some "kit" changes as you put it, Arcam and Naim amp try outs plus a couple of speaker trials around the £1k area, but nothing has really floated my boat. So it's really been a case of fine-tuning what I've got.
robdmarsh
Well-known member
Interesting side note on the "objectivist" thing. Hi-res objectively contains a lot more data than FLAC or much more than the compressed hi-res I listen to over bluetooth Ldac. Yet I can't hear any difference between the two. Those that can hear the difference therefore have "objectivity" to back up the differences that they hear. Yet I think the vast majority of people with sound but average hearing would not be able to say which is true high resolution.
GSV Ethics Gradient
Moderator
I think it'd be great if manufacturers did double blind - there's no legitimate reason why they shouldn't. That piece that Russ Andrews wrote a while back saying they are unrepresentative because they cause the listener stress was pure comedy gold.
But expecting people to do a double blind at home is unrealistic - even if you sheathed cables in something identical, the connectors are likely to be different - so the double part of blinding falls at the first hurdle.
I think that if someone can genuinely* tell the difference between two things (whatever they might be) whilst having their sceptical partner swap between them (i.e. single blind), their views should not automatically be dismissed because they aren't the gold standard and they haven't been published in an academic journal.
*However that is proven - a can of worms I'll leave unopened...
But expecting people to do a double blind at home is unrealistic - even if you sheathed cables in something identical, the connectors are likely to be different - so the double part of blinding falls at the first hurdle.
I think that if someone can genuinely* tell the difference between two things (whatever they might be) whilst having their sceptical partner swap between them (i.e. single blind), their views should not automatically be dismissed because they aren't the gold standard and they haven't been published in an academic journal.
*However that is proven - a can of worms I'll leave unopened...
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