Speakers and cables - big improvements or not?

[splasher]

So, being an engineer, I guess I'm inclined to be sceptical of things I don't understand. So I'm thinking that as long as I've got a decent x-sec OFC copper speaker cable, I'm probably not going to see much difference in the sound by spending more money on it.

I want to spend more money on my speakers than my amplifier and so I think the thing to do is to put my amp under my arm and take it to a shop to audition speakers to see which produce the nicest sound. Regardless they'll need messing around with when I get them home to get the room response right but at least if they produce a nice tone in the shop with my amp, I should have a reasonable chance of success.

I reckon the candidates are MA gold 300, Spendor D7, KEF R700 (900s probably physically too big).

 

[RobinKidderminster]

Seems all your conclusions are spot on. Good luck with the auditions.

 

[Rethep]

No one here is going to try and sell you on the idea of 3k speakers. You just have to listen. And dont go putting 2-3k speakers on a £1000 amp it make no sense. I prefer to spend more money on the amp and have cheaper speakers driven to there best. Sounds far far better in my experance

Yes, i did!

To spend at least the same amount of money on both is o.k., i think.

Think of which music you listen to, which loudness level, and what kind of soundcharacter you like.

Good luck!

 

[Deleted member 116933]

Personally in your case a demo at a dealer will be a waste of your time. You need to arrange a home demo with your preferred brands. And to be honest at this price no one makes a bad speaker and differences between brands will be marginal if any at all.

Why will a demo at a dealer be a waste of time? The bass will be dominated by the control of the room but at higher frequencies what you hear at a dealer is very likely to translate to what you hear at home. Does the wife sound different at the dealers compared to home? Conclusions?

Now an uncontrolled room may sound less bad with speakers that have little bass but I would suggest most people are likely to be better off with speakers with sufficient bass, which could be used to good effect in a good room, and turning the bass down with a knob.

And dont go putting 2-3k speakers on a £1000 amp it make no sense. I prefer to spend more money on the amp and have cheaper speakers driven to there best. Sounds far far better in my experance

To me £1000 looks slightly too much to spend on a competent stereo amplifier given a £500-750 competent stereo amplifier that has sufficient power and is happy with the load will sound identical. Spending £5000 on an amplfier as you suggest seems unbalanced although one might have to pay more than one wants in order to get the required feature set so it is probably unwise to be too dogmatic. But I think it is safe to say at this price level if you are spending more than 50% of the price of the speakers on an amplifier the overall sound quality is not going to be maximised. Which is not a problem if it is not a heavily weighted parameter.

You can argue all day on the first point its not the same room right down to the bricks and mortar used. Actually your wife will sound different! stand her in dead room then her voice will be clean and unstaurated. Stand her in a room with windows, fire places, beams, kitchens/open plan living with reflective surfaces and funny alcoves then you get colourtions, echos/reverb so yes she and speakers will sound different.

The Op asked for experiences of buying 1500-2000k speakers and if there any difference and should he/she make the jump. Which is marked jump over there current set up and to truly appreciate that jump he/she would need to listen at home to analyse the differences with there own kit back to back hence "listening at the dealers in there case is a waste of time" not to mention a pain in the bum as you would have take it all your kit to the dealer to achive the same/ish comparison. But he/she seems to happy to do this as metioned above

In regards to £5000 on an amp, which by the way I didn't suggest! I know my spelling and grammar are pants but in no way did i suggest spending that on an amp.... Your putting words into my mouth! The amounts should be equal or in the amps favour. £200 amp £200 speakers or £200 amp 150 on speakers. What i was trying to say theres a trend of putting grossly over priced speakers on cheaper amps.

But yes most amps sound the same from 700-1000, as i said no one makes a bad product within there given price range it boils down to to small differences that separate them and mostly personal preference/technical reasons, weather it be speakers and/or amps. Its just how the marketing of certain companies choose to price there product, some are greedy some are realistic. This is why you get product review brackets of lets say 1-1500 it gives the companies/reviewers a discrepancy between the products. Not to mention it highlights the value of certain products. Like the kef ls50 for example.

I was trying to give my experiences of buying a hi fi in that sort of price region which i have recently done. If my opinion is wrong/unhelpful in any such way then i do apologise for that.

 

[hg]

You can argue all day on the first point its not the same room right down to the bricks and mortar used. Actually your wife will sound different! stand her in dead room then her voice will be clean and unstaurated. Stand her in a room with windows, fire places, beams, kitchens/open plan living with reflective surfaces and funny alcoves then you get colourtions, echos/reverb so yes she and speakers will sound different.

Will the voice be recognisable as your wife's in the dead room and the live room? Why is that and what would you hear if her voice was played back on two different speakers in the dead room and the live room? Will the difference in the speakers change her voice or will you hear through both the room and through the different speakers to hear the same voice?

Like the "sound of cables", spending large sums of money on amplifiers only makes sense if you believe in the "sound of amplifiers" rather than all competent linear amplifiers within their operating range sounding audibly neutral (i.e. not valve amplifers, many class D,...). I am not sure the OP does believe in the "sound of amplifiers" although he is proposing to take his amplifier to the dealers which is the safe thing to do if unsure.

 

[hybridauth_Facebook_10203552373284939]

Hi I have a similar setup (Tannoy Precision 6.2 LE, CA Azur 651W Power Amp, StreamMagic 6 v2) hooked up with QED Silver Ann XT Biwire. I was about to swap out the amp until I realised the xlr interconnect was sub par. All I can say is try some new cables first and you might be amazed. With hindsight I'd probably stay clear of silver cables, with the Tannoys they can sound a little bright...

 

[abacus]

The only thing a change of cable will do is either increase the volume (Lower resistance) or decrease the volume (Higher resistance), all of which can be achieved by adjusting the volume control. (A slight increase in volume will give a more open sound, whereas a small decrease will give a more closed in duller sound, which is due to the way the ear/brain interprets the input)

Apart from the above a cable will make no other difference to the sound, no matter what the conductor is made of. (If you hear a difference then it is purely expectation bias which disappears when you test blind)

Hope this helps

Bill

 

[splasher]

The only thing a change of cable will do is either increase the volume (Lower resistance) or decrease the volume (Higher resistance), all of which can be achieved by adjusting the volume control.

I'm straying into areas I'm no expert in here, but doesn't cables have any inductance, however small, that would mean a different characteristic depending on the frequency?

 

[abacus]

The only thing a change of cable will do is either increase the volume (Lower resistance) or decrease the volume (Higher resistance), all of which can be achieved by adjusting the volume control.

I'm straying into areas I'm no expert in here, but doesn't cables have any inductance, however small, that would mean a different characteristic depending on the frequency?

A cable has both inductance and capacitance, however it is at such a low level that it is dwarfed by the inductance and capacitance of a speaker, thus it has no effect on the frequency response.

Hope this helps

Bill