the record spot:Why would "sell on" be an issue? Only if you feel the need to upgrade. If you want to go down the sell on route, just buy a bunch of cables going in a sale, then flog em off on Ebay, nothing to say they need to go anywhere near your stereo kit. I might even do that myself (although it'll impact the tax return next year...)!If the rationale is driven by resale value, then the purpose for buying in the first place is driven by "upgrade-itis". I work with the view that the cable is one of the least important parts of the chain and it's currently a logic that's proven.
Everything has to have a resale value. I'm wearing a 48 year old Omega watch at the moment, I will sell it for more than I paid when I fancy a change. Or I could buy a new one and lose 40% of the value as soon as my credit card is accepted.
I enjoy box swapping too.
Everything has to have a resale value. I'm wearing a 48 year old Omega watch at the moment, I will sell it for more than I paid when I fancy a change. Or I could buy a new one and lose 40% of the value as soon as my credit card is accepted.
I enjoy box swapping too.
Gerrardasnails
Well-known member
- Sep 6, 2007
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the record spot:Why would "sell on" be an issue? Only if you feel the need to upgrade. If you want to go down the sell on route, just buy a bunch of cables going in a sale, then flog em off on Ebay, nothing to say they need to go anywhere near your stereo kit. I might even do that myself (although it'll impact the tax return next year...)!
If the rationale is driven by resale value, then the purpose for buying in the first place is driven by "upgrade-itis". I work with the view that the cable is one of the least important parts of the chain and it's currently a logic that's proven.
As a private seller you don't pay tax on your profits. I'm with Joel on this one. You buy a well known cable for a good price on eBay, try it and if you don't like it, and know what you are doing, you will get at least the same back for it. To the OP. Look out for a Chord Anthem - the version 1. You can get some good second hand deals on eBay and it's very good.
If the rationale is driven by resale value, then the purpose for buying in the first place is driven by "upgrade-itis". I work with the view that the cable is one of the least important parts of the chain and it's currently a logic that's proven.
As a private seller you don't pay tax on your profits. I'm with Joel on this one. You buy a well known cable for a good price on eBay, try it and if you don't like it, and know what you are doing, you will get at least the same back for it. To the OP. Look out for a Chord Anthem - the version 1. You can get some good second hand deals on eBay and it's very good.
Gerrardasnails:the record spot:Why would "sell on" be an issue? Only if you feel the need to upgrade. If you want to go down the sell on route, just buy a bunch of cables going in a sale, then flog em off on Ebay, nothing to say they need to go anywhere near your stereo kit. I might even do that myself (although it'll impact the tax return next year...)!
If the rationale is driven by resale value, then the purpose for buying in the first place is driven by "upgrade-itis". I work with the view that the cable is one of the least important parts of the chain and it's currently a logic that's proven.
As a private seller you don't pay tax on your profits. I'm with Joel on this one. You buy a well known cable for a good price on eBay, try it and if you don't like it, and know what you are doing, you will get at least the same back for it. To the OP. Look out for a Chord Anthem - the version 1. You can get some good second hand deals on eBay and it's very good.
Errr, not quite.
Buying to sell is treated as a chargeable event and is liable for inclusion in a capital gain calculation. Your income is your income and when you breach your the threshold beyond which tax becomes payable. For Ebay, I think you have a limit of about £300 however, before the revenue would take an interest, and if you're shifting a serious amount, then it would be liable.
The "Ebay sales don't count" comes out of the same hat as the "you can take your stuff back to the Richer Sounds branch you bought it from for a full refund if you don't like it".
If the rationale is driven by resale value, then the purpose for buying in the first place is driven by "upgrade-itis". I work with the view that the cable is one of the least important parts of the chain and it's currently a logic that's proven.
As a private seller you don't pay tax on your profits. I'm with Joel on this one. You buy a well known cable for a good price on eBay, try it and if you don't like it, and know what you are doing, you will get at least the same back for it. To the OP. Look out for a Chord Anthem - the version 1. You can get some good second hand deals on eBay and it's very good.
Errr, not quite.
Buying to sell is treated as a chargeable event and is liable for inclusion in a capital gain calculation. Your income is your income and when you breach your the threshold beyond which tax becomes payable. For Ebay, I think you have a limit of about £300 however, before the revenue would take an interest, and if you're shifting a serious amount, then it would be liable.
The "Ebay sales don't count" comes out of the same hat as the "you can take your stuff back to the Richer Sounds branch you bought it from for a full refund if you don't like it".
a few sales on ebay and you have no problems ... tax guys are getting a bit strict now ... in the old days when you went to an auction, you wrote your name on a piece of paper, got a bidding number and placed your bids and paid cash
now ... you need to produce photo id, all transactions are recorded and passed onto the tax office
tax guys are now going around to carboot sales and logging car /van registration numbers ... the tax guys are clever and can spot a dealer from a mile away
and to top it all, ebay are suppling the tax office with all the info ...
so if you only sell once in a while, no probs .... if you are selling for a living, and have not registered as a business/tax, you are taking a big risk
now ... you need to produce photo id, all transactions are recorded and passed onto the tax office
tax guys are now going around to carboot sales and logging car /van registration numbers ... the tax guys are clever and can spot a dealer from a mile away
and to top it all, ebay are suppling the tax office with all the info ...
so if you only sell once in a while, no probs .... if you are selling for a living, and have not registered as a business/tax, you are taking a big risk
I certainly don't buy to sell, I do however buy with a view that I could sell on and not lose money, occasionally make a fiver perhaps.
Coming back to the original subject, I was sitting on the throne last night pondering this issue, and it occurred to me that a few things might be as, if not more, important than the conductors themselves:
#1 The connection between wire and termination: no matter how "good" the wire proper, if it's not terminated in the RCA plug properly, any benefit of a "superior" conductor is going to be overwhelmed. I think this is probably as, if not more, important than the quality of the cable itself, as any change in conductivity at a joint will have a very pronounced effect.
#2 Shielding and cross-talk: cross talk is a real phenomenon, even on short cable runs, so routing you interconnects away from power cables, speaker cables and even other interconnects will be beneficial. Good shielding will help reduce cross-talk.
#3 Clean connections are better connections: you should ensure your RCA connections are thoroughly cleaned, then degreased once in a while. Try and program it in like changing your smoke detector battery - every time the clocks change or every six months or so. I also think the very act of changing one old dirty interconnect, disturbing the gunk on your component CD player, amp, whatever terminals, and bright shiny RCA plugs (hopefully) on your new interconnect may be why a new interconnect might sound "better" than the old one.
After that it all gets a bit high tech and electrical engineering to the nth degree. In my business, we use subsea cables or umbilicals to control oil wells etc. on the seabed, often up to 20 miles or more long, and the umbilical engineers get very picky about the electrical characteristics of the conductors, in terms of impedance (resistance, inductance and capacitance), frequency response and attenuation across the frequency spectrum, etc. etc. ad tedium.
#1 The connection between wire and termination: no matter how "good" the wire proper, if it's not terminated in the RCA plug properly, any benefit of a "superior" conductor is going to be overwhelmed. I think this is probably as, if not more, important than the quality of the cable itself, as any change in conductivity at a joint will have a very pronounced effect.
#2 Shielding and cross-talk: cross talk is a real phenomenon, even on short cable runs, so routing you interconnects away from power cables, speaker cables and even other interconnects will be beneficial. Good shielding will help reduce cross-talk.
#3 Clean connections are better connections: you should ensure your RCA connections are thoroughly cleaned, then degreased once in a while. Try and program it in like changing your smoke detector battery - every time the clocks change or every six months or so. I also think the very act of changing one old dirty interconnect, disturbing the gunk on your component CD player, amp, whatever terminals, and bright shiny RCA plugs (hopefully) on your new interconnect may be why a new interconnect might sound "better" than the old one.
After that it all gets a bit high tech and electrical engineering to the nth degree. In my business, we use subsea cables or umbilicals to control oil wells etc. on the seabed, often up to 20 miles or more long, and the umbilical engineers get very picky about the electrical characteristics of the conductors, in terms of impedance (resistance, inductance and capacitance), frequency response and attenuation across the frequency spectrum, etc. etc. ad tedium.
idc
Well-known member
- Jan 2, 2008
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- 137
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Darren Heal:
Coming back to the original subject, I was sitting on the throne last night pondering this issue, and it occurred to me that a few things might be as, if not more, important than the conductors themselves:
#1 The connection between wire and termination: no matter how "good" the wire proper, if it's not terminated in the RCA plug properly, any benefit of a "superior" conductor is going to be overwhelmed. I think this is probably as, if not more, important than the quality of the cable itself, as any change in conductivity at a joint will have a very pronounced effect.
My mate the engineer staes that the connection between the wire and the termination is the most important part of a cable. How well it is soldered or crimped will affect resistence.
Darren Heal:
#2 Shielding and cross-talk: cross talk is a real phenomenon, even on short cable runs, so routing you interconnects away from power cables, speaker cables and even other interconnects will be beneficial. Good shielding will help reduce cross-talk.
Again, absolutely the case. Routing of cables is a major part of his work.
Darren Heal:
#3 Clean connections are better connections: you should ensure your RCA connections are thoroughly cleaned, then degreased once in a while. Try and program it in like changing your smoke detector battery - every time the clocks change or every six months or so. I also think the very act of changing one old dirty interconnect, disturbing the gunk on your component CD player, amp, whatever terminals, and bright shiny RCA plugs (hopefully) on your new interconnect may be why a new interconnect might sound "better" than the old one.
Again, same mate and we tidyed up his hifi and gave it a good clean and the sound improved.
On that issue of cleaning contacts, why is it that burn in mainly improves sound (allegedly), but meanwhile contacts are degrading which makes the sound worse? Explain that you believers of burning in cables.
Coming back to the original subject, I was sitting on the throne last night pondering this issue, and it occurred to me that a few things might be as, if not more, important than the conductors themselves:
#1 The connection between wire and termination: no matter how "good" the wire proper, if it's not terminated in the RCA plug properly, any benefit of a "superior" conductor is going to be overwhelmed. I think this is probably as, if not more, important than the quality of the cable itself, as any change in conductivity at a joint will have a very pronounced effect.
My mate the engineer staes that the connection between the wire and the termination is the most important part of a cable. How well it is soldered or crimped will affect resistence.
Darren Heal:
#2 Shielding and cross-talk: cross talk is a real phenomenon, even on short cable runs, so routing you interconnects away from power cables, speaker cables and even other interconnects will be beneficial. Good shielding will help reduce cross-talk.
Again, absolutely the case. Routing of cables is a major part of his work.
Darren Heal:
#3 Clean connections are better connections: you should ensure your RCA connections are thoroughly cleaned, then degreased once in a while. Try and program it in like changing your smoke detector battery - every time the clocks change or every six months or so. I also think the very act of changing one old dirty interconnect, disturbing the gunk on your component CD player, amp, whatever terminals, and bright shiny RCA plugs (hopefully) on your new interconnect may be why a new interconnect might sound "better" than the old one.
Again, same mate and we tidyed up his hifi and gave it a good clean and the sound improved.
On that issue of cleaning contacts, why is it that burn in mainly improves sound (allegedly), but meanwhile contacts are degrading which makes the sound worse? Explain that you believers of burning in cables.
It's simple really "go digital" . Laptop/Mac Mini/ whatever into a nice upmarket integrated amp with a digital input (ok so not many around right now but there will be) add speakers to taste and all you have to worry about is speaker cable. Well unless that is you beleive in the snake oil of $400 USB cables
idc
Well-known member
- Jan 2, 2008
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Well, we agree that build quality is important and a USB and other digital cables except optical is just wire transmitting a signal like analogue cables. The USB cable has to be able to cope with a wide bandwidth and not introduce jitter where, mainly the higher frequencies are slowed, particularly when they hit the resistance of the connection between cable and termination. The cable impedence is also an issue for jitter. Remy Fouree at Stereophile states that two cables of the same impedence will perform the same in the same kit. It is your luck whether you paid $400 or $4 for that cable.
$400 is excessive for any cable as it is perfectly possible to buy a much cheaper cable that has the same characteristics and so will perform just as well. But we don't get measurements of resistence and impedence from all cable makers, so how do we know? I say experiment with $4 cables and not blow all your money on a $400 one. But if it turns out that the $400 one is the best for your system, it is no longer snake oil.
$400 is excessive for any cable as it is perfectly possible to buy a much cheaper cable that has the same characteristics and so will perform just as well. But we don't get measurements of resistence and impedence from all cable makers, so how do we know? I say experiment with $4 cables and not blow all your money on a $400 one. But if it turns out that the $400 one is the best for your system, it is no longer snake oil.
The Hi-Fi shop I deal with agreed to borrow me interconnects from TCI costing 200£, I will try them and let you know if I hear any difference in sound quality , keeping in mind that currently I am using a one year old Atlas Equator MKII cable.
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