The 10% cable spend

[bigfish786]

I’ve seen this many times on whf about spending 10%+ of your budget on cables.
that would give me around £800 to spend on speaker cable and an interconnect.
I think I did it for under 1% of total outlay.
thrifty old me 🤣
Has anyone ever done the 10% thing? Or more?
I honestly don’t think I ever will.

 

[camcroft]

I’ve seen this many times on whf about spending 10%+ of your budget on cables.
that would give me around £800 to spend on speaker cable and an interconnect.
I think I did it for under 1% of total outlay.
thrifty old me 🤣
Has anyone ever done the 10% thing? Or more?
I honestly don’t think I ever will.

Just hang about .The cable Guru's will be along shortly.

 

[shadders]

I’ve seen this many times on whf about spending 10%+ of your budget on cables.
that would give me around £800 to spend on speaker cable and an interconnect.
I think I did it for under 1% of total outlay.
thrifty old me 🤣
Has anyone ever done the 10% thing? Or more?
I honestly don’t think I ever will.

Hi,
As much as 1% ?
QED79 and Amazon purchased interconnects which look sturdy and OFC (they all are) is all that is needed.

Regards,
Shadders.

 

[Basso]

I was pretty close to the 10% but more by coincidence than design. I don’t think I would ever spend more than that.

 

[Friesiansam]

I only needed a USB cable and a headphone cable. Spent about 4.5%. The Oidiosound headphone cable was 80% of that, as it was a custom cable in my choice of pink and purple sleeving (know your priorities!)

 

[Al ears]

I’ve seen this many times on whf about spending 10%+ of your budget on cables.
that would give me around £800 to spend on speaker cable and an interconnect.
I think I did it for under 1% of total outlay.
thrifty old me 🤣
Has anyone ever done the 10% thing? Or more?
I honestly don’t think I ever will.

No, but at one point the original RRP for the cables I had might have been 10% of the system I had at that time but I never pay full RRP for anything....
With my current system they are not 10% of total cost.

 

[Gray]

What I have spent is a bit too much time making my own cables.
But, at the risk of sounding like an advert, I'd be very tempted by the new 'Connect' range from QED. At the reasonable price of £10* for a 0.75m twin RCA pair, not worth making your own....even Amazon Basics aren't much cheaper.
*Edit: Just seen it's £10.96 on their website.
That's pushing it a bit 🙂

 

[Gray]

I never pay full RRP for anything....

I'm with you on that (wherever possible).

 

[Edbostan]

I’ve seen this many times on whf about spending 10%+ of your budget on cables.
that would give me around £800 to spend on speaker cable and an interconnect.
I think I did it for under 1% of total outlay.
thrifty old me 🤣
Has anyone ever done the 10% thing? Or more?
I honestly don’t think I ever will.

When I worked in one of Britain's leading audio and television's manufacturers the audio engineers used 13A mains cable as speaker wire.

 

[Gray]

When I worked in one of Britain's leading audio and television's manufacturers the audio engineers used 13A mains cable as speaker wire.

...and thinner stuff than that to the back of the terminals inside many amps.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

Here's some pics of some of a basic £1 interconnect and £3/m basic 500 strand speaker cables in use and which are more than good enough for a £6680 DAC/re clocker and a £2850 power amplifier respectively -

 

[Gray]

...a £6680 DAC/re clocker and a £2850 power amplifier

...it's just those things that are overpriced then👍

 

[robdmarsh]

1. There's no "rules" 2. Use your ears. 3. Go with your instinct. And use retailers that have fantastic customer service if you want to tweak, and I can almost hear quite a lot of you saying "of course you'll get good customer service from Snake Oil salesmen!"

I have a Denon pma 800ne amp, ifi Zen blue with upgraded power supply (but that's probably snake oil too eh? 😆 ) and Triangle Titus EZ speakers which all told cost about £1400 at full rrp. I have speaker cables that cost £130, interconnects£50 and a Tacima power strip that cost £36 so I am well above the 10% rule (even higher if you include the iPower power supply at £50). Did these make a difference to my system? Absolutely, I heard it with my own ears! Am I a fool? It's an irrelevant question, all of these tweaks I've made have brought me a sound I'm very happy with and I enjoyed the process of trying different speaker cables very much. Did I try slotting in a new component rather than trying different cables? Absolutely, a Node 3, waste of £550 in my system, sounded detailed but dead. Go figure...

Ooh, but where are the double blind test results and lab measurements?!
Yawn!

 

[Al ears]

1. There's no "rules" 2. Use your ears. 3. Go with your instinct. And use retailers that have fantastic customer service if you want to tweak, and I can almost hear quite a lot of you saying "of course you'll get good customer service from Snake Oil salesmen!"

I have a Denon pma 800ne amp, ifi Zen blue with upgraded power supply (but that's probably snake oil too eh? 😆 ) and Triangle Titus EZ speakers which all told cost about £1400 at full rrp. I have speaker cables that cost £130, interconnects£50 and a Tacima power strip that cost £36 so I am well above the 10% rule (even higher if you include the iPower power supply at £50). Did these make a difference to my system? Absolutely, I heard it with my own ears! Am I a fool? It's an irrelevant question, all of these tweaks I've made have brought me a sound I'm very happy with and I enjoyed the process of trying different speaker cables very much. Did I try slotting in a new component rather than trying different cables? Absolutely, a Node 3, waste of £550 in my system, sounded detailed but dead. Go figure...

Ooh, but where are the double blind test results and lab measurements?!
Yawn!

well said sir. Whatever does it for you is a worthwhile investment, nobody else or their opinions matter.

 

[WayneKerr]

About 1.7% of total system cost. I'm a realist and can't hear any difference in cables so what's the point of spending more?

 

[robdmarsh]

About 1.7% of total system cost. I'm a realist and can't hear any difference in cables so what's the point of spending more?

Why are you a "realist" because you don't hear a difference in cables? 🤔

 

[robdmarsh]

Has anyone ever done the 10% thing? Or more?

In your case, no, you probably wouldn't spend that much on connections with such quality components but then I wouldn't connect your speakers with the thinnest and cheapest cable, obviously. Just be sensible about it. If you've got £3k speakers and spending a £100 quid is going to allow you to get the best out of them, then why wouldn't you do it?

 

[plastic penguin]

Think that 10% was suggested way back by some of the old staff - it was mentioned a couple of times on stereo reviews. IMHO it's irrelevant. You only spend what your budget will allow.

 

[WayneKerr]

Why are you a "realist" because you don't hear a difference in cables? 🤔

Because I'm not a dreamer. I only spend money on stuff which makes a significant difference to my enjoyment of music. Over the years I have found this can only be achieved by spending cash on kit, not cables.

 

[Samd]

Ah yes, the Cable Wars, much like 1642 but with the Realists against the Soundheads 😉

 

[robdmarsh]

Ah yes, the Cable Wars, much like 1642 but with the Realists against the Soundheads 😉

🤣 Good one!

 

[Al ears]

🤣 Good one!

At least they were Civil.....

 

[MUSICRAFT]

...it's just those things that are overpriced then👍

On the contrary. Just the opposite 👍

 

[WayneKerr]

1. There's no "rules" 2. Use your ears. 3. Go with your instinct. And use retailers that have fantastic customer service if you want to tweak, and I can almost hear quite a lot of you saying "of course you'll get good customer service from Snake Oil salesmen!"

I have a Denon pma 800ne amp, ifi Zen blue with upgraded power supply (but that's probably snake oil too eh? 😆 ) and Triangle Titus EZ speakers which all told cost about £1400 at full rrp. I have speaker cables that cost £130, interconnects£50 and a Tacima power strip that cost £36 so I am well above the 10% rule (even higher if you include the iPower power supply at £50). Did these make a difference to my system? Absolutely, I heard it with my own ears! Am I a fool? It's an irrelevant question, all of these tweaks I've made have brought me a sound I'm very happy with and I enjoyed the process of trying different speaker cables very much. Did I try slotting in a new component rather than trying different cables? Absolutely, a Node 3, waste of £550 in my system, sounded detailed but dead. Go figure...

Ooh, but where are the double blind test results and lab measurements?!
Yawn!

I've just worked this out. If I were to spend the same percentage on cables as you have vs my full system cost it would be in the region of £2400. Good god! I'm so glad I've never been a cable believer, imagine the kit I could buy with this potentially wasted cash 🙂

 

[robdmarsh]

That's why I said there are no rules. There's obviously a lot of dubious claims about cables and I'm sure the law of diminishing returns kicks in much faster with cables but what I've spent on tweaks for my system has brought me definite improvements. As I said I've just used my ears at every step of the way, but our ears are all different. I, for example, did not like the Node 3, an almost universally praised piece of equipment. The detail it puts out is more analytical and annoying than musical.

So it sounds like you've got some pretty pricey gear but I'm sure you haven't connected it all up with doorbell wire!😉