The 10% cable spend

[Deleted member 197450]

I have never bothered to workout what I spent on cables, I just knew people like WHF and dealers recommended QED Anniversary XT and went for that. You can still buy it today 14 years after I bought it:

Search results for: 'QED Silver Anniversary Speaker Cable'

Future Shop, Largest European Hi-FI Cable & Home Cinema Cable Specialists, Offering a Wide Range of Award Winning Cables and AV Connectivity Solutions

www.futureshop.co.uk

You can see the WHF 5 star under the cable.

 

[Deleted member 197450]

I have never bothered to workout what I spent on cables, I just knew people like WHF and dealers recommended QED Anniversary XT and went for that. You can still buy it today 14 years after I bought it:

Search results for: 'QED Silver Anniversary Speaker Cable'

Future Shop, Largest European Hi-FI Cable & Home Cinema Cable Specialists, Offering a Wide Range of Award Winning Cables and AV Connectivity Solutions

www.futureshop.co.uk

You can see the WHF 5 star under the cable.

And if you know how to get a good deal you don’t have to pay for things like cables, you get them thrown in for free.

 

[GSV Ethics Gradient]

And if you know how to get a good deal you don’t have to pay for things like cables, you get them thrown in for free.

I got my interconnects that way.

 

[Deleted member 197450]

I got my interconnects that way.

Me too.

 

[Al ears]

Had to buy most of mine, however the speaker cables were thrown in when I bought the speakers

 

[kukulec]

Love these rules. The other fake idea is you have to spend the same amount on amplifiers as on speakers...
10% or not, you can save a lot with more experience and knowledge. As far as I see: I would not buy any fancy main cables, nor digital cables. I have a simple QED as rca, and an XT40 for speaker cables. But: in case of speaker cables, the more resolving your system is, the more important the quality is. So I also have a Vertere xMini which I bought used. If I check how many systems my cables served I am well below of 10%.

 

[robdmarsh]

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

Not sure why you started this particular thread. I think you're feeling the urge to try some cable upgrades yourself. Did your Triangle speaker cables ever arrive?

 

[bigfish786]

it was after seeing an article on whf that made me wonder if anyone used it as a guide for buying their cable, as I think 10% is quite a lot,
no, the triangle cables never turned up, but That doesn’t surprise me, I’ve not really had a great buying experience, so this probably won’t now happen.
obviously, I’m curious as to whether a more expensive cable would improve things, but while I’m still in the running in period I don’t think I’d gain much right now. If at all.

 

[robdmarsh]

Interesting what you said about your buying experience. I bought some Triangle speaker stands from Kronos AV and had a pretty awful experience but I think it was not Kronos AV's fault but the distributor they use for Triangle products, but Kronos were very bad at keeping me informed what was going on and chasing up the distributor. Won't go into the details but the whole thing took nearly a month to put right. Wondering if that distributor is the same one behind your bad experience.

If you do go for new cables I can't recommend Future Shop highly enough - fantastic customer service and very courteous.

 

[bigfish786]

After thinking about it for a few weeks, I decided to try Chord Clearway, I saw some on eBay with factory ohmic plugs, so I bought them, and I’m very happy with it.

 

[robdmarsh]

Are they the Clearway X or the older Clearway? I tried the Clearway X and thought they were an excellent cable, but for my system they were just pipped by the Audioquest Rocket 11, which bring out a little more treble. Whisper it quietly around these parts but good well-chosen cables do make a difference, don't they?

 

[bigfish786]

Are they the Clearway X or the older Clearway? I tried the Clearway X and thought they were an excellent cable, but for my system they were just pipped by the Audioquest Rocket 11, which bring out a little more treble. Whisper it quietly around these parts but good well-chosen cables do make a difference, don't they?

they are the normal Clearway with the clear coating. I’d been really happy with the Audioquest FLX I’d had with the focals, but I just had this inkling that the new Triangles needed something else.
within a few minutes I knew I’d made the right choice.
it was a similar kind of effect that the VDH interconnect had, more defined , more everything.
now, I’m already considering a step up in VDH interconnect, out of curiosity. 😁

 

[bigfish786]

The balance I have now with the chord co and VDH is spot on. Listening at low levels, I’m getting all the detail and dynamics that I want. It’s letting the Triangle speakers perform To their best abilities.
I spend a lot of time during the day listening at low level as wifey works from home, so it’s important to me that it sounds good at this type of level.

 

[Al ears]

The balance I have now with the chord co and VDH is spot on. Listening at low levels, I’m getting all the detail and dynamics that I want. It’s letting the Triangle speakers perform To their best abilities.
I spend a lot of time during the day listening at low level as wifey works from home, so it’s important to me that it sounds good at this type of level.

when my wifey works from home I am relegated to headphones.....

 

[TRC]

Very late in getting to this, but have just purchased an isotek mains conditioner. My system is about £18k built up over the years and my new purchase has brought out so much more musicality than I thought was in my system: to hone in...

The same that goes for power conditioners, power cables and the accessories lot, goes for speaker cable and interconnects (to which I will focus my ramblings now).

Any average audiophile (as pretty much I am) knows that the law of diminishing returns, objectively are in play, you can almost put a negative exponential curve on performance to money spent. But... what is it about spending up to 10% or... even more. For me, it comes down to the following, beyond objective examination and even subjective interpretation as the various convoluted adjectives turn into gibberish for most. Lossless.

The term is appropriated to CDs, and digital formats, but in a way, interconnects are about "losing less". However good your components are, once a signal leaves a transport, or a stylus, every separate from the extraction of music from the source to the speakers "loses" from whatever the quality of that source was, through every connection out to input, out to input etc etc. the only way that your speakers will get anywhere near to what came in via the source, to the speakers, is through the cables you put in place, to not lose the sound.

I've upgraded my system now to the point that I think the only thing missing is to sort out my interconnected. I currently have a £70 interconnect from my DAC to pre, and a £20 Coax from Streamer to DAC. Is it ludicrous to think that between a £1100 Streamer, a £1200 DAC with £600 Power supply, and onto a £1500 Pre to a 4k Power etc etc that that type of spend will really get the best out of my system?

The thing is, I like spending on equipment to see how good music can be reproduced, and with my £20 Coax and my £70 interconnect (oh, £300 interconnect between pre and power) the sound is absolutely incredible on the versions before, but... if you've got a bit of spare cash, and everything else is right, don't you wonder what it might sound like? £18k system, I'm willing to spend 2k on cables, and if it doesn't work, there's always ebay....

 

[manicm]

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.

Ignore this rule, unless you have a 100k system, then you'd probably want to pay more attention to the ancillaries, because a 30k amp would be more sensitive to these than a 300 quid one.

 

[abacus]

If it makes you happy fine, enjoy it, as life's too short, however unless the differences were noticed under a level matched double blind test, make sure that you emphasize that it just your opinion and not a fact.

Bill

 

[gasolin]

I buy when ever i need something but not super cheap, although last purchase was cheap, i use IsoTek EVO3 INITIUM for my pc since i wanted the same power cable for my speakers, now that i have a subwoofer i can try it with that.

Short wbc, long roland black,inakustik premium,Inakustik Excellence USB (USB A – B),clictronic sub cable,Qed performance, supra power cable

 

[Gray]

I'm willing to spend 2k on cables

You sound like the ideal candidate for an audiophile fuse.
Futureshop would be pleased to hear from you 👍

 

[WayneKerr]

Very late in getting to this, but have just purchased an isotek mains conditioner. My system is about £18k built up over the years and my new purchase has brought out so much more musicality than I thought was in my system: to hone in...

The same that goes for power conditioners, power cables and the accessories lot, goes for speaker cable and interconnects (to which I will focus my ramblings now).

Any average audiophile (as pretty much I am) knows that the law of diminishing returns, objectively are in play, you can almost put a negative exponential curve on performance to money spent. But... what is it about spending up to 10% or... even more. For me, it comes down to the following, beyond objective examination and even subjective interpretation as the various convoluted adjectives turn into gibberish for most. Lossless.

The term is appropriated to CDs, and digital formats, but in a way, interconnects are about "losing less". However good your components are, once a signal leaves a transport, or a stylus, every separate from the extraction of music from the source to the speakers "loses" from whatever the quality of that source was, through every connection out to input, out to input etc etc. the only way that your speakers will get anywhere near to what came in via the source, to the speakers, is through the cables you put in place, to not lose the sound.

I've upgraded my system now to the point that I think the only thing missing is to sort out my interconnected. I currently have a £70 interconnect from my DAC to pre, and a £20 Coax from Streamer to DAC. Is it ludicrous to think that between a £1100 Streamer, a £1200 DAC with £600 Power supply, and onto a £1500 Pre to a 4k Power etc etc that that type of spend will really get the best out of my system?

The thing is, I like spending on equipment to see how good music can be reproduced, and with my £20 Coax and my £70 interconnect (oh, £300 interconnect between pre and power) the sound is absolutely incredible on the versions before, but... if you've got a bit of spare cash, and everything else is right, don't you wonder what it might sound like? £18k system, I'm willing to spend 2k on cables, and if it doesn't work, there's always ebay....

Excellent opinion

However, if when you purchase these exotic cables you fit them yourself without employing an unbiased assistant to fit them for you, in a blind test, then you are just wasting precious keyboard time reporting any differences you claim to hear

 

[Amormusic]

Very late in getting to this, but have just purchased an isotek mains conditioner. My system is about £18k built up over the years and my new purchase has brought out so much more musicality than I thought was in my system: to hone in...

The same that goes for power conditioners, power cables and the accessories lot, goes for speaker cable and interconnects (to which I will focus my ramblings now).

Any average audiophile (as pretty much I am) knows that the law of diminishing returns, objectively are in play, you can almost put a negative exponential curve on performance to money spent. But... what is it about spending up to 10% or... even more. For me, it comes down to the following, beyond objective examination and even subjective interpretation as the various convoluted adjectives turn into gibberish for most. Lossless.

The term is appropriated to CDs, and digital formats, but in a way, interconnects are about "losing less". However good your components are, once a signal leaves a transport, or a stylus, every separate from the extraction of music from the source to the speakers "loses" from whatever the quality of that source was, through every connection out to input, out to input etc etc. the only way that your speakers will get anywhere near to what came in via the source, to the speakers, is through the cables you put in place, to not lose the sound.

I've upgraded my system now to the point that I think the only thing missing is to sort out my interconnected. I currently have a £70 interconnect from my DAC to pre, and a £20 Coax from Streamer to DAC. Is it ludicrous to think that between a £1100 Streamer, a £1200 DAC with £600 Power supply, and onto a £1500 Pre to a 4k Power etc etc that that type of spend will really get the best out of my system?

The thing is, I like spending on equipment to see how good music can be reproduced, and with my £20 Coax and my £70 interconnect (oh, £300 interconnect between pre and power) the sound is absolutely incredible on the versions before, but... if you've got a bit of spare cash, and everything else is right, don't you wonder what it might sound like? £18k system, I'm willing to spend 2k on cables, and if it doesn't work, there's always ebay....

I too have a nice system that I have paid quite a bit of money for. All bought second hand and carefully partnered, albeit with quite a bit of box spinning along the way. Although I am now reformed from my box spinning ways.

You will not get much love on here from the cable bashing brigade, however I have two views on cables. It is possible to buy good and cheap cables (van damme make excellent, affordable, cable as an example). But I also agree that some more expensive cables sound better (caveat, to my ears and in my system).

Spending £2k... That's maybe a little heavy. I've spent about £1,200 all said, but that's all relative to the rest of my kit. I have also got a dedicated power supply for my hifi which I specced in when we did a house rewire.

If you've got nice kit and can afford it. Knock yourself out...

I've actually spent quite a bit of time faffing with cables too. Buying several sets of nice cables at a time from ebay, trying them and comparing and then selling them back on, keeping only my fav ones.

If you have a lower cost system, or do not either have the spare cash, or the desire, to try differently priced cables, Van Damme would do most people very well. And that can be picked up for peanuts.

 

[Amormusic]

Why do I need moderator approval to post?

 

[WayneKerr]

Why do I need moderator approval to post?

Dunno? I saw your post then it disappeared

 

[manicm]

If it makes you happy fine, enjoy it, as life's too short, however unless the differences were noticed under a level matched double blind test, make sure that you emphasize that it just your opinion and not a fact.

Bill

In a high end system cables and other ancillaries will make a difference because those expensive components are simply going to be more sensitive.

Or you buy into a proprietary system like Linn with their Exakt components, using their specific and supplied (?) interconnects.

 

[Amormusic]

For mods. My post is not inflammatory, it is a perfectly reasonable and balanced comment, entirely on subject, and contains no naughty words etc.

Very odd that it needs approval by a mod 🤔