The never ending.....

[admin_exported]

cable debate!

But I guess (hope) with a twist, I´m not looking for technical explanations on why cables cant do anything for sound quality, I´ve read all that.

But I´m looking for honest stories about people who are without doubt certain new cables did work wonders for them, and those who spent a lot of £ and honestly didn´t feel it changed anything.

Why? Because I want to make my own decision based on stories on wether or not I should spend a lot of money on "good" cables.

 

[MUSICRAFT]

tommelitn:
cable debate!

But I guess (hope) with a twist, Iïm not looking for technical explanations on why cables cant do anything for sound quality, Iïve read all that.

But Iïm looking for honest stories about people who are without doubt certain new cables did work wonders for them, and those who spent a lot of £ and honestly didnït feel it changed anything.

Why? Because I want to make my own decision based on stories on wether or not I should spend a lot of money on "good" cables.

Hi tommelitn

Fwiw, unfortunately over the
years i foolishly allowed myself to be drawn into many after market accessories such as interconnects, speakers
cables etc. Regrettably i became narrow minded about standard
cables. As a result i easily dismissed standard cabling (even though i
had first started by using standard cables for the first four years and
thoroughly enjoyed my components until.....). Eventually i woke up after many years of chasing the rainbow.

My advice is please don't make the same mistake as i did and
save your time and money. Anyway just my experience.

All the best

Rick @ Musicraft

 

[Alec]

Your own decision based on what your ears tell you would be better. Otherwise, it isnt really your own decision.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks Rick, stories like this I want to hear

Al I do agree, but with cabling its often that you just buy some cables that are recommended to you, and I dont know how it is to return speaker cables for instance?

 

[Frank Harvey]

Nicely put, al7478.

Over the years I've heard some cables make a difference, and some not. There's generally no rhyme or reason to it, it sees to be system dependent. There is a limit as to how far I'd go with cables, but even at that limit they have to justify themselves.

 

[Anonymous]

Naim + Nac-A5 cables. Definitely makes a big difference.

 

[aliEnRIK]

Ive tried a few different makes and types out

I would suggest staying away from any QED cables that have silver in them as they tend to sound very hard and bright

Personally, at the budget end, I highly recommend Van Damme UP LC-OFC cables as they have less grain than standard OFC and after a run in time sound fantastic. Easily beating many cables costing far more

Ive since upgraded to Atlas Titan ICs and Ascent 3.0 speaker cables. They have no grain at all and bass is incredible (not added bass, just bass as it should sound)

It fascinates me that some people cant hear any differences. The Atlas cables in particular I found easy to differentiate from say - the QED I suggest staying away from.

 

[ID.]

On my first system I heard a massive difference when I switched to Nordost Black Knight interconnects from the free interconnects that came with my rotel cdp. More speed, more detail, more bass (more, deeper and tighter).

On my current system, I got a worthwhile benefit by switching from Nordost Flatline Gold Mk II to Oyaide Tunami (my kit is a little lean and it really helped with the bass and lower midrange).

The change from using the free optical cable to using a more expensive Coax cable for digital was much more subtle, and I think there were benefits, but I'd really need to do a lot more comparative listening to really decide.

 

[Anonymous]

When bought my first TT i didn't buy a new cable to run from the Phono stage to my Supernait as I thought I had one at home from the days when I actually owned a CD player.

Sure enough I couldn't find the cable so I used a £2 out of the box jobbie to connect everything up and it sounded fine...

When I later changed this to a Chord Crimson the difference was huge - much bigger soundstage, both deeper bass and better control of the bass. This was the first of many cable upgrades including shock.... £40 per metre speaker cable.

I can understand when people with £2000 / £3000 5.1 systems say cables don't make a difference because in those systems they probably aren't night and day, but in a £10k+ 2 channel system I have found them to make such a difference it is almost unreal - and at this level an upgrade in electronics is going to cost way more than a new £500 cable.

Balance is still everything though - I wouldn't have even dreamt of spending as much on cables if I didn't have a dedicated mains spur of 6mm twin and earth for the power, and a trusty spirt level for everything on the rack.

Would I ever go back to standard cables - not while I still care enough to own a Hi-Fi...

 

[jaxwired]

I'm a cynical skeptic by nature and based on my extensive research cables make a difference. However, I would never ever spend thousands on them as I'm not convinced there is a correlation between price and performance. This is especially true for the crazy expensive stuff.

 

[ID.]

The Boy Wonder:
Balance is still everything though

Agreed, although the $100 interconnects on the $70 iPod dock did wonders for the sound, but that was mainly because I had one sitting around and decided to give it a go. I probably could have gotten similar results for far less (but maybe not for 1/10th the price of the dock).

 

[Anonymous]

I`ve spent a lot of money on cables in my time and it's largely been a waste. This was hammered home to me partly when I bought new and expensive speaker cables, which sounded precisely the same as my previous expensive speaker cables, and partly when comparing interconnects ranging from two figure to four figure prices. They sounded exactly the same.

My advice, for what its worth, is to buy a decent cable to begin with, stick with it and don't believe any of the stuff you read about cables improving sound.

I'm a bit bitter since working out I could have bought a new Exposure CD player with the money I've wasted recently on cables.

The physicists have it right.

 

[the record spot]

The only cable I had which sounded different in any way from any other one I had was the Nordost Blue Heaven, which was silver based and this is apparently brighter sounding than copper. Any copper cable I have owned, which goes from £7.99 to about £70, exhibited no audible difference when used in the stereo. This covered about six different cables from around five manufacturers (Audioquest, Computergear, QED, Monster, Van den Hul). Money wasted.

 

[Anonymous]

Not being an expert on cables but I think some people expect that by fitting expensive cable(s) , that you`re going to get "instant band in the living room"...

I think its about the cables bringing out the little extra bits of extra information and not an instant kick you in the face improvement , which if you improve each component along route...each peice of the puzzle ends up making for an overall better sound .

I may be talking drivvel here , but any way... thats my theory!!!

Jota

 

[SonofSun]

I would echo what a previous poster has said, and that is to stay away from silver plated cables unless you need to tame lower frequencies.

PMC don't recommend expensive cables and the hifi dealers on here aren't recommending them either, so I would follow that advise.

The mind is very complex and it can easily trick you into believing that you can hear a difference. People who want to hear a difference probably will.

Perception is everything.

 

[Mr Morph]

If I had my time again in hi-fi I would have paid a little more attention to cabling than I first did. Although I don't believe you should spend a lot of money on them, you should deffinately hear the difference between 'multi strand' and 'solid core' cables. In my experience, it's a case of the more the copper, the more signal gets to the amp.

 

[Paul.]

I used to have a pair of Mission M35 floor standers (which had soft dome tweeters) and a Marantz amp, the sound was very very warm. Bought some chord rumour cables (which are silver coated copper) which did wonders brightening up the system. There is a very definite difference in sound between silver and copper, but am not convinced spending extra money will make much difference. I have set a £10 ish per meter limit on cable for myself, or £20 per meter for bi-wire.

Audio T (was Audio Excellence at the time) lent me the cables to demo, so was no risk trying them.

 

[Anonymous]

SonofSun:
I would echo what a previous poster has said, and that is to stay away from silver plated cables unless you need to tame lower frequencies.

PMC don't recommend expensive cables and the hifi dealers on here aren't recommending them either, so I would follow that advise.

The mind is very complex and it can easily trick you into believing that you can hear a difference. People who want to hear a difference probably will.

Perception is everything.

 

[ID.]

maxflinn:SonofSun:
The mind is very complex and it can easily trick you into believing that you can hear a difference. People who want to hear a difference probably will.

Perception is everything.

Considering the fact that the OP wasn't asking about that, and was probably specifically trying to avoid those kinds of discussions that don't get anywhere, I don't get the thumbs up.

Just have you heard a difference. Yes. No. Simply your own personal experience. I'm sure in reading other cable threads the OP would have come across this particular view maybe once or twice.

 

[Anonymous]

ID.:maxflinn:SonofSun:
The mind is very complex and it can easily trick you into believing that you can hear a difference. People who want to hear a difference probably will.

Perception is everything.

Considering the fact that the OP wasn't asking about that, and was probably specifically trying to avoid those kinds of discussions that don't get anywhere, I don't get the thumbs up. Just have you heard a difference. Yes. No. Simple.
i agree with the highlighted point, so i gave it a thumbs up

 

[ID.]

maxflinn:ID.:maxflinn:SonofSun:
The mind is very complex and it can easily trick you into believing that you can hear a difference. People who want to hear a difference probably will.

Perception is everything.

Considering the fact that the OP wasn't asking about that, and was probably specifically trying to avoid those kinds of discussions that don't get anywhere, I don't get the thumbs up. Just have you heard a difference. Yes. No. Simple.

i agree with the highlighted point, so i gave it a thumbs up

Thanks for clearing that up for me

 

[Anonymous]

ID.:maxflinn:ID.:maxflinn:SonofSun:
The mind is very complex and it can easily trick you into believing that you can hear a difference. People who want to hear a difference probably will.

Perception is everything.

Considering the fact that the OP wasn't asking about that, and was probably specifically trying to avoid those kinds of discussions that don't get anywhere, I don't get the thumbs up. Just have you heard a difference. Yes. No. Simple.

i agree with the highlighted point, so i gave it a thumbs up

Thanks for clearing that up for me

no problemo

 

[the record spot]

aliEnRIK:

It fascinates me that some people cant hear any differences.

What's so amazing is you find it "fascinating" on here, almost giving the impression you could have a reasonable discussion about it, then you go and spoil it all and have a sly dig on the Home Cinema sub-forum at - presumably - my post there.

 

[Singslinger]

I switched from Naim's NAC A5 cable to Chord Epic for my Naim-based system and heard more detail in the treble and midrange.

 

[idc]

Based on information gleened from the internet, in particular cable testing and measurements and my own experience.

Any measurable difference between cables does not result in anything likely to be audible as it is in the region of fractions of a decible, or pico second or error corrected data.

Blind testing of cables comes out with results that are no better than random. So even the odd test where someone does rather well, that is still explained by randomness.

Cable company claims contradict each other where all sorts of cable construction types produce the same results; better sound.

So no one means of making a cable is better than any other. No one can reliably tell cables apart without seeing as well as hearing them and there is nothing inherent in the cable that would explain why one could sound different to another.

Having spent many years being certain different cables sounded different because I was constantly told so and I knew that was correct because I could hear it, now I have evidence to show that is wrong I cannot hear the difference anymore.

Therefore the difference was in my head and not the cable.