Alantiggger
Well-known member
- Oct 14, 2007
- 274
- 33
- 18,920
I have loads and loads of cables and interconnects at varying lengths and price. The amount of change to the systems are always within the change the systems go through anyway when bundled with all the other small variables such as system on time, system playing time, system volume, time of day, mood, time since awake, time before bed, movements to the kit, movements to my seating position, whether I have just farted, whether I have just aired the room, room temperature, what I am wearing, my expectations, whether I have just read a very expressive scientific sounding story on the cable in question, whether I link words such as cheap, grotty, shiny, to the cable, whether the cable is my precious, whether the cable has a german sounding name, what is playing at the time, how many times I have heard what is playing at the time, how much I want to here what is playing at the time, how much I want to believe, the length of time I am sat listening. Bored now but there are hundreds upon hundreds.
Practically everything I do to my kit appears to add a bit extra resolution, detail and my wife always notices when I am happy or excited about something even if I don't, with practically every little tweak I make.
Cables really should come with some length guidance for their claimed differences. ie. bellow 1 metre you won't notice. after 7 metres the changes to the sound can get too much. Is half a metre of crapicus cable more detailed that 10 metres of van den theballs cable? No one says. If cables change the sound then they have to do it with a greater degree as the signal passes through a greater length tending to some unknown limits from some unknown limit (unless these changes are measurable which they haven't been or noticable, which they haven't been either for that matter given that cable isn't reviewed as a length to sound altering strength basis). So what are the sweet spots in length for each cable type? No one says.
Expensive = Better = Use bundles = complete balls.
I used to wonder how in history human beings could vision the "if she floats shes a witch" type logic and then I read some of the responses on cables.
If you want to pick cables like they mean something to you then let them mean something to you not someone else, buy:
2 by 1 metre, 2 metre, 4 metre, 8 metre lengths of several cables ranging from £10-£1000 per metre. Don't pick the cables, get your local shop to pick them, get the local shop to open the packaging, get the shop to stab you in the eyes so you cannot see what each cable looks like and then go home and spend a couple of years testing them. Then come back and tell us which one is best.
Or do you just want the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that soulstrom white thunder 5000 cable is rated by a couple of enthusiasts on here? Actually that warm fuzzy feeling will do a bigger job at improving the sound than the cable you pick on your own so I've changed my mind listen to the enthusiasts. Especially the ones that say things like night and day and even my wife noticed.
Practically everything I do to my kit appears to add a bit extra resolution, detail and my wife always notices when I am happy or excited about something even if I don't, with practically every little tweak I make.
Cables really should come with some length guidance for their claimed differences. ie. bellow 1 metre you won't notice. after 7 metres the changes to the sound can get too much. Is half a metre of crapicus cable more detailed that 10 metres of van den theballs cable? No one says. If cables change the sound then they have to do it with a greater degree as the signal passes through a greater length tending to some unknown limits from some unknown limit (unless these changes are measurable which they haven't been or noticable, which they haven't been either for that matter given that cable isn't reviewed as a length to sound altering strength basis). So what are the sweet spots in length for each cable type? No one says.
Expensive = Better = Use bundles = complete balls.
I used to wonder how in history human beings could vision the "if she floats shes a witch" type logic and then I read some of the responses on cables.
If you want to pick cables like they mean something to you then let them mean something to you not someone else, buy:
2 by 1 metre, 2 metre, 4 metre, 8 metre lengths of several cables ranging from £10-£1000 per metre. Don't pick the cables, get your local shop to pick them, get the local shop to open the packaging, get the shop to stab you in the eyes so you cannot see what each cable looks like and then go home and spend a couple of years testing them. Then come back and tell us which one is best.
Or do you just want the warm fuzzy feeling of knowing that soulstrom white thunder 5000 cable is rated by a couple of enthusiasts on here? Actually that warm fuzzy feeling will do a bigger job at improving the sound than the cable you pick on your own so I've changed my mind listen to the enthusiasts. Especially the ones that say things like night and day and even my wife noticed.
dannycanham said:
Congratulations Danny - by some way the nastiest post I've senn on any hifi forum for some time......
Jacko, there are obviously some hifi forums you don't visit...
fwiw, Dannys post made me chuckle.
fwiw, Dannys post made me chuckle.
aliEnRIK said:
Yes I have.
First of all many thanks to all those that have offered advice, and I have taken onboard some points which will help me in choosing.
I am going to blind audition interconnects of differing types and prices and pick out the ones that sound the best in terms of sound quality and value for money.
I will let you know what I finally decide on.
P.S. I picked up my system yesterday and set it up with some old Maplin interconnects I had kicking around from years ago, and it sounds bloody good with them...
mbe60 said:Yes I have.
First of all many thanks to all those that have offered advice, and I have taken onboard some points which will help me in choosing.
I am going to blind audition interconnects of differing types and prices and pick out the ones that sound the best in terms of sound quality and value for money.
I will let you know what I finally decide on.
P.S. I picked up my system yesterday and set it up with some old Maplin interconnects I had kicking around from years ago, and it sounds bloody good with them...
Maplins do make good gear
This is just my opinion, and ive certainly no desire to argue my case:
In my opinion you need to keep everything in place for a week or two. THEN change to another set of interconnects (I really do recommend the Van Damme ones), and use them for a few weeks.
Blind testing is good for 'night and day' differences, but you dont get those differences with cables (Unless theres something terribly wrong with them). Memory of audio is also very poor and so you probably would struggle to tell differences, and after a while, even if their are differences it will all start to sound the same.
Any differences (if any) will become apparent after your casually sat listening in your normal enviroment over a period of time. The Van Dammes bass in particular would become apparent if you were used to listening to some awful 'bright' QED cables
Also take into consideration that if you have speaker cables that are restricting the music, then you wont hear differences anyways
i don't believe there are any differences between interconnects, but if there were, then i think the best way to perceive them would be by trying one for a few minutes then switching to another, using the same piece of music and seeing if there's any change.
it is precisely because the mind has poor long term audio memory that testing cables in quick succession is the best way to discern differences should there be any, long term testing would be the least effective way imo..
it is precisely because the mind has poor long term audio memory that testing cables in quick succession is the best way to discern differences should there be any, long term testing would be the least effective way imo..
not sure if i can post the link but a quick search for "Full Frequency Range Cables" will show you what i mean. I use these, not bi-amped, so used all three lengths per one set of binding posts. And i must say from the standard £1m cable i was using the difference was night and day. Ooh that expression!
The Spendors sparkled (purely subjective term but from sounding a bit muffled and recessed for the purpose of this non-scientific subjective post it will do), and for my AV i could finally hear the difference between vanilla DD/DTS soundtracks and HD soundtracks.
The conclusion i draw is that the speaker cable i was using was awful and not fit for purpose, too much resistence or something probably. Could the FFRC be bettered? I dont see how, no matter how much you paid, the only thing is depending on your DIY skills they might not look as nice as some bought cables, but then i dont really care how my cables look, it doesnt make a difference to sound....does it?
Edit: after getting to the end of this post i forgot it was about I/C's, the above refers to speaker cable. Sorry for the slight off topic.
The Spendors sparkled (purely subjective term but from sounding a bit muffled and recessed for the purpose of this non-scientific subjective post it will do), and for my AV i could finally hear the difference between vanilla DD/DTS soundtracks and HD soundtracks.
The conclusion i draw is that the speaker cable i was using was awful and not fit for purpose, too much resistence or something probably. Could the FFRC be bettered? I dont see how, no matter how much you paid, the only thing is depending on your DIY skills they might not look as nice as some bought cables, but then i dont really care how my cables look, it doesnt make a difference to sound....does it?
Edit: after getting to the end of this post i forgot it was about I/C's, the above refers to speaker cable. Sorry for the slight off topic.
Graham_Thomas said:Does anyone know where I can buy some Soulstrom White Thunder 5000 cable please?
certainly sir, how much would you like? it's £500 per metre but the bass is just awesome...
phones er indoors, MAAARLEEEENE, were closing early 🙂
maxflinn said:
I don't believe there are any differences between most of max's posts these days...
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