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I Was Wrong About Cable


edwinr

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Good cables! I just love A-goN[;)]

Been running TMC (The Music Cable from King Down Under) between all my BAT pieces and just love the sound, craftsmanship and look of the TMC Truly Balanced cables. On A-goN I got a .5 Mtr pair for $50.00 and 2 1 Mtr pairs at $76.00 a piece, did I mention I love A-goN!!

I run Frank's at Signal Cables Shot Gun Bi-Wires on my B&W 804's and AQ Coral's from my EAD DAC to BAT Pre and have been satified with this cable combo on my rig. I looked at TMC's web site and suggested retail for the Truly Balaned 1 Mtr pair is supposed to be $588.00 a pair and regarless of the deal I got I think they might just be worth the original retail prices as they sure let the music come through without any coloration that I have been able to spot!

Conare Digiflux from my DAC to Yamaha Mini Disc recorder and Cable Concepts Coax from my DAC to CDT[:P]

These days with two little ones A-goN cable deals are my fun spending[;)]

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Ah - the great cable debate - a timeless classic that can never be resolved.

IMHO there are just too many factors going in to the process of listening to music on a system to make any clear cut statements one way or another.

I find the sound on my own system changes - to my ears - even when I have made no changes. It could simply be my mood - it could be volume, humidity, temperature (inside, outside, of the equipment etc.), power supply fluctuations (although I have taken steps to minimize that effect) or gremlins, time of day, wax build up in the ear canal, lighting and god only knows what else.

I think that, baring there being an actual fault with one cable or another - or extreme oxidation of a cable, cable induced sonic changes are not usually major (not like changing speaker for example). Against the above backdrop assessing relatively small changes can be tricky.

On the one hand - insert a high dollar cable into your system - feel proud - mood improves - sound improves - whether or not said cable actually changed anything.

On the other hand - listening to music is an emotional experience at some level - testing rather stresses these emotions and may negate them altogether - meaning that a real change cannot be detected because it is being tested.

On a personal level I lost a lot of confidence in my own abilities to detect minor changes - or rather lost confidence that I was not detecting changes that had not in fact ocurred when I tested burn in.

Long story short - bought a Pioneer 575 to play my SACD collection. Out of the box - the sound sucked in comparison to my existing CD player (playing the CD layer on a hybrid SACD). Decided to test burn in. Played the Pioneer for a week - and only the pioneer - kept notes of the steady perceived sonic improvements. By the end of the week I was not only convinced the new unit had improved and now surpassed my existing CD player I was even worried it outplayed my vinyl rig.

I was totally floored when I returned to the original CD player. All the differences I had originally noted were still there - exactly as I had described them a week before - and just as I recalled them. In other words - no demonstrable change.

Bottom line - I have no idea anymore - the more I learn the less I know. Goddammed stoopid hobby.

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Edwin:

"I guess mood has a very important part to play in our perception of what sounds good, and what doesn't. Maybe I wanted the new cables to sound good, and they did!"

I really think there is something to that theory, and it probably doesn't stop at cables. I have heard differences in wire, but I suppose the fact that a new part or component sounds different doesn't always mean the change is an improvement. I had a nicely built, good looking Monarchy transistor amp here a few years ago, and the sound was very different from what I'm used to. On Klipschorns (or maybe I had the La Scalas then....), the Monarchy was powerful sounding, but just dry and sort of 2-dimensional. With my small monitors, the match was much, much different. The glare was not there.

It reminded me of the time I tried pure silver wire in PE tubing for speaker cables with my Lowther horns. Silver cables are also very expensive, and with Lowthers, horrible. Really hard on the ears, at least for me.

Obviously this isn't always the case, but I think our ears can play tricks on us the same way our eyes can. I remember soon after our 16 year-old retriever Tonka died this summer: a few days later I could have sworn that I not only heard him in our bedroom; I saw him walk into the room. That would have been neat if it had really happened....

Erik

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Ah - the great cable debate - a timeless classic that can never be resolved.

I can hear the wheels turning in your head: Are cables the stuff that would make a great movie starring me?

If not a documentary, how about a murder flick, in which the audiophile is murdered by his wife when she finds out he spent 10,000 Euros for a meter of cryogenically treated patch cords. The wife uses the interconnects as a garrote, then reconnects them to the stereo. The unsuspecting police cannot find the murder weapon and the wife smiles as she plays them music on her dead husband's stereo. The same kind of thing as Alfred Hitchcock's Rope.

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