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Opening a can of worms

Here is the can filled with opinions. It's been hashed and rehashed to infinity and beyond with no clear result. Since I am a seeker of truth I'll post my thoughts here for the yea and naysayers to debate over. Question is: Are expensive speaker or any other cable in a system worth the exorbitant cost over a reasonably priced cable loom? I thought I'd  experiment myself to find out. My comparison is between Transparent Ultra cable loom and Blue Jeans cable loom on a pure stereo system comprised of Proceed PAV,  Proceed PDSD,  Krell Kav 250, Musical Fidelity A3cd, Sony Ps4300 TT and B&W 803D2 speakers. All sources were used by this experiment using identical playback material. Cables had in excess of 200 hrs burn time and all were identical in lenght. The only variation were the connector manufacturers.
One change that occurred during this 4 week long endeavor was that I'm firmly seated on the sharpest picket on the fence.
My result is that I'm now a believer that there are audible differences in cables. I also believe that these differences are minute and one has to really listen carefully and for a long time to discern these differences.
Now to the crutch of the matter, $$$$$, As we all know Transparent Cables would reside in the upper tier of Audio Cable expense.  Blue Jeans Cable on the other hand falls into the lowest tier of expense (well maybe not lowest but low nontheless )
One would think then that the Transparent would be far superior to the BJs. Not really! Yes the highs were a little cleaner, mids a little tighter and lows a tad more pronounced but not by as much as one would expect. Soundstage was somewhat more open and airy and depth was somewhat more defined with the higher priced cable but again less than one would expect. 

Now for my personal opinion regarding the cable debate: expensive cable looms are slightly better than reasonable priced looms, if a dollar equals a penny to you then by all means opt for the higher priced loom, if a penny equals a penny don't be ashamed for opting for the best you can do. The differences are so minute that it's not worth going into debt over. BOTH looms sounded superb on my test system and I would be happy with either loom.

Now let the debate begin, just know I'm a fence sitter and not in one camp or the other
128x128gillatgh
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
If you can hear a .001 ohm difference behind a power supply and a transformer, can you also hear the capacitance of the squirrels on the power lines?
whitestix
386 posts
 
I do believe that cables make a difference to some degree, but the law of diminish returns is an immutable law. I think I perceived some improvement in the low frequency response of my main system cabling it with Supra Ply 3.4 speaker cable and a more open sound using vintage WE 16 ga. cloth-covered tin-clad copper wire in my bedroom system.  Neither set of cables cost over $150.  Purchasing a run of speaker cable that cost more than a new car is unfathomable, yet many do it.  And then there are the astral travelers like GK that tapes rocks to his cables and puts crystals the top of his gear in a feeble attempt to improve the sound quality.  It would only be laughable, but I suspect he does a fair trade peddling these foolish tweaks to an undiscerning public.  In the same vein are the "fuse-heads" who tie themselves in knots over the directionality outrageously expensive fuses.  This is purely "confirmation bias".    The level of self-deception that audiophiles will indulge in is shocking.  High anxiety runs rampantly through our ranks.  Frankly, Blue Jeans cable is more than good enough, but there is better wire if you have the dough.  Just give it a listen and decide for yourself.   And make sure you can get your money back if you don't fancy its performance.    
jp90
20 posts
 
So my first venture into  some what higher end cables, was a pair of JPS interconnects.
This pair is some sort of aluminum copper hybrid which sounded smooth and open and better than what I was using. Soon after I purchased JW Audio solid core OFC  copper speaker cables and some of his stranded interconnects. These were reasonably priced and to me had a cleaner more solid and hard hitting dynamic sound  to them with the speaker cables. The interconnects seemed more transparent.

After a conversation I had with a rep from a well known hifi cable maker I decided to stick with high grade copper. Further research with my wire supplier and their manufactures  for the guitar pickups we make at our shop got me on the trail for thicker gauges for speaker wire. The difference between OFC and ETP is not audible and very similar on paper. As far as the connectors go, I just take them out of the equation. 

To to me the solid core sounds a bit more forward and harder, were as the stranded is some what softer and mellower. I suppose it depends on the gauge and materials. It's some what subjective and I guess my point is if your happy with copper you non't have to spend much for quality materials.

Just my humble experience.
JP.





jaaptina
20 posts
 
I agree with cables being of lesser influence. I thought the same about streaming devices. They are just an inbetween between network and dac. This thought has been proven all wrong. I have experienced that the quality of network streamers matters a lot. A Sonore microRendu give a huge upgrade in sound quality over Pioneer and Marantz streamers.
hifiman5's avatar
hifiman5
1,611 posts
 
Where to begin? 1.  Tin clad copper?  Yigads!   2.  Yes the better the quality of the conductor AND the dielectric mated to high quality connectors and guess what?  High quality, high functioning cables.  3.  Spending ungodly sums on cables relative to the quality of your gear is silly.  Perspective!  Life rule:  Keep things in proper perspective.  Find a balance to where and on what you spend your money.  Example:  Having a fabulous amplifier connected to poorly designed and thus poor performing speakers is madness.  Balance, perspective.
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