Interconnects and non-believers


For anyone who denies there are differences in cables, I have news for you.
There are vast differences.  I just switched interconnects between my CD transport (Cyrus) and DAC (Schiit Gumby), and the result was transformational.  Every possible parameter was improved: better definition, better soundstaging,  better bass, better depth etc.
I can’t understand how any audiophile with ears can deny the differences.  Is it delusion or dogma?
128x128rvpiano

elizabeth,

My view on cables isn’t a settled one, but I have hunches and inferences I’ve drawn from my own meagre tests and experience, and from following the cable debate for many years.

In the spirit of exchanging anecdotes: I only use the regular supplied AC cables with all my gear.

Yet somehow when I listen to systems in which every AC cord has been replaced with expensive upmarket cords, and there are power regenerators and all the things claimed to make revelatory differences....I come back home and hear on my system pretty much all the glorious things I heard on the super-expensive-ac-cable systems. In fact, I tend to think more highly of the sound I have at home.

I guess my ears are made of cloth :-)


prof
... I only use the regular supplied AC cables with all my gear. Yet somehow when I listen to systems in which every AC cord has been replaced with expensive upmarket cords, and there are power regenerators and all the things claimed to make revelatory differences....I come back home and hear on my system pretty much all the glorious things I heard on the super-expensive-ac-cable systems ...
That's really not saying anything because there are so many variables. Why not try an "upmarket cord" in your own system?
I make my own power cords and am very happy with the results.
But I do have access to some pretty nice cable from work.....

cleeds,

That's obviously why I wrote: "In the spirit of exchanging anecdotes."

I have tried upmarket AC cords in my system (e.g. various Shunyata)
and a couple didn't seem to make any noticeable difference, but one (the most expensive!) did seem to alter the sound of my system.  But then I blind tested it against a $15 AC cable and it turned out I could not distinguish between them.  It was a nice lesson on the strength of sighted bias and saved me some money ;-)

As to the anecdotes I mentioned: I agree nothing can be reliably demonstrated that way.  But that doesn't mean they can't be suggestive.
Like many here I've heard innumerable set ups with super high end cabling.  And in my extensive recent speaker auditioning, inevitably the speakers are using expensive cabling of all sorts.   Yet I find the sound of my system easily competitive.  

Similarly, I've heard speakers I have owned, that I've sold to audiophile friends, used with the standard-grade cables I tend to use, and then hooked up to cables even up to the highest end Nordost, Crystal cables, etc.   And I did not detect any revelation, anything elevated about the performance of the speakers whose sound I knew very well having owned the very pairs.

Again, that of course is not all variables controlled.

But it is suggestive, in a personal experience way, that the high end cables are not acting as a significant variable.  Whatever they are doing seems dominated by other concerns, e.g. acoustics, speakers etc.
And it suggests one doesn't *need* to spend a lot on cables in order to have sound competitive with high end systems in which many thousands of dollars were dedicated to the cabling.