why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable
I have tried expensive cables and one's moderately priced. I would say there were some differences but I can't actually say the expensive cables were better. IMHO I believe a lot of people buy expensive cables because they don't actual trust their ears and are afraid of making a mistake. They figure the expensive cables are better for the fact they cost more. If you have a difference of opinion or share the same thoughts, I would like to hear about it.
kosst_amojan"It has nothing to do with the hobby or audio. It
has to do with a guy spouting myths and nonsense. It doesn't really
matter what topic somebody is speaking on, I don't like liars"
I understand exactly you're position costco your faith is the TRUTH and any one who's beliefs in any way are not in perfect alignment with yours are myth tellers and false prophets or perhaps just mentally ill and deluded this is a reflection of the tremendous power of FAITH and religion it is actually very common and if you do not agree that it is so common it is only because your "church" has such a small "congregation" and your gospel is not more widely embraced.
No, no, no, foggythink. It has nothing to do with the hobby or audio. It has to do with a guy spouting myths and nonsense. It doesn't really matter what topic somebody is speaking on, I don't like liars.
For you it may be a hobby, or part of a business but for people like costco it is not it is FAITH religion belief and lifestyle they follow a different gospel!
@gdhal You're so right. I needed a laugh the other night so I went out to Geoff's website. A fool and his money.... I can't believe he hasn't ever been on Coast to Coast AM.
You're just making it up. It's just 0's and 1's. Nothing more. It's not sound. It's not video. It's machine code, protocol, and ECC data. It makes no difference how it's transmitted.
"why do people feel the need to buy expensive cable"
I'd be surprised if anyone chooses to buy expensive cable, but that depends on what you consider expensive. My definition of expensive is an amount higher than I can, or am willing to spend. I try not to buy expensive anything. By my definition, everyone has a different bar height for expensive. Many Mercedes owners won't consider buying those expensive Bentleys.
Few of us start out buying gear at the limit of our spending tolerance. We learn as we go, taking incremental steps until we're satisfied or at least hit our spending limits. For me, I'm now done with my entire setup including cables. Could it be better? You bet. Every component I have could be improved, but sonically better gear is too expensive.
It doesn’t matter whether the information carried by HDMI cables is electrical pulses or rabbits. They are still audio and video signals. You know, like digital satellite signals, they are audio and video signals. I didn’t say they were analog signals. The signal, whether the information is digital or analog is an electromagnetic wave. As such it’s subject to the same rules as any signal traveling through any cable or wire, e.g., purity and construction of conductor, purity and construction of connectors, dielectric material, susceptibility to RF, and “directionality” of the wire. That’s why Audioquest “controls directionality” of their high end HDMI cables, like the Carbon I use, as well as all of their other high end cables and power cords. It’s not a commie plot or an elaborate trick to fool gullible rich kids.
HDMI cables do NOT carry anything that in any way resembles an audio or or video signal. Try piping the raw output of your favorite movie soundtrack from an HDMI cable into an amp. I promise you won't hear music. The data coming through an HDMI cable is low level machine language. Nothing more. It might as well be a text recipe for cheesecake. I'm sorry if you think you're seeing and hearing something more with some crazy priced HDMI cable. If you'd just read the specs for the technology you'd know it's impossible and what you're really hearing or seeing is purely in your imagination.
Threads like this.. They're attractive to audiophiles like a shiny bit of tinsel to a crow.. You just HAVE to respond Adding anther few lines of infinite wisdom to the outhouse floor.
When all you can do is throw mud.. I think your arguments are finished. Time to throw in the towel dynaquest4!
Not throwing mud...making an opinion known. My opinion. You are also free to espouse an opinion. Try to limit the personal defamations if you can. This is common on this forum...defame the message AND the messenger.
And, BTW, I was saying something good about, in my opinion, a product of very poor value. Give me some credit! 😎
tobor007 - Perhaps have a friend(s) over that is a music lover, but not all that knowledgeable about most of the audiophile products such as cables. Switch some cheap cables with the expensive ones. See if it makes these obvious differences to him, you think you hear. When he can’t pick the crap from the shinola, perhaps its time to spend your money elsewhere.
Precisely!!!
+1
Caution: Be prepared for the nonsensical commentary feedback which calls into question the kind or type of test involved.
""
Just let's be honest; admit you buy them mostly for the looks. If you
cannot then you are being hoodwinked. Or you want them so bad to sound
"better," they magically do.
""
Both of those claims are straw man arguments. Asked and answered. Why the need to belittle other folks who find the Universe to be more interesting than you do?
Even the car analogy fails. Most cars that folks think 'look cool' because they actually are faster, turn better and do most enthusiast things better than 'ordinary' cars. Now someone might put 20" wheels with 30 series profile tires on a Buick just to 'look cool'. But that is not what is being claimed. The claim seems to be that all car modifications are for 'show' and not enhanced performance. Which is easily seen to be an error on the part of dynaquest4 making wild claims, then saying they are the norm.. When all you can do is throw mud.. I think your arguments are finished. Time to throw in the towel dynaquest4!
Perhaps have a friend(s) over that is a music lover, but not all that knowledgeable about most of the audiophile products such as cables. Switch some cheap cables with the expensive ones. See if it makes these obvious differences to him, you think you hear. When he can’t pick the crap from the shinola, perhaps its time to spend your money elsewhere.
Do you really think companies who manufacture an entire range of HDMI cables like Audioquest are perpetrating a hoax?
I keep telling you guys...not a hoax. These fancy cables are relatively pricey to produce because they are made to look expensive. Looking cool has value! Sorta like wheels on a Jaguar...way more show than go...more form than function. But of value nonetheless.
Just let's be honest; admit you buy them mostly for the looks. If you cannot then you are being hoodwinked. Or you want them so bad to sound "better," they magically do.
HDMI cables have different qualities too! I can say that since I bought a better silver plated OFC one and Hell yes the picture is cleaner and better looking. And IMO there is a lot of overlap in Video and audio gear. Particularly for tweaking. The big plus for video gear is you can SEE the results in the picture. Audio the ear has a tougher time to 'see' as easily. For my Plasma TV, I could see the results of different powercords. and using a conditioner at all. or a different AC conditioner. So I would say there is value in talking about video equipment and tweaks in an audio thread.
gdhal geoffkait - “Do you really think companies who manufacture an entire range of HDMI cables like Audioquest are perpetrating a hoax?”
No. They are perpetrating a business, to make money. Hel-loo!
>>>>Business doesn’t equal hoax, Einstein. Your logic is all messed up. Companies make products at various prices points to appeal to a wider range of budgets and performance. You know, like Toyota and Mercedes Benz and Samsung TV. Duh! 😛
You have to know when to speak up. You also have to know when to remain silent. - A. Einstein
kosst_amojan HDMI cables simply don’t make any audio difference. Period. End of story. Cables carrying analog signals, yeah. Cables transporting serial packet based data with ECC QoS don’t. Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying.
Calm down, Costco. You are confusing the signal with the information contained in the signal. The signal is the same as any signal, an electromagnetic wave. So the signal is subject to the nature of the cable like any other signal. The same logical fallacy was used to try to claim all digital cables sound the same. Which is not true either. Satellite signals are “digital” but they are electromagnetic waves.
Do you really think companies who manufacture an entire range of HDMI cables like Audioquest are perpetrating a hoax? That would be a lot of work for the purpose of perpetrating a hoax, no? You personally are free to buy whatever price level you wish, obviously. So is everyone else. Hel-loo!
HDMI cables simply don't make any audio difference. Period. End of story. Cables carrying analog signals, yeah. Cables transporting serial packet based data with ECC QoS don't. Anybody who tells you otherwise is lying.
I've been slowly replacing my cables with low to medium upgrades from the original .50 cent supplied ones and note a significant increase in the quality of sound. My last purchas of a pair of 18" cables said to give them a 175 hour burn in time. WHAT? Can that really make a difference to the human ear?
Oh.... The secret of directional wire is protected lore like the 12th degree of Freemasonry, huh? It’s such esoteric knowledge it can’t be obtained through conventional means? So it’s got to be protected and rationed at a high price? That sounds exactly like audio Scientology to me. Is there a special class I need to take for $10,000 so I can hear the difference?
geoffkait - No offense to you personally, gdhal, but you’ve made it abundantly clear you haven’t the slightest idea what “directionality” even means. This conversation can have no porpoise anymore. 🐬 Ta ta!
No offense taken. I didn't think you'd have any kind of answer to my questions. Tell you what though, I'll extend the request to answer my questions (in my 04-13-2018 11:05am post herein) to anyone else who believes as you do.
No offense to you personally, gdhal, but you’ve made it abundantly clear you haven’t the slightest idea what “directionality” even means. This conversation can serve no porpoise anymore. 🐬 Ta ta!
Even when telescopes suggested different the idea that the planets and
the sun orbited around the earth was hard to abandon. The perplexing
problem of the holy Trinity has occupied our 'finest' minds for
centuries.
Even crazier... Einstein received death threats. From other scientists.
geoffkait - ....Wire is wire whether it’s a fuse or cable. They’re all di-rec-shun-al....
On the contrary, haven't you been paying attention? I'm not disputing (although I'm not agreeing either) that the manufacturing process and/or technical measurements cannot or do not support directionality. What I'm stating is that you cannot hear a difference with the naked ear.
Additionally, given your example and if true, it would then also mean that the wire in the walls that you plug the amp into (forgive me, I do realize you often use a battery powered Walkman), the transformer wire in the amp, the wire the utility company has used to provide power to the home, and all other wiring in the speaker voice coils and other components also must be in precise and correct "direction".
Very well. Lets imagine that somehow all of the aforementioned has fallen into place. Lets further imagine that all other concerns you/others might have are adequately addressed.
How does this change your "enjoyment" of listening to music?
And please speculate, in what way should someone else, such as myself, expect to benefit if all wire directionality were perfect?
Yup, puddin’. Haven’t you been paying attention? Wire is wire, whether it’s a fuse or a cable. They’re all di-rec-shun-al. I used the example of fuses because it’s easy to grasp. Cough, cough...
geoffkait - .....When one checks for directionality of fuses he doesn’t know which way is the right way, so it’s essentially blind. Also if there are many fuses in the system one must pay attention whilst flipping fuses....
I thought, ’cough cough’ - see what you’ve done, I must be catching your cold .... that we’re in the **cable** thread.
Or, are you now stating that speaker wire, its direction, and the fuse direction go hand-in-hand and are directly related?
Try and detect/hear the difference between ordinary speaker wire and the most expensive/exotic there is in a blind test. That’ll end the debate.
No, it won’t, because naysayers such as yourself will perpetuate the debate. One cable manufacturer has offered its own comparator for exactly this sort of evaluation. Why do you think Wireworld does that? Because there are differences. And they are audible. But - and this is a big "but" - you won’t know about these differences until you actually conduct some listening experiments. That seems to be something you and others in the "hear no difference"crowd seem unwilling to do. You prefer to be an armchair theorist.
Bin there dun that! When one checks for directionality of fuses he doesn’t know which way is the right way, so it’s essentially blind. All one needs to do is listen. Also if there are many fuses in the system one must pay attention whilst flipping fuses. Otherwise you could wind up the same as you started. The reason I’m telling you all this is because I realize you have no experience with this sort of thing. You just like to talk a lot and pretend. A pretend skeptic. You talk the talk but can you walk the walk?
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