1. Home
  2. cables
  3. 124957-818

Are audiophiles still out of their minds?

I've been in this hobby for 30 years and owned many gears throughout the years, but never that many cables.  I know cables can make a difference in sound quality of your system, but never dramatic like changing speakers, amplifiers, or even more importantly room treatment. Yes, I've evaluated many vaunted cables at dealers and at home over the years, but never heard dramatic effect that I would plunk $5000 for a cable. The most I've ever spent was $2700 for pair of speaker cables, and I kinda regret it to this day.  So when I see cable manufacturers charging 5 figures for their latest and "greatest" speaker cables, PC, and ICs, I have to ask myself who buys this stuff. Why would you buy a $10k+ cable, when there are so many great speakers, amplifiers, DACs for that kind of money, or room treatment that would have greater effect on your systems sound?  May be I'm getting ornery with age, like the water boy says in Adam Sandler's movie.
dracule1
almarg's avatar
almarg
8,673 posts
 
Thank you, Wattsperchannel.  I appreciate your post, as well as its tone, and of course I see nothing disrespectful in it.
I would speculate you are an engineer or have played one in a former life; but that is just a guess. I suppose a litigator could be an option as well.
Your speculation is remarkably on the money.  I am an EE (now retired) with extensive experience designing and managing design of defense electronics.  I am also a licensed attorney and patent attorney, although I haven't practiced as such.

Best regards,
-- Al
jl35
2,244 posts
 
Al's post above on cables, should automatically be placed at the beginning of all cables discussions...it is a thoroughly excellent summation of all relevant points...
mitch2
1,911 posts
 
Pretty much agree with your last post Geoff.

Which leaves us with jl35's wise post
fortunately we each get to listen to cables and other products and buy the ones we want to buy...
because, the only person we have to please is ourselves.  
wattsperchannel
142 posts
 
Al,

That is pretty funny. I too am an engineer but have spent a lot of time over the years with some brilliant litigators as well . I feel a comfort level with your approach to reason. It is quite socratic. When you approach from all angles you leave no escape hatch for the unreasonable.
 
I also have DOD experience having manufactured parts on the F16 and electrical system components for pretty much everything in the US Army that moves--the M1 Abrams, Bradley, Humvee etc.  Maybe we can blame them for our approach to such matters. :)
wattsperchannel
142 posts
 
geoffkait3,570 posts06-12-2016 10:35am
Ergo, the claim that some legendary designs don’t believe in audiophile cables proves that there are no audible differences among cables is the VERY DEFINITION of an Appeal to Authority. Frustrating, ain’t it?It looks convincing only on the surface. But it fails to prove or even provide evidence of anythung. Any more than the argument that some blind test somewhere, who knows where, or the very threat of controlled blind tests, proves that there are no differences among cables. Hel-loo! For one thing some folks have axes to grind. So their opinions are unreliable. Besides, as I said previously, not all legendary designers think alike. For example John Curl DOES believe in audiophile cables. Ditto Lloyd Walker of Walker Audio, Lamm, von Schweikert. there’s a bunch. Trust me.


This reminds me of the old quip by Mark Twain (if I recall correctly) about "lies, damned lies, and statistics." People with an agenda take perfectly sound analytic protocols like DBL's and regression and distort the results for a living.  Ignoring basic test parameters like degrees-of-freedom and statistical significance not only creates incorrect conclusions but gives the protocol itself a very bad name.

More to discover