Who thinks $5K speaker cable really better than generic 14AWG cable?

mapman
"I still have many older monster wires around and I even use them when needed. Guess what? They sound perfectly fine these days. Of course the systems I use them in these days are miles ahead of what I had back when I originally bought them. Goes to show that whatever the upside to certain more esoteric wires may or may not be, the downside is limited when everything else is performing well already.

Notice I did not say they sound the same or as good as others I use. I know some to sound different in spot a/b tests I have done from time to time. All I am saying is the the wires in of themselves do no harm. So I can choose to tweak wires or most anything else as needed and get quality results. Exact flavors of sound that results may vary.

Thing is it is easy and can be relatively inexpensive to tweak with wires. Its the same mindset that drives fuse tweakers I think (I am not one of those).

If a tweak is needed or desired and it does not cost much and I can change it easily and see what happens I will. HEck I even tried out a $100 fuse that someone here offered up to try for free. It was an easy thing to change and try so I did.

The interesting thing is some of our gear and systems cost a lot of money which means the price of "relatively inexpensive" goes up as well. Makes for a nice environment to sell things that are probably overpriced but still relatively affordable on the grand scale of things. Someone with a 6 digit system to start is not likely to balk at a 4 digit wire. More likely to balk at a less expensive wire not being up to par with the rest.

Its like if decorating a large expensive room in a mansion, One is probably not going to cheap up on the paint or other basic materials used that may or may not make much if any real difference in appearance in the end.

Luxury items are just that. Things that look nice and make us feel good about owning but may or may not actually be more functional in the end.

Just realize that expensive wires are luxury items and then we can all not loose any sleep about it."

I have yet to see anyone construct a better or more articulate argument for abandoning high end and returning to Mid Fi.

Its abandoning some high end costs, not necessarily high end sound.

Try not to tremble at the thought GK. I’m sure your products would still hold value.

Don’t worry. Nobody is going to take away your beloved Sony Walkman!  Were high end sound to be abandoned, your sales of those could actually skyrocket!

Moderators please remove all political comments to keep them out or at least fair and balanced.  You missed one.......

pops these is a report this button at lower right of each post that can be used to report improper postings.   I don't think political content is necessarily prohibited but anyone can flag any post they think should be reported.

wire or cable effects will be LESS significant in interconnects than speaker wires

anyone who understands physics or even rel. basic electronics will figure this out - the freq.s involved are simply too high to hear

the only other possibility is that a very high (usually RF) freq. will be injected into a component - if that affects the sound then the component would have to have a very odd design; most likely a design by someone who is not very competent

The controversy arises mainly by greedy charlatans (one of whom trolls this forum) who are able to convince well-off but unsophisticated consumers to buy their over-priced cables.  There is also the confusion among electrostatic speaker owners who do hear differences from different speaker cables, and electrodynamic speaker owners who are likely not hearing differences, but do not do blind testing.

In general, run digital as far as you can; run interconnects in fully balanced mode to the amps, and keep speaker cables as short as possible (amps close to speakers).  Use good quality Cu wire of at least 14 gauge (almost everything  is "oxygen free) anyway, so that is not a worry).  Belden has been making quality wires of all types for a very long time.  China is known for food, martial arts, culture, and philosophy -- not (yet?) for quality consumer products...

The big SQ increases come from good speakers, room treatments, and quality masterings of source materials.  After that, select an amp that can really control your speakers and their impedance curve.  Pre-amps, DACs, etc. will prove to be less rewarding on a cost/benefit curve (tho I do like my ARC pre-amp).

If you have already spent $70,000 on your speakers, built a new listening room, and done everything above, then it is time to buy different speaker cables from a place that allows returns.  Evaluate on a selected subset of your music library for esp. difficult issues where the recording & mastering is known to the be of the highest quality using double-blind testing.  Once your speaker cabling is as you desire, you can then waste time on interconnects.

if the above is too much trouble then just buy a green pen and use it to treat the edges of your eyelids.