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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
gillatgh
mapman's avatar
mapman
15,679 posts
 
Yes wires can and often do sound different.

How much do they matter and how much should they cost? The only possible answer is "it depends".

In general. I’d reserve a fairly small % of overall budget for wires. The smaller you can get away with the better. After all, they are only wires. No rocket science needed there if all else is well.

Good quality wires made for pro use are always a safe bet if not sure how to cut through all the BS one will encounter with many products marketed mainly to audiophiles.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
Inside every audiophile is a pro audio dude trying to get out. - Old audiophile axiom

I'm a professional! 😛
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
Sounds like common sense to me, mapman. I can see spending upwards of $150 to build cables, but I can't justify more. The ones I'm using now cost less than $50 to build. They do sound better than 12g OFC. If I need to manipulate the character of my system more I'm better off spending the money on something more effective. 
itzhak1969
369 posts
 
By making a test with 2 cables and jump to a conclusion that there is no much difference between cheap cable to more expensive one is not more than a false generalization .

First, there is no necessary correlation between the cost of the cable to its quality.
Second,You need the match the right cable to your own system one cable can be good for one system and bad for another.
Third,It’s better to use same level of all your system cables and better of the same brand ,mismatch of cables can make things worst.
Forth, the most important test if the cable is right to your system is your own demo only .let your ears to decide what is good for you.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 

itzhak1969 wrote,

"Third, It’s better to use same level of all your system cables and better of the same brand, mismatch of cables can make things worst. Forth, the most important test if the cable is right to your system is your own demo only. Let your ears to decide what is good for you."

>>>>>I suspect one might actually be better off using different brands, to allow any anomalies in say, frequency response, to average out. Just as one cannot generalize about copper and silver conductors, it depends on where they’re placed. Certainly cryogenics changes the whole cable comparison on its head as does directionality. Fortunately for the average Joe most high end cable companies pay attention to direction and Cryo their cables. Due to break in times and the issue with plugging and unplugging cables during comparisons, especially of new cables, I’d say conclusions are oft way premature and lead to many toss ups.

On a related subject, is anyone using interconnects of different brands connected in series?
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