1. Home
  2. cables
  3. 132249-75518

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
itzhak1969
369 posts
 
Sceientifics can not make valid tests with cables because there is no valid tests to check the human hearing ! how can they measure things like seperation between instruments, soundstage, details, brightness, refinement, transparency ... so on ???
These who don’t hear difference between cables are semi-deaf and not audiophiles, they will probably not hear difference between good recording to a bad one neither berween good hi fi components to lousy ones.
So all the ones claim there is no difference between cables will never admit their hearing is not sensitive/ skilled enough it’s more easy for them to jump to a false conclusion that there is no difference. Maybe all of us that do hear differences between cables are making things from our imagination and should be lock up in an institute and receive aggresive treatment to cure us from this psychotic probem ...
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
Itzhak... That stuff is your imagination. It's a product of accurate reproduction. Cables have virtually nothing to do with that. So long as something measures sufficiently well those are the attributes you're going to hear. I don't understand why some of you think these attributes don't have some sort of measurement signature, but they sure as hell do. The pages of Stereophile and various pieces of research make that abundantly clear. I'm pretty sure you've posted that rant before and it's just as wrong now as when you posted it last. Go look some stuff up instead of making some stuff up. 
rja's avatar
rja
2,112 posts
 
In all my years here I don't recall anyone's life being threatened. On the other hand there's always a first time but hopefully it won't happen. We live in crazy times.
shadorne's avatar
shadorne
7,333 posts
 
"Fuses and cable swap outs resulted in obvious changes in tone, timbre, ambiance and depth, or see through, as I call it. Even footers made a noticeable difference. I used to love Herbie's tenderfeet but with the Tonians, I had to take them out and just perch the gear directly on the maple shelves. It was just a bit too foggy with them. "

So frustrating to have equipment that is extremely finicky. You never enjoy the music because there is always contamination of the source audio from almost every extraneous factor.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
14,147 posts
 
I was once challenged to a karate fight. It was to take place on The Amazing Randi's big yatch which was going to be where the James Randi Education Fiundation (cough, cough) was having its retreat that year down in the Caribbean. I gracefully declined the invitation and suggested a stalker of mine go in my stead.
More to discover