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
kosst_amojan
2,095 posts
 
@nonoise 
Pal, you're just plain old fashioned lying. It's your fertile imagination at work. And that's my problem with your whole argument. It's just what you believe and absolutely nothing else. You can't back it up with measurements. You claim you were at some big name high end manufacturer. Did you see the mountains of measurement gear they use to hone the sound of the amp? You think they're just making ballpark guesses for Mass production models? You have to measure the hell out of it. The measurements are what make the sound. And you're claims about cables don't support what measurements reveal. 
2psyop's avatar
2psyop
779 posts
 
When it comes down to brass tacks don’t we all buy into the notion that brand ABC’s box of over-hyped and absurdly expensive box of wires is better than brand XYZ’s brand of over-hyped and absurdly expensive box of wires? I think it does not just stop being ridiculous with wires and cables, it easily extends into the audio equipment we buy.
I cannot say I enjoy my ridiculously expensive stereo more than the kid down the block who listens to all his music on an older smartphone and I really would have a hard time justifying the higher price I paid for my audio adventure.
What’s even more embarrassing? The banter and fighting back and forth, “I have better audio equipment and am smarter about high fidelity than that other guy” That always makes me laugh!
BTW the smart guys are the ones making all the hi-fi equipment and selling it for huge sums of $$$$.... not the ones buying it.
lalitk's avatar
lalitk
1,105 posts
 
Are we to believe that Kosst- F5 clone amp and shadorne - Benchmark DAC3 are the only components with perfect measurements and rest of the components in the world are being  put together without any measurements 😉

Seriously guys, what is your end game?
nonoise's avatar
nonoise
4,382 posts
 
kosst, you're just so full of it my friend. The conclusions you arrive at never cease to amaze me. You read what you want and infer what's not  implied so you can have that tired old soapbox to stand and scream and your sad little head off. 

Someday you're going to make a shrink a rich man. You'd best confront those demons before they prepare the padded room for you.

All the best,
Nonoise
dynaquest4's avatar
dynaquest4
368 posts
 
There you go..again, nonoise resorts to personal insults as a way to stay, he thinks, relevant in the conversation.

Can we all agree, please, not to do this?
More to discover