Cable auditions - Hard Work?

would suggest you upgrade to after market power cords throughout the system.. they make a big difference.. it is really hard to audtition cables without going through the powercord upgrade thing (also forgot to metion suspending the cables)

assuming the cable is broken in.... i let it "settle in" after installing it for at least one hour..the changes become much more pronounced..

its not to a bad idea to listen to a broken in cable with really familiar material.. the changes become may be subtle at first, but the longer you listen and go back to the old one, they become evident pretty quick (what can be bad, is when you hear something 2-3 weeks after you bought it that you dont like)... the more "tuned" your ear becomes and the higher the resolution of your system, it becomes pretty obvious very quickly ( not always but generally speaking)

you also might have to make small speaker placement adjustments to compensate for the cable depending on your speaker...

hope that helps,

mike

Hmm, surprised nobody's mentioned the Cable Company yet. They make the process very simple - they send you multiple burnt in cables based on your system and stated preferences.

I insert one in the needed area (preamp to amp, CD to pre, etc) and play as much different types of music as possible. I keep that cable in as long as I enjoy it, and change it out if/when I don't like it, or want to hear something else.

After I've heard them all, I'll start the process over again, but the winner is the one that does the most time in my system.

But definitely use a service like Cable Company where at least you don't have cable burn in to deal with. That makes it much much much too painful.

bob,best cable advice ive ever saw!

Auditioning cables is hard work - but it doesn't have to be excrutiatingly painful and the benefits can be great. The place that I get demo cables from to try (The Cable Company)has them already broken in, so unless I am trying something silver-based or one of the PAD cables with ferox, this isn't an issue for me. I have 6 specific "cuts" ( solo piano, solo female and male vocals, live acoustic jazz combo, symphonic piece, acoustic guitar, and drum solo)that I use and my methodology is pretty straight forward. I play all 6 cuts on my system the way it is which lets everything warm up and sound its best and refreshes my point of reference. I then change ONE set of cables and play the same 6 cuts again with the new cables in place, listening for how they sound or rather how the system sounds with them in place, compared to the reference and that completes the serious listening. I then play whatever else I feel like that night and repeat the process in reverse the next evening. The new cables will either prove their worth that way or the old cables will - one or the other. If I can't decide on this basis- the money is not spent and I haven't driven myself crazy.

Have your buddy, Jack Daniels, come over and help. After a bit, even the $8,500 cables will sound o.k. :)

See www.roger-russell.com/wire/wire.htm