Cable auditions - Hard Work?

Paul (Oldpet) I can not answer your question without speculating. I will attempt to ger and answer from Kubala-Sosna.

Zargon, I agree with all your comments, and I believe I tried to point these subjective conclusions out.

[So, Kubala-Sosna is doing something different,and many believe it is better, however, it isn't necessarily "the best" or "totally uncolored" when compared to others. Remember, the cable effect is also dependent on the components it connects, and these dependencies may override everything else]

If I failed to get that across properly, I apologies for it does indeed remain subjective.

Steve, I would not be surprised if I mis-inturprited much of what I was told. I do however stand behind the general pholosaphy behind my posted thoughts. Both you and Zargon have put words in my mouth however. Below I copied my words:

"If there is such a thing as a completely neutral set of cables, as has been suggested by Kubala-Sosna about the Emotion cables, it would be hard to prove by listening. The Kubala-Sosna Emotion cables (power cords, interconnects, speaker cable and digital cables) pass a square sign wave through the full audible spectrum. This is the only test I know of that can quantify a cables ability to transfer a signal without altering the characteristics of the signal. I can not verify the point, but KS explains that other cables they have tested are not able to pass a completely square wave throughout the frequency spectrum. If I understand this correctly, that means all the other cables he tested were not able to transfer the signal un-altered. I do not know if this creates neutrality or simply affects the dynamics, but..."

"OK, for the sake of argument let me say that the KS Emotion are as close to neutral…"

"If you are interested in hearing your components I recommend finding a neutral cable."

"I believe Kubala-Sosna cables are 100% neutral,"

"I believe all three, actually five lines of KS cables have the same characteristics. I actually know very little about the other lines, other than…"

I never did claim a perfect square wave and I hedge the neutrality issue with “IF” there is …

This is a concept “we” audiophiles throw around a lot, yet I’m not even sure what neutral is. I assume it to be something with little affect on the audio signal, and yet I have tried to make it clear I have no test to verify this. So if we need to nit-pick over my words, please use my words and not others.

I stand by the intent of my words, that these are unique to my ears, and I do believe they are break through. I understand this is only my personal experience, but my experience on five different systems, and in all cases it has had the same affects.

JD

Point well taken, Jafox, and OK, I may have oversimplified and generalized an important part of our hobby. I think I was simply dismayed that there are those of us out there who are getting hung up on the system link that I feel is perhaps the least important. Personally, Olpet, I would go with Audioquest, as I have stuck with it for 15 years.

I'm sorry Bojack, but your two comments here show a great hypocritical view. First you claim cables are a scam, a comment I did not even give you the courtesy to reply to, Then you tell the poster of the thread to use Audioquest, as you say you have stuck with for 15 years.

What is your point? That because you have stuck with AQ for 15 years all others are a scam, or are you the scam, and clearly not worth listening to?

Can spending 40K on cables make your music sound 40K better? How much money went into making those cables? I think that is the part of the cable industry that is a scam. I have no doubt that cables make a difference but at what price is the difference a worth while investment, and does cable A sound better than cable B or just different.

Auditioning cables has been difficult, somewhat complicated by previous cable (including power cords) "upgrades." Earlier on this thread someone related a story about his previous Coincident speakers cables having been a synergistic band-aid with MIT ICs, proven when he used Kubala Sosna ICs and speaker wires simultaneously. I agree with the band-aids scenario, but how do you really know which set of cables were more accurate and which are synergistic band-aids?

The kubalas' because they cost more? Or is it that together, they sounded more right. But what about the rest of the system? Even if they sound more right, they may be just be better obscuring problems somewhere else. Nothing wrong at all with preference, but actually selecting legitimate accuracy may be more difficult.

Someone else suggested replacing power cords first, to better hear cable differences. This may work, but I would suggest replacing them last. I am certain that I am not the most experienced with PCs, but they seem capable of high coloration (altering the sound significantly). It seems reasonable that high quality audio gear would be completed and voiced with the OEM PCs. If this is so, then the way the gear sounds with the OEM cords is the way it is supposed to sound, at least with the frequency balance.

So first selecting ICs that perform best with the stock OEM PCs in place seems the most logical way to ensure real accuracy and improved performance. This would also decrease the potential for just a bunch of sonic mish-mash band-aids.