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A New Believer

I have listened to many systems over the years, and have never appreciated the difference speaker cables can make to a sound. In fact, I was so skeptical of the sound changes they can make that I have always not bothered with any special type of cables, generally going for generic (and dare I say it) roughly made ANY copper wire plugged in to amp and speaker. Well, imagine my surprise when I decided to do a blind test and listen to what difference cabling can make. Wow, my Vand 3A Sig's had been getting strangled! (some of you guys may want to strangle me if I told you what connects I had been using). So I am now a firm believer, cables DO make a difference.
joshc
tubegroover
2,279 posts
 
Timrhu I completely concur with what you said, absolutely! These tests must be done over a period of time and the results MUST be consistent. An initial response to a change in sound is usually positive as you state. What is harder to ignore is a consistent result over time with careful assurance that all else in the system remains the same. At that point, trust your ears.
tubegroover
2,279 posts
 
Furthermore let me ask if the doubters believe there is a different in the sound characteristics of the same tube type by different manufacturers in a given audio device with all electrical parameters measuring the same? I'll bet most would say yes and some technically knowledgeble enough might be able to give reasons as to what is causing those differences. Wire is much more difficult in this respect outside the known electrical parameters of capacitance, inductance and shielding and how those factors might be contributing overall into the differences we hear or are there other factors as well as Jallen notes?
elizabeth
6,726 posts
 
Funny how often this same old yes/no to cables is brought up. And, as always some diehard opponents, and some diehard porponents will go at it yet again.
Hilarious.
If only for the repeatability. I bet this same set of arguements has been rehashed a hundred thousand times in various ways over the years.
Good luck!
(Ps I am in the 'believer camp', but still think wire is just a damn bit of wire at the same time. So I will only spend a little on wire. say 5% to 10% max system cost. An outlier.)
4est
507 posts
 
Considering the cost of high end gear, it seems silly not to experiment. Someone is always in a hurry to argue against spending "thousands" vs damn near nothing. The meat is in the middle IMO as Elizabeth and others have stated.

"An initial response to a change in sound is usually positive as you state. "- not IME, although I do think that you need to leave them in awhile to get their measure- as in not a quick A/B/X.
rok2id's avatar
rok2id
4,494 posts
 
if these wires cost 5-10 dollars then all you have said would be ok. but we are talking about hundreds even thousands of dollars. the differences should be 'obvious'and 'immediate'. but of course there is no difference to be heard.
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