Pure Note Paragon vs. Kimber Select

Wire sounds differently in every system because no two systems are comprised of the same elements. Wire, perhaps like no other system component, needs to be heard in one's own system to be properly evaluated. Therefore, Raquel's suggestion to buy both (or borrow both from the Cable Company library) and listen to both is sound and proper.

You're absolutely right. Don't know why we bother posting opinions on anything here, since everything is system and room dependent, and perhaps even taste dependent. Hence it is only right and proper that Audiogon closes these forums forthwith. All requests for advice should receive a standard comment of 'go listen for yourself'.

Pardon the flippancy. I found it hard to accept that your response to the question Raquel, more or less said to the poster - 'Don't ask', and therefore did not strike me as appropriate. I can now see you genuinely mean that any advice given here about the relative sound of cables and equipment will just be misleading and we should not bother. But now that I see that you really believe that, the question strikes me - why do you you visit these forums at all? And this time I am not being flippant. I just don't get it. What do you get out of it if the opinions expressed here are of no value?

Tvad emphasizes what I could have perhaps explained better, namely, that cables are probably more system dependent than other components. In this regard, yes, I believe it would be best if people did not express opinions about the sound of cabling beyond reporting on direct A/B comparisons in carefully described systems, and perhaps discussing capacitance and such so as to avoid obvious mismatches. Reports about poor cable construction and bad service would of course also be appropriate.

I am somewhat less bothered by discussion of the performance of electronics and speakers, but again note that the margin for error, in the sense of attributing a particular sonic signature to a component that in fact results from its interaction with other components, lack of isolation, differences in people's hearing, etc., is high. My best hi-fi friend just completed a thorough revamping of the electrical supply in his house, which included tripling the amperage brought into the house, adding a dedicated circuit box and 7.5 kVa transformer to his audio circuits, new twisted 10-gauge wiring to cryo'd outlets, etc. The most notable change after all this work is that the 5 db. treble hump from 4 - 6 Khz. that he had previously been unable to get rid of and thought was endemic to his Revel Salons is now completely gone. He was on the verge of selling the speakers because of the tipped up treble, but now is reconsidering. The point is, he may have been tempted to say that "I think Salons are bright" before finding the culprit, but he didn't, which is fortunate. What really matters, however, is how you would think they sound if you put them in your system.

The magazine reviewers can make the same mistake, but at least they tend to post their systems so that the more savvy readers can get some perspective about why the reviewer heard what he heard. I recall a Stereophile reviewer a year or so ago describing a component as sounding warm and romantic -- then I saw that he was using Golden Cross in his system -- the sound he was describing was very possibly the sound of the Cardas. Some reviewers have used WattPuppy's as their reference speaker, but the Focal tweeters used by Wilson with the various iterations of the WattPuppy are anything but linear. Thus, everything the reviewers write about the high frequency performance of components they review using those speakers has to be discounted.

So, yes, I believe that general descriptions of the sound of components with no reference to surrounding componentry and context are generally misleading and probably better left unsaid, especially given the number of newbies to this site who lack the background to properly interpret the information. As for cabling, general opinions about their sound are especially pernicious -- cables are entirely suit to taste.

Redkiwi, I guess you're question was posed to me, so I'm going to respond. I visit these forums because they are a great source of ideas, and because they offer invaluable user experience with products I might consider purchasing. User opinions are completely valid as starting points, but personal experience is the only way of deciding which component is best in one's own system. It's of tremendous value that by reading the Audiogon forums, a choice of wire can be narrowed to two or three options. Still, it's risky to make a choice of only one cable based solely on user opinions. As stated earlier, the chosen wire may or may not sound the same in the purchaser's system, and it would be more valuable, in my opinion to buy or borrow both cables and choose between the two after a reasonable home audition period. Also, it's common (at least for me) to always wonder "what if?". "What if" the other cable that was mentioned sounded better than the one I bought? This second guessing is typical of our audio nervosa and helps to fuel endless system reconfiguration. If one has access to used versions of cable, or to the Cable Company lending library, doesn't it make sense to listen in one's own system based on research done here on the threads?

Hi Tvad. Seems we agree. Where I live there is no chance of trying burned in cables for long enough to make a reasonable judgement. I use these forums to get a rough idea of which of the hundreds of cables I should shortlist and then I go about buying them here, living with them and then flicking them on if they don't measure up. The key thing is to develop an idea of the credibility of the individual posters, which biases you to the ones that post a lot or have been here a while. And then listen carefully to how they express their impressions of a cable and look at the system they put it in. In the end you need to use a fair bit of judgement about how you interpret what is being said, but the process works for me. I have ended up getting a lot of ideas for cables to try by reading posts here and some of them have turned out to be real winners.

Raquel, it seems to me you are less prepared to do the 'triangulation' between views expressed here than I am, and therefore wish to hear for yourself, and not be biased from potentially erroneous or irrelevant judgements of others. I understand and respect that now.

The thing is, I read this thread in the hope to hear some views expressed about the Pure Note Paragon, and have now diverted things away from that. I hope we now hear something about the Paragon.