How much difference do you think cables makes in the audio quality of your system?

[kennyt]

James,

I am all for electron pooling and ANYTHING carbon fiber is good to me, what can I say as a bicyclist...

What cablers are you talking about? I have seen very few items of the likes you are talking of, but am obviously intrigued...

KT

[ottojg14]

[QUOTE=graniterocks;4908]

Originally Posted by JerryDelColliano

Cables matter. A LOT. For both audio and video.

Jerry, I 100% agree!

I am a dealer for a few brands of cables, so I am a little biased. That being said, I have playing around with audio gear as a hobby for going on 20 years... I have only been in business for three.

Cables are a very signifiant part of the system. Anyone who says they don't matter, has not heard the right cables or they have some hearing loss in a few registers, which unfortunately does happen. I think cables have as big a role as any other component in a true high end system and if you don't believe that cables don't affect video, upgrade your component cables and you will be amazed, the results are not subtle. You don't need eaglevision to see the differences.

Most of the time even in a modest system cables can have a pretty signifcant difference. The nice thing is that you do not have to spend through the roof to get good results. I would definitely invest in good speaker cables (minimum $100-300) and some decent interconnects-(minimum $150-300) especially if you are listening to any analog sources. One of the Brands listed on this site makes some very good cables at reasonable prices.

Over the years I have seen the doubters hear very remarkable and repeatable sonic differences just by swapping out speaker cables or interconnects. I have even had lead installers and technitions-(these guys are not golden eared audiophiles) look at me in disbelief after a quick cable swap in a customers house.

In the last couple of years I have been auditioning cables using new advances in technology (namely carbon fiber nanotubes and electron alignment technology- I know it sounds like BS, but just google it and you will find countless abstacts on nano tubes and properties of superconductors). I'm not even going to pretend that I understand it, I just know what I hear. I now feel stronger than I ever had about cables improving a system. I have heard one pair of speaker cables have a bigger impact on improving the sound, than upgrading two pieces of electronics. That demostration really has made me depressed, because I'm actually thinking of spending over 8K for speaker cables now.

The other thing that sucks is that I have always been skeptical about power cables.. unfortunately they do add some improvement too and collectively with a conditioner and all the other cables you end up with huge improvement to your sound.

[graniterocks]

Hi Kenny,

The nanotube cables that I'm talking about are made by Intuitive Design out of Torrington, WY. Dale Pitcher a 35 year veteran in the audio industry and is the chief designer and owner.

He has three levels of cables. The Reference Chimeras are his top of the line, but all levels of his nanotube cables are proabably better than anything else out there. Some of them are "kind of" afordable.

The Reference Chimeras are truly a revolutionary product. It was the Ref. Chimera speaker cables that made the major differences that I mentioned in the post. The interconnects and power cord make big differences as well, but not as dramatic a change that the speaker cables do. The speaker cables have a larger impact than a major upgrade of a component.

To be honest, until I met Dale and began to audition his cables, I was always in the camp that most people fall into about cables. Do they make a difference, yes... but most of the time once you stepped up into the higher quality cables, they were all similiar with subtle differences between each model. I could hear differences, but they were not huge.

James

[JerryDelColliano]

Cables are a TOUGH business.

At the top there are people like Noel Lee at Monster and Karen Sumner at Transparent who make a fortune but the barrier to entry is low and there are a lot of players that make cables from their garage. I have a friend who owns a MULTI-million dollar AV company selling power cables to Asia. Nothing in the US. I wish I had a multi-million dollar business. I would by the naming rights to the local driving range or something.

[jkmw]

It boggles my mind that someone can look me straight in the eye and tell me that I will never hear a difference in the sound produced by two systems, identical in every respect except for the speaker cables, or interconnects, or, well you get the point. (you know who you are).

I wrote a post in Audioholics awhile back in response to a similar thread that presented a philiosophical approach advocating that audible and or visible playback differences might someday be achieved through the use of different cables, interconnects, etc. I suggested that perhaps we don't know all there is to know about the physical properties related to how signals travel from a to b. I also suggested that new advances in our understanding of physics and in technology are being made every day, (entries to this thread have cited nano tube tech and superconductivity). I went on to suggest that it may be difficult, perhaps even impossible given todays technology for the measurement gurus to discern a correlation between measured differences in two cables, (or even in similarly spec’d cables), and their audible characteristics. Finally, given all the variables over which we have as yet no understanding and no control, I considered it prudent to believe that someday, as a result of advances in our technology and in our understanding of physics, we might be able to scientifically predict audible differences as a result of the way, for instance, two different cable geometries affect the flow of electrons from a to b, and indeed produce an audible effect.

I concluded by saying, so if an electrical engineer can’t possibly know all there is to know about his or her given field, (and who does?), then that person can't intimate that our understanding will remain static over time, (read: you will Never hear a difference), as advances are made and interrelationships are discovered. Wouldn't the wisest of all positions be that of keeping an open mind?

The thread went silent for a couple of days........

And then it started back up without mention of my post. Will it ever be possible to get the measurement geeks to open their minds to possibilities?

And what's with those who throw their credentials around that have absolutely nothing to do with an individuals qualitative analysis of the sound they hear or the sights they see? Where is it written that because a person's hearing has dropped off in any of the audible range that he or she suddenly can't tell the difference between an open sound stage and one that is flat/compressed, or if the sound of what they are listening too has an edge to it and indeed becomes un-listenable? I expected these people to be among the first to tell us how much we do not understand about how sound is perceived. After all, when did medical science EVER claim to be exact?

I have also found that not all audio/video demonstrations are created equal and just because someone says they are an expert and have controlled all the conditions and variables doesn't mean I have to believe them or put my faith in THEIR research. I'll do my own, thanks.

jkmw
my theater in my wifes house, (she's very good to me!):
http://gallery.avsforum.com/member.p...9183&protype=1

[JerryDelColliano]

If you feel there is no difference - then you shouldn't invest.

Even Bob Hodas knows you can here the difference between cables and he comes from the world of recording studios.

If you don't care about or can't hear the difference - they just invest in some cables that make a solid connection. Personally, I hear the difference and think its pretty valuable.