See, cables do matter!!! (Yeah right) (1 Viewer)

Latest review at secrets:

http://www.hometheaterhifi.com/volum...es-2-2004.html

Seems to me to be the biggest bunch of bull secrets has produced since one reviewer said that the speakers he was reviewing imaged so well that he could tell Jewel got down on her knees during a song (but thats another story).

Things claimed in this article include 1) That cables need a lengthy and involved break in period 2) That digital interconnects can greatly affect the sound 3) That you should pay attention to the match between your cables and the rest of your electronics.

Well I think cables can make a difference in a system. I've auditioned a number of cables in my system and while the differences weren't huge there were differences between the cables.

I think you just proved Brian's point.

Any interconnect with some decent shielding is fine for any system. Exotic metals, vacuum sealing, and directional blah blah is all a load of advertising BS. Wire is wire people. Wire doesn't change the information contained in a signal sent through it. Wire can only affect the magnitude of that signal. It the short distances between your home theatre components there will be negledgable differences in signal magnitude between copper, silver, or even aluminum cables. If you take a sine wave and apply it to the inputs of a $20 radio shack cable and a $20000 super cable I garantee that the sine waves will look exactly the same at the outputs of both cables.
Different types of digital cables make absolutely no difference to sound quality. That is the beauty of digital. It is designed to be immune to noise and any other type of interference. This is why the audio quality of your satellite radio is better then that of FM or AM. And satellite signals are beamed through the air; no fancy silver interconnects needed.
Spending $20000 or even $200 on a piece of wire just is not worth it in my opinion. Buy yourself some decent shielded copper interconnects, route them carefully, and spend the rest of the money on CDs or DVDs.


DON'T BELEIVE THE HYPE!!!

Ha ha. Nathan's got it. Still, opinions about cabling aside, read the article. Even if you feel expensive speaker cables and analog cables make a difference, do you feel that about digital interconnects? Do you agree that cables need a break in period? Or that they should be matched to what electronics you are using?

The author is saying yes to all these questions and implying that the differences are quite profound. He's using language usually used to describe speakers. At one point he says that a set of cables (still high end mind you) caused the music to be shrill sounding!



When will the madness end...

Hmmmm! I like that part the best so far!

Hehehe. Somehow the part about getting back up later in the song got deleted as I edited the post.

wow, im still amazed at how many "wire is wire" people there are on this forum with nice equipment. if you have a semi-decent system, go to your dealer and get the best they have just as a demo (from most good shops they will just loan it for free), and just give it a good listen. it should sound better. if you want to disregard the whole "burn-in" theory, then get some that were used on the floor and are already burned in. then none of us will have any excuses. just give it a try rather than already assuming it doesnt do anything.

btw, there is actually a rating scale of copper purity... common OFC is near the bottom of the list. the stuff used in better cables (audioquest comes to mind) is around 7 steps up in purity. think about this one... what would happen to your signal if you gave it a mix of 50/50 copper and dog crap? it probably would sound kinda bad... with general OFC, there are significant impurities in the cable, many of which are inferior or bad conductors. dont believe me, just try it out for yourself.

Yes cables need a break in period just like any other component in your system and yes some cables seem to work better than others in systems. I wouldn't put Nordost in a bright forward system and I wouldn't put Magnan in a overly warm system.

thats why im telling them to go to a dealer, they can usually recommend what would work best...

Interesting that there wasn't a high price cable "industry"(most "manufacturers" actually just order cable in quantitiy with their logo on it) until people figured out that there are people who will pay 5 figures for cables.

A cable shouldnt be adding anything to the signal. So comments like these I dont understand. Any well made cable with tight connectors should be fine. Although I tend to spend more on a good video cable as visual differences tend to be more noticeable than audible ones.

Robert
I think they have already made their minds up.

yep. its kinda sad really...

oh well, we tried.

I totally agree with you! Back in the days you went out to buy speaker cable and you didn't have to dish out an arm & leg for it, and nobody cared what brand it was. I'm a believer in good quality cable, but to a certain extent. Some people just take it too far...

*bullsh..*
*bullsh..*

I'm sorry, were you saying something? I couldn't hear anything you were saying since your mouth seems to be full of snakeoil!

Anyways - I also believe cables matter up to a point. I don't believe it should add to the signal but that the connections should be made solid w/ good connectors and decent quality cable. I guess I'm more of the broadcast quality is as far as I'm going to go crowd. Someone can send me some Nordost or Kimber if they want to try to change my mind.

I really don't care if Jewel was standing on her head, but I am also a believer in quality cables. They should be in reference to the level of your gear. If I had a 20K system, I might consider exotic interconnects, but then I'd have the money to do that too...

If you were using a 20k system, you would probably have enough money to pay Jewel to stand on her head!