I don't believe cables make a difference, any input?

[Andre Visser]

Originally posted by SY

Sure, no problem.

Shucks, that's further than I thought, I was hoping for a shortcut

[SY]

Try the Canal. But I figure, as long as you're doing it, a nice trip past Tierra del Fuego would be interesting.

[Andre Visser]

Originally posted by SY
Try the Canal. But I figure, as long as you're doing it, a nice trip past Tierra del Fuego would be interesting.

Hey, no swearing please

[Scottmoose]

How dare you Sir!

[planet10]

Originally posted by Dynsdale
If this theory is true will our cables wear out or sieze up eventually and need replacing?

I definitely have some expired speaker cable... strip away the insulation and it is green.

dave

[nunayafb]

Burn in.....The most prevalent marketing scam of audio today.
Companies use this non-sense to sway the semi educated who can't quite hear an improvement at the store but are willing to believe that they will magically get better with age.
Everyone here is familiar with burn in, it occurs when you get a new stereo component and you spend many hours listening to it very critically. Looking for any indication of improvement, we trick our brains into hearing what may not be there and after a couple of weeks our brains our "burned in" to the new sound and we are finally happy with our purchase.
Maybe this explains why people like their bose speakers

Now, while some or most speakers will undergo some minor suspension stiffness/damping changes in the first few hours of operation that is it. If cables or electronic components are so unstable and poorly designed that their electrical or mechanical properties change after days or weeks- you got ripped!!!

A few too many absolute statements here but I am confident it accurately portrays the situation, greed, ego and willful ignorance.

[Salas]

Originally posted by tnargs


John Curl blah blah, Allen Wright blah blah... let them write their own opinions. They have exactly the same standing as anyone else's opinion; they are opinions. I don't care how much knowledge and theory is in their heads: if they haven't tested those theories in properly controlled tests, it's not science. How do you suggest they test those theories? Do uncontrolled tests first, then work backwards to explain the result?

It's all very well to argue some theoretical basis for discrediting controlled tests, but how do you propose to test those theories? With uncontrolled tests?

I've heard the left/right brain argument: you can argue it either way. Argue argue argue. So how do you test it? Whoops!

Why did this criticism of controlled tests arise? Because people didn't like the answers! They contradict years of listening experience. Uncontrolled listening experience.

Surely I don't have to argue the weaknesses (total invalidity would be a more accurate description) of uncontrolled tests? Any uncontrolled test result can be completely ignored ... completely. And that is not an opinion, it's a fact. Ask any scientist who has done the hard yards how much credence they would put in *any* experimental finding that came from uncontrolled tests.

Given the above fact, which are we going to rely on? How are we going to learn anything? The answer is clear. Uncomfortable, and a pain in the neck to conduct, but clear.

Now, bringing this discussion to bear on the topic, burn-in should be easy to detect in a controlled environment. Can anyone confirm if it has been done? I have seen convincing controlled tests of cables, with an utterly null result.

PS I will find the ABX thread you mention and debunk the left/right brain argument there.

I am not interested to prove anything. I just want to tread the fine line between blind faith and deaf defiance. I have heard capacitors, resistors, valves and cables changing the sonic outcome of any system that they have been substituted in. I have heard them changing their tone with time also. I just wanna know how and why, so to better control them and use them. And if all this is my fiction, because I am a human and its a human error, a dream, a fantasy, well, mea maxima culpa. I am human I cant help it.

[gareth]

Originally posted by nunayafb
Burn in.....The most prevalent marketing scam of audio today.
Companies use this non-sense to sway the semi educated who can't quite hear an improvement at the store but are willing to believe that they will magically get better with age.
Everyone here is familiar with burn in, it occurs when you get a new stereo component and you spend many hours listening to it very critically. Looking for any indication of improvement, we trick our brains into hearing what may not be there and after a couple of weeks our brains our "burned in" to the new sound and we are finally happy with our purchase.
Maybe this explains why people like their bose speakers

Now, while some or most speakers will undergo some minor suspension stiffness/damping changes in the first few hours of operation that is it. If cables or electronic components are so unstable and poorly designed that their electrical or mechanical properties change after days or weeks- you got ripped!!!

A few too many absolute statements here but I am confident it accurately portrays the situation, greed, ego and willful ignorance.

EXACTLY

Gareth

[tinitus]

I dont like expencive stuff, and I cant afford it either but I am not keen on this idea that nothing matters and that it all sounds the same, be it cables amps or whatever...what will be next?...all CDs sound the same?

Although I know different cables makes an amp or speaker sound different I dont do test or change cables at all...if it sounds good it is good, or good enough...its about knowledge, design and carefull selection

AND I have found a better way to make good sound...namely good amps and design of speaker crossover if you cant hear any differense I am sorry to say its because you havent heard stuff that really works

But in the end it may be a matter of preference...some just like it LOUD while others prefer QUALITY...some like SPACIOUS sound while others prefer ACCURATE pinpointing...personally I like to have it all

[gareth]

But can we have it all ???

Gareth