audio cables

[Evenharmonics]

Another clear case of expectations bias!

Do you think the following 2 quotes are written by one person?
"I wasn't expecting much, but still I braced myself for a fight because I know from experience differences between cables are not always easy to assess. Wrong! The diff are immediately audible: the original battery charger grade cable has more pronounced, possibly more refined highs, kinda like my ESL57, and the Ali has much fuller mids,"

"I didn't expect anything audible so I asked, what if I don't hear any difference? He said, then you need to get your ears checked. Haha, I thought, very funny - NOT.
.
.
Wow! Everything sounded better, less distorted, and the difference was easy to hear! I was basically stunned, never expected it."

 

[Evenharmonics]

Of course, I'm not questioning your ability to hear.

Are you aware that he is in his mid-to-late 70's?

 

[Indigent Audio]

It’s Black, it’s White or is it gray?

We talk about audio as if it’s all about the sound (subjective) or the measurements (objective) but a (subjective) truth is being ignored….as humans we eat, drive, think, fall in love and most importantly make buying decisions with our eyes. There’s a saying from the fashion industry but it applies all design, especially audio….the aesthetic is nothing but the aesthetic is everything.

My favorite cable is a kimber digital coax, is it my favorite because of what I paid for it? Yep, it retails for $350 but I got it in a box of wires at an estate sale for $5 (for the whole box). How about the way it sounds? Nope it sounds just like the cable it replaced. What about the measurements? Who takes those? Especially on stuff they didn’t build? No cult of the SINAD here (I come in peace and have no issue with our trolling analytical overlords)…the overall reason the kimber is my favorite cable? Unshielded, clear jacketed, 3 silver wires braided together, it looks bitchin’

For everything else either I use other estate sale finds, cat5 or old heavy speaker wire from my youth installing car audio…

Friends don’t let friends pay for Nordost (even if it looks cool) just like friends don’t let friends use coat hangers (even if they work)

Cables are really the kiddy pool of diy, we should be trolling about more important things like why most modern British audio electronics (not speakers) are highly overrated crap

 

[kn0ppers]

So it is unshielded but it is coax?

 

[Indigent Audio]

https://www.audioadvisor.com/mobile/prodinfo.asp?number=KKAG

‘ Stereophile's "Recommended Components" reports Kimber AGDL excels "in the retrieval of detail" and offers "extended and powerful bass."’

Construction featuring our proven tri-braid field geometry and VariStrand, Hyper-pure silver conductors. AGDL is configured for balanced digital data transmission. Designed specifically for digital applications in lengths from 0.5 through 10.0 meters, AGDL offers accurate, detailed and dynamic performance. The design philosophy is not transmission line based nor does it use metallic or semi-conductive screens.

AGDL is available factory terminated with "Studio Grade" XLR type connectors with silver plated contacts. Also available with the Kimber Ultraplate RCA type connector.

 

[Evenharmonics]

We talk about audio as if it’s all about the sound (subjective) or the measurements (objective) but a (subjective) truth is being ignored

Are you aware that this is about audio reproduction as in recording and replaying?

 

[jan.didden]

But why? Other than being a swine to terminate and some issues with mechanical properties why should Al not make a fine interconnect? I happily listen to speakers with Al ribbons...

Many years ago when I interviewed Aalt-Jouk vandenHul he gave me some carbon fiber interlinks to test on my own system.
About 28 ohms resistance pin to pin. It didn't sound any better - or worse - than my previous cables.

Jan

 

[Markw4]

Are you aware that he is in his mid-to-late 70's?

Wrong, as usual.

 

[Evenharmonics]

Ah, a few years younger. OK. That's still well past retirement age.

 

[Zung]

I still have and use some Isoda cables, interconnects & speakers, from nearly half a century back. They're made of a crazy mix of aluminum, brass, copper & lead, almost impossible to terminate properly. They do have some distinctive sonic signatures, thought. OK price back then, and now of course, they're collectors.

 

[Evenharmonics]

They do have some distinctive sonic signatures, thought.

If speaker cables behave like sonic filter, that's a sign of bad design.

 

[MrKlinky]

If you hear it then its obviously real and there is some physical cause.

I would have to disagree most strongly with this statement, unless by 'real' you mean simply the listener's personal perception. Our ears are are pretty blunt instrument - excuse the pun - compared with sight, as is evidenced by the comparatively huge portion of the brain used to process the latter. Sound 'memory' is particularly poor, however we are rather better at comparing two subtly different sounds given little delay between them. Imagine an ABX test (which nobody seems to be able to reliably pass anyway...) but with 48 hours between the A and B samples. In summary, the 'physical cause' is very often the flawed brain processing the ear's input; add sighted tests and expectation bias and the ears don't stand much chance of performing statistically viable appraisals, simply Coke or Pepsi.

 

[billshurv]

the overall reason the kimber is my favorite cable? Unshielded, clear jacketed, 3 silver wires braided together, it looks bitchin’

Perfectly valid reason 🙂

Cables are really the kiddy pool of diy, we should be trolling about more important things like why most modern British audio electronics (not speakers) are highly overrated crap

hasn't that been the case since about 1988? Give or take one or two brands nothing has come out since then that has interested me at all, even before I started building my own.

 

[Markw4]

@MrKlinky, Are you saying that no two sound differences are obvious to you? Sine wave verses square? Doesn't it become obvious to anyone at some point? Bach verses Stravinsky? Coke verses black coffee?

If you agree that some things are plainly obvious differences that don't require ABX, and if you further agree you can usually tell if differences are obvious rather than subtle, then can't other people do exactly as you do?

 

[Evenharmonics]

If someone else hears it then they are hallucinating? If so, then maybe it was you hallucinating in the first instance and someone hearing an obvious physical effect. Of course you never hallucinate, only other people do.

"auditory hallucinations tend to be more prominent in late- (between 40 and 60 years age) or very-late onset (60+ years)"
https://academic.oup.com/schizophreniabulletin/article/46/6/1382/5868626

 

[Evenharmonics]

If you agree that some things are plainly obvious differences that don't require ABX, and if you further agree you can usually tell if differences are obvious rather than subtle, then can't other people do exactly as you do?

Difference caused by audio cable is very small compared to speakers and room acoustics. For the cable difference to be large enough to be audible without close side by side comparison, one cable has to be really badly designed or downright malfunctioning, which you don't want to use anyway.

 

[Markw4]

What about with very high quality headphones? Say, something like planar or electrostatic headphones?

 

[Evenharmonics]

Can you please clarify what your question is focusing on?

 

[cracked case]

I wonder how much of an improvement of a cable is down to unplugging and replugging helping to give a better contact than the tarnished one previously.

 

[billshurv]

Well the late John Crabbe writing in Hifi news in the good old days used to recommend that once a month. It's plausible it causes more difference than the cable changes.

Of course if you unplug an RCA without turning off first other things might happen...