No. My point is, I don't need more resolution via a cable. I need a bigger room, I need Apogee full ranges, 3 - 4 turntables with multiple arms and carts that do different things, and some SS amps to play around with. Also trying different crossover caps and going active. Quite a lot to do in terms of time and money over the next 10 years. Even if the cable is more resolving, it does not resolve those needs.
Does Upgrading Cables Actually SAVE You Money?
- Thread starter witchdoctor
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No. My point is, I don't need more resolution via a cable. I need a bigger room, I need Apogee full ranges, 3 - 4 turntables with multiple arms and carts that do different things, and some SS amps to play around with. Also trying different crossover caps and going active. Quite a lot to do in terms of time and money over the next 10 years. Even if the cable is more resolving, it does not resolve those needs.
I tell you I would LOVE to have a dedicated listening room. If you are willing to move in pursuit of better SQ that is what I call dedication, good luck!
As for SS amps I am amazed at the bang for the buck quality I got with the Parasound Zamp v3 I use in my desktop system and feel that would be a good brand for you to check out.
I hope that cable came with a 30 day return period. I would be bummed if I brought it home and it didn't work because I didn't have a special CD or increased the volume knob.
My dear doctor,
I'm sure that when you get it home, and after few hundred hours of break up, your mind will tell you that you can hear a difference for the better.
This is simple logic human psychology. The money spent will also help to believe even stronger.
And if you have the technical tools, the measurements would probably show an increase in performance.
:b
I'm sure that when you get it home, and after few hundred hours of break up, your mind will tell you that you can hear a difference for the better.
This is simple logic human psychology. The money spent will also help to believe even stronger.
And if you have the technical tools, the measurements would probably show an increase in performance.
:b
No, no dedicated room. Moving is not an issue as in my quest for hifi if I end up buying additional property in central London, I might be overall better off in the long run
Let say a cable is released one year (2015), called the MCZ00787, for $36,000/pair of 8-foot speaker wires, and the next year after (2016) they release an update/upgrade/revised/remastered version..the MCZ00787MKIII Edition for only $4,000 more ($40,000 total - MSRP). The 2015 wires would probably sell for approximately only $16,000 ... That would be a coup, to always buy old instead of new, and particularly with cables because they sound better with age, after lots of break up time.
The electrons align themselves with time, with age, with break up experience...developing cleaner highs and deeper lows...like human wisdom. :b
Power and cables are the backbone of the system and these things should be done right BEFORE you spend big $ on components. The result will be a much clearer, detailed and engaging system.
I couldn't have said it better myself.I'll bet the end result would be less $$$ for more SQ.
If power and cables are the backbone of the system, then the room's acoustics, size and loudspeakers in that room must be equal to the listener's set of ears and brain in that same room with that power and cables? :b
Doc, what medical sector are you specialized in? ...Your username says witchdoctor, anything close to that? :b
Well if I was thinking about such changes I would not be thinking about cables or audio. First think I would try the lottery or looking for very well paid part time job!
More seriously I think that most of the time, people complement and improve their systems with cables because all other approaches involve logistics and resources that are not available easily or at all.
I think that starting with cables and speakers can be a very interesting challenge, although it is not easy to borrow electronics for experiments . But even so, IMHO you will be just complementing their characteristics. I have been playing this game lately with Mogami speaker and interconnect cables with the SoundLabs but without worth note results until now.
Cables (power, IC, speaker), along with clean power, and vibration control, are the foundation upon which a good stereo is built. Without a good foundation, no gear will perform at its optimum. However, with a good foundation then any gear you currently have, and any new gear, will operate at its best.
Room acoustics are another topic.
There's lots of important aspects to setting up a system and the implied false dichotomy that if you upgrade cables your room acoustics (or whatever) must suffer because that's what your spending your money on and the other is neglected is a bit ridiculous. The acquisition of cables has absolutely nothing to do with what speakers and room treatments you use and one may have absolutely no effect on the other. I'd argue most people spend money and effort on ALL aspects of their system because most people that are assembling a high end system tend to be reasonably intelligent.
Exactly. The mindset that your going to settle for inferior cables because there are more important things to deal with is backwards imo. Especially interconnect cables, there's no possible way to fairly evaluate anything in your system without good quality IC cables. So people put a system together using colored, warm cables which makes it likely they choose brighter components to compensate for their warm, slow cables.... Then, they upgrade cables and when they get more neutral cables they can actually hear what their system is doing and they don't like it. So go back to the warm, slow cables so all your issues (and a good part of your resolution) is masked and end up with a mid-fi system compared to what you could have had.
You certainly get a better return over time with real estate in central London than with hi fi! If you decide to move, let me know!
Here is a recent thread of mine on the effect of the absence of ASC tube traps in my room:
http://www.whatsbestforum.com/showthread.php?20189-ASC-tube-traps-effect-of-their-absence
The OP also has links to my listening room, with pictures of all the treatments.
Tell me, when you read the OP, how cables can 'fake' the effect of tube traps. They can't. And those effects are much more profound than cables usually produce.
On the first point, yes, which is why playing around with cables is fun when you don't have the resources for much else. The only audiophile kick you can then get is through upgrading cables.
On Mogami, I used Sanders cables on Logans, and those were made from Mogami and supposedly for stats. Didn't do anything different, others I tried were marginally better.
What if the cable cost, as plenty do, $1,000 or even $10,000? Would that be good value for the sound quality improvement?
Perhaps it would it be more correct simply to say that cables are *sometimes* good value.
Ok, about a good universal remote control (rechargeable with base) that goes through walls behind you? ...That's important in a good home theater room system.
About wireless transmission? ...About battery operated components? ...No more worries about electrical pollution. ...No more worries about power purifier boxes.
Listening preference, accurate distortion, concrete measurements...sensory pleasure of the hearing...pure and simple?
Yep, personal preference in each system...no two are equal, same as us.
A $1,000 receiver comes with its own removable AC cord (a fairly good size one); the audio reviewer substituted it for another that costs fifty bucks...he heard better bass definition.
Then he tried a third one, $100, and he heard more details in the mids and highs, less reserved sound than the one that comes with the receiver, and the lows are deeper, more extended, more reverberation, more euphony...the audio reviewer recommends the other AC cords, they sound better.
I have the review right here, and there are hundreds and thousands like it, and from all prices...$50 to $50,000 (that last figure is amazingly high, but real nonetheless, for long speaker wire pairs, triamp.).
* Amir, you don't say too much about upgrading AC power cords?
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When I dropped less than $200 on a new digital cable from Mapleshade in my system my mind was telling me no way would it sound better than the $1000 Virtual Dynamics digital cable I was already using. Luckily I have two ears and one brain so my ears won the vote that contest.
My mind was already made up that my current cable was superior and I just auditioned this one since I liked the other products I had tried from this vendor like his speaker stands and CD's. It took about 10 seconds for me to know that the new cable thrashed the one I was using. My ears outvoted my "logical" human psychology as well.The VD cable went on Ebay and I had money left over for the new one. I know the placebo effect can happen. As for technical tools this is an interesting one, it helps reduce placebo effect and its free:
http://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.com/
When I dropped less than $200 on a new digital cable from Mapleshade in my system my mind was telling me no way would it sound better than the $1000 Virtual Dynamics digital cable I was already using. Luckily I have two ears and one brain so my ears won the vote that contest.
The VD cable went on Ebay and I had money left over for the new one. I know the placebo effect can happen. As for technical tools this is an interesting one, it helps reduce placebo effect and its free:
http://harmanhowtolisten.blogspot.com/
Placebo effect happens in medicine because both pills look and taste the same. There is no expertise associated or anyway the patient can say which is the placebo pill. His only option is to trust the doctor who hands it to him. With an audio component, the 'patient' is not only capable of differentiating at the point of intake but he can repeat it many more times in different systems unlike with a pill.
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