Has anyone had the opportunity....

[richidoo]

Thanks for your service, Jesse.... 

[_Scotty_]

I too thank-you for your service Jessie, glad that you made it back. Even with some hearing loss you may have better analytical abilities as a result of having more experience than someone with with better hearing who is a neophyte.
My hearing starts to go away at 14kHz and inconsistent tinnitus in both ears can sometimes obscure low level details if I am listening at low SPLs, say under 65dB. That being said, I usually have little trouble telling the difference between one cable design and another.
Scotty

[jessearias]

Thanks for the salutes!   

I would have to agree that it all depends on your system. Some brand cables sound better than others in certain systems. And not necessarily real expensive ones.

I have nothing against spending money on good equipment, but with cables, there seems to be a point of incremental increases per dollar spent. It seems to me at the lower price points below 1K, you seem to get anywhere from 3-5% increases per price point in performance. But after than it is like 1-2% increases and maybe less than that when the price point goes above 2K. It reminds me of a review I read in Stereophile between a 5K pair of Brand X interconnects and a 10K pair of Brand Y. Of the 5 reviewers who were no strangers to high end, half could tell a difference and half could not. I found that a rather profound observation.

[tmazz]

But it is that way with anything in audio, the only thing that differs is the price point at which you start hitting diminishing returns. The SQ difference between a $500 and $5K amp will almost always (never say never) be greater than the difference between a $5k and $50k amp. There is a sweet spot price wise for pretty much every type of equipment.

And like most everything else, if you want to live out of the leading edge quality wise, it is going to cost you... big time.

[rollo]

Thanks for your service, Jesse.... 

  +1 Sir thank you.

charles

[Barry (NJ)]

In my experience they can all sound different, heck the process of unplugging and re-plugging your existing cables can have an effect on the sound. But different != better, and you need to find the sound you like, at what ever price point it may fall. Just my $.02

[jessearias]

When it comes to differences in cables, it is hard to judge Brand X from Brand Y.
In my hot rod books (another very expensive hobby), they will test intake manifolds using the same test engine. They bolt on the manifold, adjust the carb and timing for best results and let it fly. You can see the differences in the dyno chart. They can test 5 or 6 manifolds in one day.

I know you cannot do that to cables unless they are all seasoned and burnt in prior to testing to get equal results. If you had to wait the required hours to let them season and burn in, you would completely forget what the previous cables sounded like.

But it would be interesting to see a back to back test of cables in this manner.

[tmazz]

Jessie this is where have some good reference material that you are very familiar with comes in handy. I have several cuts that I use for evaluation that each show me specific things. I know exactly how they sound and in terms of imaging know where things belong in terms od width depth and height and in my own room keep notes as to physical landmarks in the room that to keep track of exactly where things fall in the soundstage. That way I can evaluate a cable or component even without a direct A/B comparison because I have a solid reference point to start from. While this works great for imaging, it is not as easy for things like detail and tonality, but when you listen to the same cuts over and over again, after a while you just get to know what to expect from a recording.

Of course this cannot completely eliminate the need for A/B listening. While this can be very helpful in finding large diferences, the closer the components are to each other, the more important it is to compare them directly. But what it can do is help you narrow the field down to components that are all close so that you only have to do A/B comparisons to the ones that to consider "finalists."

There is however on big downside the this method. When you use the same two or three albums as test music every time they hit the turntable your wife knows that there is a new piece of gear in the house.   

[rollo]

  Have you guys heard Ic's using carbon fiber as a conductor ? Digital and analog ? Pm me.


charles