I can almost see the thread on an audio enthusiast message board where the members are talking about "those crazy car nuts" spending thousands of dollars to get a few horsepower that no one can even feel. "All they do is make the car louder, not faster!" they would say. We are Autophiles, and share many of the same idiosyncrasies as Audiophiles. A careful shopper can separate the "snakeoil" from the "gold", just as we know better than to buy Tornados for our air intakes and Slick 50 for our oil. We have to be careful who we mock, for it may be ourselves...

 

[QUOTE][size=1][b]Originally post

I'm an old man, so my ears are long since gone, but I remember a test done by a major Hi-Fi magazine many years ago where they tried to see if audiophiles and professional musicians could tell the difference between one amplifier and another.

 

Celeritas -- excellent point!

[QUOTE]Originally posted by MacGyver

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Celeritas
I can almost see the thread on an audio enthusiast message board where the members are talking about "those crazy car nuts" spending thousands of dollars to get a few horsepower that no one can even feel.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by PJK3
one point of interest (which is why i specifically chose to follow up on the Kimber Kable reference) is that Kimber Kables definitely do things a bit differently than your normal speaker cable...

 

in audio, there is definitely a major importance in looking at original and final setups... like a car, individual improvements aren't always noticable, but in general - once you've completed a full tier shift, the change is very noticable. the problem is, if you neglect a component, the GIGO effect can ruin the other improvements you've made.

correct -- everyone claims to be better somehow. in KK's case, i'm not sure if the braiding or the 'super pure copper' are key, but there is a noticable sound quality difference... how noticable? not $9.50/ft... (and another point is different always better? in this case, i'm not sure.)

regretfully, i don't have access to KK, nor do i plan to buy any for kicks, otherwise - i'd extend my invitation for a listening comparison to you as well...

 

Something to chew on regarding wire.

I actually run the 8tc KK to my fronts and center. I think it was worth every penny and would never consider otherwise.

I have been through countless feet of 12G monster and always end up replacing it after a few years.

These cables are something that I will never have to replace. I will change amps, speakers, dvd players, and countless other components but I will have this speaker wire til' the bitter end, and at that point my kids will probably use it on their systems.

 

PJK3,

Again, you are right on the money.

Here are a few links on cables that may be interesting to some of the members in this discussion that believe they make a difference. I am using some of these cables in my system now including the AC Master Coupler, and reference series cables.


http://www.synergisticresearch.com/reviews...drev-page-b.htm

http://www.synergisticresearch.com/index.htm

 

Good audio is definitely in the ear of the beholder. The music that drives one person's life can be irritating noise to another.

My kids love bass, they can tell that the pioneer in the odyssey has better sounding bass that the stock toyota radio in the sequoia, but that doesn't stop them from cranking the bass in the toyota. On the other hand, I'll crank the bass in the odyssey but disable it in the toyota because it grates on my nerves.

MAC's original posted links were to components with outlandish claims. I'm sure inserting these parts will change sound quality for better or worse, but the reasons stated make no sense.

 

Ooooh, there's SOOO much I could say about that system by Synergistic Research, but I'll only touch on a few points.

First, what I can gather about their system from the limited detail is they use the shield braid as another signal wire ("powered", as they call it). Evidently they amplify the signal and send it down the shield at the same time, thereby enhancing the signal strength by altering the dielectric's field (between the shield and signal wire). In theory, this is a quite reasonable idea, even though the reason for doing it escapes me...in THEORY. In practicality, however, the idea has major flaws, the easiest to come up with would be minute (and I'm sure some not-so-minute) phase changes between signal wire and shield briad, the very thing that makes audiophiles shudder at the mere mention of.

To quote the reviewer from the first link, "When I powered down my interconnects, the soundstage seemed to contract and become more shallow." I guess it never ocurred to him that maybe this crappy sound was due to a really poor interconnect system, one that NEEDS to be powered before giving anything near decent sound quality...but that doesn't say the system itself is doing anything useful. And why is it everytime someone tries a new component, the reference system sounds <insert various BAD audiophile words here> without the component, yet before they knew of the component's existence the reference system was the be-all, end-all of audio quality? That HAS to make you wonder about their objectivity...

After reading so many made up words (as is the norm for published audiophiles), I just couldn't take reading more than the first article. I sometimes wonder if those guys have one of those Dilbert Word Deconfiguratorelationizing Machines...you push a button and it gives you a mix of words, like "resulted in a more involving sense of layering and liquidity", or "I heard greater transient snap, speed, and focus in the bass response; more air and spatial cues; and a subtle sense of layering and illumination".