Audio Cable Hate?

Greetings! I am fairly new to the audiophile scene, so please forgive my ignorance.

I'm finally at a place in my life where I have a good amount of money to start putting my system together. I've been reading through many of the forums and it seems like the most controversial topic of all is audio cables / interconnects / etc?

 

The problem is the way they are sold. A Rolex does not claim to be a more accurate time keeper just a nice thing to own and to show. A BMW will be provably different in various areas of performance than a Honda.

On the other hand expensive audio cables can not be shown to make the sound of your system clearer in any provable way than a basic cable. Yet the makers often claim otherwise saying things like their cable transmits the signal with less distortion. The maker may even try to convince people of thier claims by measurements of transmitting a non-audio signal for example.

There are some finer details to the arguments, but this is the base of it.

 

Thanks for your reply.

 

That shouldn't be the case. Can you give an example?

To make a claim of superiority in a specific area there must be proof. Most adverts are very careful not to claim anything specific.

Unlike many products, electronic equipment especially cables are very easy to test. A simple subtraction of the signal from a basic cable from that of an expensive one will show what difference remains.

 

I have tried a lot cables in my system and have been lent these without pressure to buy, all I can say is there is a marked difference between cables, the power cables I ended up buying were voodoo, a good name to start with, I put the power cable into my Halcro power amp straight out off the wall and paid no more attention to the cable until I was asked how it went, I removed the power cable and there was a marked difference to the sound, smaller sound stage, not as open or dynamic, hence I now own it, I did not buy it then justify my purchase to everyone, inter connects are interesting, I settled on some hand made in the UK from a ebay seller, solid core silver, they work in my system very well, he has custom made a couple of cables for me. they do make a difference but it is system dependant so you will need to try them, http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Solid-Si...ion_Audio_Cables_Adapters&hash=item566b4420ab

 

In my experience spending lot's of money on cables does not reap rewards but wastes money, I use a Chord Cobra plus interconnect costing £60 when new, I have tried more expensive cables with little reward, I use Chord silverscreen speaker cable at £6 per metre, I basically chose these cables as I like the sound coming from my system with them in place over some cheap bellwire interconnect supplied with my rega cd player, the sound did improve in terms of detail & openness & was more involving for it but I think this is the most i would spend, you can achieve an improved performance over the giveaway stuff for less also. THe giveaway cable made my system sound very compressed & flat in comparison.

I suppose the best thing to do is make your own mind up on the subject as I did rather than listening to very varied views on the subject, some will say there is no difference some, like myself will say there is, you could buy one second hand & replace the giveaway cable if your using it & if your happier with the sound that's all that matters, if you hear no difference sell it on, you won't lose out this way.

 

For interconnects I would argue that pretty much anything will do a perfectly good job.

When it comes to speaker cables this is not quite the case because the cable needs to carry a lot more power. So a very thin cable like doorbell wire will work but over longer runs will give the amp less control over the woofer due to the cables resistance. So long as the cable is decently thick / designed to carry a good amount of power it should be indistinguishable from most other speaker cable. I use 2-core mains cable most of the time, the flexible stuff you use for your desk-lamp.

 

Oh, have some fun with this

Do the listening files before you scroll to the bottom!

 

Dear lord, it's the all cables sound the same brigade

If you value your system DON'T LISTEN !!!!

 

It's easy,just use NVA sound cords for i/c's and LS5 for speakers.I have never bothered to change them,best you can get for the money.Why spend more .??

 

Well, NVA state you MUST use NVA speaker cables or the amp might "blow up" and then no warranty.

Best advice, borrow what you can and make your own decisions.

 

in general, i don't spend a lot of money on wire. i have never spent more than a hundred on interconnects and speaker wire can be had for reasonable money. i bought audioquest ruby for about $100, my AQ type 4 speaker wire was thrown in gratis with my adcom 555II amp. i won a $1000 pair of acoustic zen silver interconnects and they DO sound nice, i recently compared them to some other not cheap wire but that didn't come that close, exhibiting less dynamism and detail.

i tried out wire between my dahlquist electronic xover ant the amps to the speakers. with NO expectations it was no contest which pair went to the amp driving the rogers LS3/5As and the infinity monitor JRs that i used for subs.

you won't hear much difference while using a receiver unless it is a B&K or similar. separates begin to be better sounding as they are purpose built and not usually mass market. it is a fun HOBBY and you will learn as you go. wire won't magically transform your system into ten times its worth but there can be some pleasant surprises.

the type 4 AQ speaker wire is a real true bargain. when i swapped it in to my system, i first though the bass had diminished but NO, it was free of overhang and went deeper as well than my previous monster twin lead 12 ga.

i lucked out a few years later when my stereo salesman friend aske me if i wanted the 20' pair of kimber 8TC for $50. uuuuuh YEAH.

 

If you were to perform an FTT analysis on the output to the speakers with various cables you would struggle to measure the differences.

 

It can be solid, stranded, copper, oxygen free copper, silver, etc.--or even "magic" wire--as long as the resistance is kept to be less than 5% of the speaker impedance. There is no listening difference as long as the wire is of adequate size. Bear in mind, as previously mentioned, a well-designed amplifier will not have a problem with any wires.

 

All my cables are either the red/white stuff that comes free with the kit, DIY cables made with RG59 cable, or commercial cables from CPC of the red/white variety or same price.

It can be shown quite categorically that interconnect cables working at line levels can't affect the audio at all, subject to normal RCL considerations. Anyone who spends more than a few pounds on a standard interconnect pair, whether balanced or unbalanced has far more money than engineering sense.

S