Hmmm, time for a bit of a giggle.
I make my own cables. I've tried a few configurations with various cable types.
Now this cable, absolutely night and day difference. It was like someone had cleaned a window and I could see much deeper into the music.
I changed the mains fuses while I was at it; a small but significant improvement, particularly in the very high notes.
Of course the purchasing of the right Hi Fi rack is an absolute must. I was stunned when I listened to my stereo once I had the units in place. Listening to my favorite audiophile test file, Chic-the best of ripped by itunes at 128, I could almost believe I was listening to a redbook version.
Yet another night and day difference.
Yes, I know it's a converted tea trolley!
The changes in interconnects, way too many to mention, all made significant improvements to the sound, particularly when I plugged them in.
Strangely the speaker stands I made for the loudspeakers which have gone from heavy, to very heavy, over the years did make a huge difference because all the cheap ones I had tried before collapsed under the weight. Of course, I could have bought something similar from one of the Pro audio outlets for around $1000.00.
Not to be seen in the picture clearly is the hand built distribution box which utilizes the fabled non fused 15 amp round pin plugs and sockets.
Yet a further significant and audible improvement in sound quality; I could almost hear the music now.
I've tried out loads of tweaks, from 'special' capacitors to balanced mains transformers and the thing I found that really made the system shine was remembering to switch the power on.
So I wonder having read on various forums that you should budget for cables as a percentage of the system cost how much should I have spent.
Those bass drivers in those tatty looking boxes cost a bit over $300.00 each; there are two more in the back of those enclosures. The mid range and high frequency units must be at least $150.00 each and the hand built crossover around $350.00 each and none of the above includes the woodwork or the dealer mark up.
The truth is, none of the things I've tried out over the years made an audible difference that I could reliably pick out, except perhaps the speaker stand which stopped the bloody things wobbling about when they got fed a decent amount of watts.
I have read with increasing incredulity over the years the audiophiles claims of 'small but significant improvements' when one thing after another got changed from cables to fuses. Well I would have thought such changes would be cumulative and given enough changes I can only assume that these systems must have been shockingly bad at the outset.
