Cleaning up my system from Audiophile Snake Oil (Facepalm time)

[VintageFlanker]

Alright folks,

It's time for me to tell the whole story I've been through... the one about audiophile BS cables .

The sickness lasted few years, after the beginning of my journey in audio. Thing is, to be honest, that I always doubted about the purpose of these expensive cables. But once you're a newbie, your only source of information is audiophiles in real life, or ones from many forums. And as we already know, 90% of the hobby is dominated by subjectivits. Here is what I was saying few weeks back:

My sickness changed a bit in the last few years. I discovered ASR in 2018, but was a reader of Audioholics and Archimago before. I'm not that old, and my journey in High-Fidelity only started twelve years ago. Since the beginning, I always doubted about audiophile myths, but were wrongly thinking the majority must have been right. I took me several years to understand that Audio is not a democracy. Objective performance is a proved fact and not subject to personal preferences.

On the more serious part tho, this kind of belief costed (wasted) me thousands of Euros over the years...

Few years ago, I started to realise something: If I didn't know what cables were playing in my system, I was simply NOT able to tell any difference whatsoever, whatever it was speaker, interconnects, or digital cables.

I searched for quite a while about blind listening test of cables, measurements etc. Then, I simply understood that all the pro world uses industry standard brands like Mogami, Canare or Belden. I ended up by thinking about cleaning up my system from all the useless audiophile cables I had on hands. Funny thing is: I always sold them extremely fast (mostly the same day I put them on sale). That shows how strong is the demand for these BS tweaks.

So let see, what I previously used and what I own right now. Spoiler alert: my new cables don't sound worse, nor better... just the same at a fraction of the price.

Power cables:

- DIY Acrolink 7N with Neotech OCC power plugs (250€) -> DIY Furutech OCC with Neotech OCC power plugs (about 200€) -> Sold.
- Pair of DIY Oyaide Black Mamba with Furutech copper power plugs (160€ each) -> Sold one, I kept the other for my Apollon AS1200, for no reason...
- Supra LoRad + Supra Mainblock MD06 filtered (239€) -> Sold the cable, kept the mainblock.

Digital cables:

- Oyaide DR-510, Pure silver COAX Cable (180€) -> Audioquest Cinnamon COAX (65€) -> Sold -> Canare 75 ohms cable (34€) and AmazonBasics Optical cable (6€)
- Supra USB (35€) -> Atlas Element USB SC (55€) -> Sold -> Lindy USB shielded cable, with ferrite core (9,90€)


Speaker cables:

- Acoustic Revive SPC Reference, OCC solid core (300€ pair) -> Qed Genesis Silver Spiral (500€ pair) -> Atlas Hyper 3.5 (700€ for two pairs, bi-wired + 350€ for another pair + 70€ for Jumpers) -> All sold -> Canare 4S11 (30€ for a pair of 3M + a little DIY work) and Mogami 3103 (45€ for a pair of 2M). Still have Triangle Symphonie SYS30 (189€ pair), for sale soon.

Interconnects:

- XLR: Audioquest Mackenzie (150€) -> Wireworld Eclipse 7 OCC (350€) -> Audioquest Yukon (370€) -> Sold -> Mogami 2534/Neutrik (45€)
- RCA: Real Cable RCA (40€) -> Atlas Element Integra (50€) -> Atlas Hyper DD Integra Duo (270€) -> QED Signature Audio 40 (240€) -> Atlas Equator Integra OCC (130€) -> Sold -> Mogami 2964/Amphenol (28€)

Pure bullshit:

- Furutech Nano liquid (100€) -> Lost!... what a shame...

Well, if I do some simple maths here, I can't even imagine I spent so much money for basically nothing but my ignorance at the time...

...Thanks to Audioholics, ASR, objective datas and me - stop being stupid and brainwashed: this will never happen again.

 

[Thomas savage]

Ha ha , you and me both mate .

Live and learn.

 

[bunkbail]

Guess I'm a bit lucky so far, the only useless equipment I bought that didn't do jack sh*t for me is iFi USB iPurifier 3.0, and some RCA, USB and power cables to a lesser extent.

 

[majingotan]

I thank ASR for existing at a very early stage of my hobby. All my interconnects are just standard Mogami cables with either Amphenol or Neutrik plugs. Only fancy cables that I have are for my IEMs that make them look good

 

[pozz]

I loved power conditioners myself for a time, since they were always said to be a must-have for any studio.

Cost of tuition, I guess you could say...

 

[frogmeat69]

Guess I'm a bit lucky so far, the only useless equipment I bought that didn't do jack sh*t for me is iFi USB iPurifier 3.0, and some RCA, USB and power cables to a lesser extent.

Pretty much the same here. Some I bought because they looked nice with the fancy covering, but then I ended up with a fancy looking rat's nest behind my equipment instead of a regular ol' rat's nest, lol.
Now it's the shortest decent made cheap cable I can find.

 

[pozz]

Pretty much the same here. Some I bought because they looked nice with the fancy covering, but then I ended up with a fancy looking rat's nest behind my equipment instead of a regular ol' rat's nest, lol.

Looooool

Best way to put it.

 

[john5220]

Such a good post ow my so informative.

 

[VintageFlanker]

Canare 4S11 (30€ for a pair of 3M + a little DIY work) and Mogami 3103 (45€ for a pair of 2M).

By the way, here are the Canare 4S11, finished recently. Only 30€ for 6 meters of bulk cable.
Then, it needed a bit of handwork/twisting, with heat-shrinks and bananas I already had in stock:

The heat-shrink used is 3:1 ratio, with internal adhesive layer, so this won't move once it turns back cold.

 

[gene_stl]

I used to use that internally potting heat shrink on some biomedical electrodes I had to build. Worked great.
Perhaps we need to start a 12 step program for audiophile snake oil. It came onto the industry so insidiously that I doubt anybody totally escaped it.

 

[restorer-john]

The heat-shrink used is 3:1 ratio, with internal adhesive layer, so this won't move once it turns back cold.

The soundstage will massively improve once you add some special pre-printed directional arrows...

 

[audimus]

The only thing that kept me away from audio snake oil is being an incorrigible cheapskate that required a high bar of credibility to pay up.

But I did use a DIY pair of 14G electrical zip cord helically braided by hand as speaker cables for a long time before I went for a more practical solution of decent but not expensive speaker wire in a bulk spool to make my own lengths.

 

[Mnyb]

I put most of my expensive audiophile cables in the recycling dumpster.
Including some audioquest caldera speaker cables .

I did not want to continue the fraud by selling them on the used market, I decided to take the loss myself as cost of tuition.

 

[audimus]

I put most of my expensive audiophile cables in the recycling dumpster.
Including some audioquest caldera speaker cables .

I did not want to continue the fraud by selling them on the used market, I decided to take the loss myself as cost of tuition.

But if you couldn’t use them, why not give them away to someone who could? They may not do magic but they still work as any cable, no? Recycling the material doesn’t account for the manufacturing carbon foot print for them as well as of the cables that people would buy instead.

 

[watchnerd]

On the more serious part tho, this kind of belief costed (wasted) me thousands of Euros over the years...

I think I've done something maybe even nuttier.

I've dramatically increased my small signal tube collection over the last 3-4 months, spending, I dunno, somewhere north of $2k on 14 pairs of NOS 6DJ8/6922/7308/7DJ8 tubes to use in a tube phono stage shootout when I have a DSP-based phono stage that I *know* is objectively more transparent and measures better.

In my defense:

1. I went into this insanity eyes wide open. I guess that's about as defensible as someone starting a heroin habit with intention.

2. If I keep dicking around with a tube phono stage, instead of getting bored with it, I now have enough NOS tubes to last for like 70,000 hours of listening. At 200-300 hours of LP play a month, I'm set for 20+ years.

3. At the rate NOS tube prices keep going up, I probably won't lose any money no matter what, and might even profit above the current rate of inflation.

 

[watchnerd]

By the way, here are the Canare 4S11, finished recently. Only 30€ for 6 meters of bulk cable.
Then, it needed a bit of handwork/twisting with heat-shrinks and bananas I already had in stock:

View attachment 39162
View attachment 39164
View attachment 39165
View attachment 39166

The heat-shrink used is 3:1 ratio, with internal adhesive layer, so this won't move once it turns back cold.

I've used the same Canare 4S11 for 10+ years, albeit with a gray jacket and locking bananas.

As you said, for speaker cables, interconnects (balanced or unbalanced), just use what the pros use: Belden, Canare, Mogami, etc.

Phono cables, on the other hand, can be a little pickier due to need to control for pF if you're using MM carts or long runs.

 

[restorer-john]

I put most of my expensive audiophile cables in the recycling dumpster.

It's OK, you can rest easy knowing some dumpster diving, food foraging hipster probably found them and hooked them up to a vintage receiver to play his collection of thrift store vinyls.

 

[timothyo]

Well sadly a lot of my older CDs are coated with crap like 'finyl' and traces of green pens on the edges. In 1990 or so I got audiophooled into these stupid CD treatment products. I was convinced that I could hear a difference until a friend of mine helped me carry out some blind tests. I guess that was the journey out of audiophool purgatory.a

 

[restorer-john]

Well sadly a lot of my older CDs are coated with crap like 'finyl' and traces of green pens on the edges. In 1990 or so I got audiophooled into these stupid CD treatment products. I was convinced that I could hear a difference until a friend of mine helped me carry out some blind tests. I guess that was the journey out of audiophool purgatory.a

Seriously, you should be banned from the forum for admitting that. *kidding*

 

[MattHooper]

Back in the day, actually purchased a Nordost S-Video cable! That was when video was still analog and home theater mags would swoon over the color saturation/contrast of expensive video cables. I was dubious, but after borrowing a Nordost S-Video cable I seemed to see a positive difference in clarity on my plasma TV so I bought it. Then, trying to get to the bottom of it all, I decided to test a bunch of component video cables that I bought and borrowed, from inexpensive, to medium, to expensive, to very expensive (Nordost). I thought I was maybe seeing some differences. But then I did a type of blind test, and realized I was fooling myself. That was the last I thought about expensive video cables.

BTW, it turned out there WAS a visual difference with the original Nordost S-Video cable vs what I'd been watching before, because I was actually comparing S-Video to my previous component cables (for DVDs), and the S-video input had some slight processing difference that added sharpening.

I was never really in to the whole expensive cable thing for audio. Most I ever spent was on Kimber PBJ interconnects in the 90's, which are still doing duty in my audio system. However, as I have known many audiophiles I've been given cast off super high end cables, everything from Nordost, to Audioquest, to various big fire-hose speaker cables. I'd end up using them mostly because I didn't have to pay. I just sold my MBL speakers and remembered that the guy who sold them to me had thrown in some huge, well-regarded audiophile speaker cables in the box. I got an extra 200 bucks for those which was nice. (I think they went for around $1,400 new, but I couldn't bother myself to try to sell them online).

I have some Nordost interconnects sitting around but can't be arsed to swap out any of the kimber cables to use them. Shows how enthusiastic I am about cables, I guess. When I need more cabling, if a friend doesn't have a cast-off, I go with Belden or Canare.