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This audio cable business is getting out of hand...

JJB70

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I always remember the wise and learned words of a bosun when informing me, as second engineer of the container ship we both happened to be sailing on, of a damaged winch requiring attention - the f*****g f*****er's f*****g f*****ed. It was an inspiration, and gave me comfort that expressive verbal poetry was still alive and well in the country that gave the world Shakespeare
 

dc655321

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I always remember the wise and learned words of a bosun when informing me, as second engineer of the container ship we both happened to be sailing on, of a damaged winch requiring attention - the f*****g f*****er's f*****g f*****ed. It was an inspiration, and gave me comfort that expressive verbal poetry was still alive and well in the country that gave the world Shakespeare

Alliteration is a sign of a sharp mind... :)
 

M00ndancer

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And then come to the realization/understanding that there exists an entire psycho-electrical world/reality 'we (science) poorly understands -yet will slowly unravel.
I think you have miss-spelled psycho-electrical, it spells psycho-acoustics. I.E. your brain fools you. To bad that your rant doesn't change the laws of physics. That would be needed to have the effect that you claim.
 

BDWoody

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My first experience with high end cables was around 1984 or so. I own a bunch transparent audio cables including speaker, RCA and balanced. I also own some monster cables.

The part you really want to know is that I go to some audio shows with my company badge and dealer status. I talk to all high end companies behind customer backs. You know, how great the margins are in high end cables. And how the color and style of jacket and heat shrinking gets the customer to part with his money.

Funny but sad story. Went to an audio/video distributor meeting where they pitched that we should source our displays from them. I asked if they could beat big box store prices. He said no! And that our cost would be 10% higher than their retail price!!! I asked how that made business sense. He said we could make that up by selling extended warranty and cables!!!

Ever try to walk out of an AV store without them pounding to buy cables? Now you know why.

So treat me as an industry insider in whatever you post.
And then there are those who NEVER learn -as a lifetime evaporates, there remain those none-the-wiser. Pity, indeed.

pj
(P.S. And how many years have you under that bulging belt? )


Ahhh...the smugness of the determined ignorant.
What a waste of space and time.
 

Swtoby

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Years ago, before I was awakened from my slumber of irrationality, I bought one of Sommovigo's digital cables, an Illuminati (distributed by Kimber, which I would now recognize as a clue). At the time, It was considered about the best digital cable by Stereophile, who also did much to indoctrinate me in many false ideologies. IIRC, it cost $275 new, but I just had to have it.

Even then, I realized, once I actually plugged the damned thing in, that there was far less there than I had been told. It sure didn't make a difference to the sound. Around this time, I received a lecture on the "genius" that is Sommovigo by someone who knew him. I was told that Sommovigo's "personal" digital cable was 25 feet long, even though the distance between the source and the DAC was about two feet. That was about the time that I began to awaken from my slumber and rejoin the actual physical world.

Do I think Sommovigo is a knowing fraud? Probably not. But I do think he knows nothing about how cables work and convinces himself he can hear a big difference every time he creates a new cable.

Sound familiar?
I had a very similar experience. I bought that Kimber cable too based on Sterophile's recommended components list. It was when I stopped being neurotic about my system and loosing myself to music, as I had done more regularly on that first "mid-fi" system, that doubts about these claims of transformed sound started. This music sounds the same to me, I said to myself. Despite the Shakti stone or the fancy Z-Stabilizer power conditioner or that Kimber cable. I kept enjoying my favorite music as I always had. No new details seemed to emerge despite these changes. What gives? A bit later, after some reading, I had to admit to myself I'd been had. Now l'll conclude it might be a higher capacitance cable or higher output impedence that makes one amp sound "warmer" than another.
 

M00ndancer

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And I'm all out of popcorn....
 

majingotan

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Cable burn in, oh the pity of it :facepalm:

At least the fancy pure silver litz IEM cable that I use for jewelry purposes never mentioned burn-in nor cryogenic treatment bullschiit in the box nor on the manufacturer's website. They look so dang pretty in that clear jacket without any shielding nor strand insulation BTW

48369474732_f89d2be2db_b_d.jpg
 

VintageFlanker

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Found a gem!

To my ears copper is the warmest sounding. Rhodium I find is way, way to bright. If your system is refined enough silver is somewhere in the middle, but can be to bright as well. If you have any weak links, ie. bright sounding equipment, then silver will allow this to become plainly obvious. I do know of one very knowledgeable audiophile who switches back and forth between copper and silver just for fun. He always sands off any gold plating that may be on his copper connectors. He swears that gold plating ruins the sound, compared to just bare copper.

https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=627775#p627775

If the guy is a very knowledgeable audiophile, I guess he's right, no?

Funniest part here is how the guy is unconsciously influenced by the color of the metal. The warmer (red/gold copper) produce the warmer sound and the coldest (white silver/rhodium) has to have a bright reproduction.

That is so irrational...

PS: Oh, I forgot to mention: the thread here is about connectors only, not even cables...
 

majingotan

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Found a gem!



https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=627775#p627775

If the guy is a very knowledgeable audiophile, I guess he's right, no?

Funniest part here is how the guy is unconsciously influenced by the color of the metal. The warmer (red/gold copper) produce the warmer sound and the coldest (white silver/rhodium) has to have a bright reproduction.

That is so irrational...

PS: Oh, I forgot to mention: the thread here is about connectors only, not even cables...

He's not that knowledgeable because he didn't know that silver sounds "faster or less congested" while copper sounds "slower or more congested" ;)
 

nemesisrobot

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Why isn't manufacturers putting pure silver cables inside their amps and DACs a more common thing? I know at least Sony talks about Kimber Kables being used in their WM1Z DAP (https://www.sony.com/electronics/walkman/nw-wm1z). Surely some "high end" DAC manufacturers could charge even more if they said they said they had pure silver cables connecting their RCA/XLR outs to the PCB.

Also speaking of PCBs I can't wait until some manufacturer starts talking about having pure silver traces on their PCBs instead of copper.
 

jsrtheta

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Why isn't manufacturers putting pure silver cables inside their amps and DACs a more common thing? I know at least Sony talks about Kimber Kables being used in their WM1Z DAP (https://www.sony.com/electronics/walkman/nw-wm1z). Surely some "high end" DAC manufacturers could charge even more if they said they said they had pure silver cables connecting their RCA/XLR outs to the PCB.

Also speaking of PCBs I can't wait until some manufacturer starts talking about having pure silver traces on their PCBs instead of copper.

Maybe they're afraid buyers will take the top off to check.
 

Hugo9000

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Found a gem!



https://www.canuckaudiomart.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=627775#p627775

If the guy is a very knowledgeable audiophile, I guess he's right, no?

Funniest part here is how the guy is unconsciously influenced by the color of the metal. The warmer (red/gold copper) produce the warmer sound and the coldest (white silver/rhodium) has to have a bright reproduction.

That is so irrational...

PS: Oh, I forgot to mention: the thread here is about connectors only, not even cables...
Don't be silly, the color and value relationships are merely further evidence that we live in an ordered universe!

The reason copper is 'warmer' than silver is because it is less conductive, thus slower, so all the musical tones pile up, so to speak. Silver, being faster, has that 'bright' and 'sharp' leading edge, with all the musical tones in their correct order and place, allowing proper presentation of the attack and brilliance found in live acoustic music. Also, please note that stars in the sky appear 'silvery,' and don't forget about the 'Music of the Spheres.' Again, it's about the Natural Order of the Universe/Creation.


(In case it isn't obvious: /s haha!)
 

ahofer

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Hugo9000

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Chaotic indeed.

You'd think people would be relieved to have a lot of these claims debunked. How depressing otherwise, to have to rely on random luck in hitting the audio system synergy lottery. And no hope of being guided toward it by a guru, as there will always be so many other random things to interfere, like the person three doors down running the wrong appliances and ruining your electricity. But there's little logic to this kind of thinking, or following these concepts to their conclusion. Other than the acknowledgment by some of going "down the rabbit hole," which is an admission of the chaotic mess of these beliefs.

Even if I were a "pure subjectivist" audiophile, I'd avoid that horrible and never-ending thread at Audiophile Style (the ten-million-post one where no dissent is allowed, nor common sense objection to even the most ridiculous of ideas--I refuse to link it here haha!), because there is no way it can lead to anything other than unhappiness and the draining of a bank account/running up of credit cards, and no time to actually enjoy one's music. If you haven't been on that site and have no idea what thread I'm talking about, I'll summarize it: "Everything can and does negatively affect music playback, there is no such thing as settled science in audio, so let's all ramble on and on about whatever our latest sad tweak attempt is, even though it's doomed to failure, as not one of us in this thread has come to a satisfactory solution, we're still spending and spending; oh, by the way, feel free to shill the latest crap in the knowledge that you are protected from all common sense objections to your ridiculous power supply or USB cable or twenty devices placed between the digital source and your preamplifier." Yes, I chose to use a ridiculously rambling run-on sentence as a TL;DR for that thread on purpose. haha!

If they called it a mental-masturbation thread, or called it a support group session, that would be different, and I'd be sympathetic. It must be awful to never have peace of mind about music playback, no matter how much time and money one has invested.
 

Eirikur

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I am often called to help with technical problems, and of course many times they "magically" disappear before I even touch the machine - this I routinely attribute to my strong morphogenetic field.

There was a brilliant Dutch TV interview/documentary many years ago ("Een Schitterend Ongeluk" - "A beautiful accident") featuring Oliver Sacks, Stephan Jay Gould, Stephen Toulmin, Daniel C. Dennett, Rupert Sheldrake en Freeman Dyson that made me first aware of my cosmic capabilities.
Let's face it: if you've got the tools you might as well use them!
 
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BDWoody

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