What cables do you use in your systems?

[AnLaoJin]

I highly recommend SOMMER Blue Water as your XLR cable

 

[CDMC]

Yep, sure thing.

Doesn't seem like it, regarding the audiophile cable manufacturers you mentioned.

That's probably where you don't get the point. ASR members don't audition 5 cables before buying one. In fact, they don't audition cable at all.
Since this is a science-based forum, we just have to choose ones measuring good enough (literally MANY cables). Then, the cable may be picked based on build quality (and "design"?), flexibility, shielding if needed etc.
As far as I'm concerned, I see no cable better built, nor better measuring, than ones from Canare, Mogami or Belden.

Needless to say, and before we go there: your audition of such products worth nothing since:
- I'm pretty sure your audition was sighted. So you were only listening your expectations of each cables. To validate such listening, tests have to be done blind. And magically, differences disappear... because they didn't exist in the first place.
- There's no way you hear any real difference between, say, two properly designed cables of any kind. If there is any (it may), then that mean one cable is dramatically broken (literally or by design).

Welcome aboard!

That wasn’t fair. I audition cables all the time. I get them, I hook them up, they work, audition done.

 

[CDMC]

You seriously can't take a joke. Ashberger ??

And 24 hours into joining a new forum Rokker79 starts calling someone mentally handicapped. Not a good start.

 

[Racheski]

Would be like auditioning forks to see which one makes the food taste best.

FINALLY, an audio food analogy that makes sense. Well played! (Elbow bump)

 

[CDMC]

I have had the pleasure of speaking to folks who do truly believe that an overtightened speaker binding post suffocates the inherent micro dynamics - apparently he could sense the singer’s voice sounding unnatural and muffled when he committed said blasphemous act!

With such golden ears, naturally the quality of the lifeblood supply (Power cables ) will make a huge difference!

I just found a new market, calibrated speaker post wrenches. Of course I will sell the companion amplifier post wrench. You can’t use the same for the speaker and amp posts or it won’t correctly. I am not sure why, but by the time I start marketing them I will have a made up scientific reason.

 

[Julf]

And music is (still) art IMHO.

Music is art, yes. Reproducing recorded sound (I defy you to even try to define "music" in an objective way) is technology - applied science.

 

[Killingbeans]

It's like saying Hifi engineering is similar to Architecture and buildings.
Sure that there is science to build a Skyscraper
But nobody can define that one is nicer than the other. But there are surely objective reasons to indicate that one building is better than others.

Absolutely. And I like a good looking piece of hi-fi equipment as much as anybody else. But in the case of cables, in a skyscraper they would be analogous to elevator shafts and air conditioning. They either work or they don't, no matter how aesthetically pleasing they are.

The most complicated issue, was to digitalize a perfect sinus wave. Hence put a lot of zeros and ones or little squares to represent a wave.
Squaring a circle you say ?

Like FrantzM says ealier in this thread, those kind of statements comes from people who have little to no technical understanding of digital music reproduction... no offence. It comes from looking at graphical representations of AD/DA conversions and fearing that they equate to the waves that ultimately reaches your ears. They do not.

 

[Killingbeans]

I just found a new market, calibrated speaker post wrenches. Of course I will sell the companion amplifier post wrench. You can’t use the same for the speaker and amp posts or it won’t correctly. I am not sure why, but by the time I start marketing them I will have a made up scientific reason.

I immediately started thinking about building tiny torque wrenches, but I'm waaaay overthinking it. Just buy some cheap wrenches at Home Depot (or whatever), rebrand them with a name that combines at least two superlatives. Then begin to claim that they are made of some exotic metal and add some nonsense about quantum physics. Get rich!

 

[VintageFlanker]

I'm mid way - as engineering and Hifi is Science , no doubt -
It's all about servicing M U S I C ...

And music is (still) art IMHO.

Now, is there any scientific approach to art

@Harmonie, I think you're missing the all point of Audio there.
Already repeated these basics over and over, but to put it oversimplified:

- Hi-Fi is about Audio Reproduction.
- Audio Reproduction ≠ Audio Production
- Audio Production (Music) IS Art. Therefore, it's is subjective. (Anything emotionally related is there, not elsewhere)
- Audio Reproduction ISN'T. It's all about technical engineering and Science. As such, it is objective.
- Audio Reproduction should ideally have one purpose: to be transparent to Music. That's what High Fidelity means.

The one and only purpose of cables is to transmit a signal flawlessly. The end. This purpose cannot be related to Art in any shape of form.

That's pretty much it.

 

[Harmonie]

@VintageFlanker

I agree, all I want is a pleasing sound system that makes me feel I'm there.

 

[Julf]

The most complicated issue, was to digitalize a perfect sinus wave.

Actually no. It is (and was) one of the easiest things to do.

 

[Harmonie]

If really so, then yes, I have to learn more a digital, I agree.

However my point is not to be definite, as if their is only one truth.
IMO it's more complicated than that with lot of interactions and calls for balance.

 

[waynel]

If really so, then yes, I have to learn more a digital, I agree.

However my point is not to be definite, as if their is only one truth.
IMO it's more complicated than that with lot of interactions and calls for balance.

Did someone post Monty yet?

 

[Harmonie]

Thank you for your positive post and see my positive reaction:

It helps a lot and yes I have to catch up.
After all, isn't this website about helping others to understand ?

 

[CDMC]

I immediately started thinking about building tiny torque wrenches, but I'm waaaay overthinking it. Just buy some cheap wrenches at Home Depot (or whatever), rebrand them with a name that combines at least two superlatives. Then begin to claim that they are made of some exotic metal and add some nonsense about quantum physics. Get rich!

Better yet, go to factory in China that makes them, have them change some meaningless part of the design (knurling on the grip) apply for a patent (which will be denied) and market for the next decade as proprietary with patent pending technology.

 

[Julf]

However my point is not to be definite, as if their is only one truth.

Some things are absolute (such as 2 + 2 = 4 and the Shannon-Nyquist sampling theorem that has been formally proven) and not just an opinion.

IMO it's more complicated than that with lot of interactions and calls for balance.

That is a bit like saying "there has to be a balance, we also need to acknowledge that the Earth could be flat" - hmm, yes, but it isn't.

 

[RayDunzl]

I just found a new market, calibrated speaker post wrenches.

I can use either a 1/2" or 13mm on mine, depending on my mood.

You can’t use the same for the speaker and amp posts

That's true.

Have you considered adding a line of Grippy Gloves?

 

[Rokker79]

Ok .my last post in this thread...
When it comes to cables there are measurable differences in their ability to get input signal to output end, and how they shape the signal on the way between sources and receiver AND how that effect the soundwave producing element. This is not my opinion, this is fact with scientific methods from people that I trust way more than anyone at this forum.. this may be or not be a shock to some members here that cables actually make a difference in an audio system and their performance and reproduction abilities .. and you can not only measure capacitance and inductance and claim there's no difference .. no science there...
My only point is, don't piss on people that's trying to get the best out of THEIR sound system with all means available..
And last , I really like comments that add to the discussion with different perspectives.. to the troll lot , please eat the cyanide capsul now, the cometh is coming....

 

[Chrispy]

I suppose chasing a slight difference in LCR might be exciting to some, but can't imagine it as a worthwhile use of time or money. Let alone audible.

 

[waynel]

Ok .my last post in this thread...
When it comes to cables there are measurable differences in their ability to get input signal to output end, and how they shape the signal on the way between sources and receiver AND how that effect the soundwave producing element. This is not my opinion, this is fact with scientific methods from people that I trust way more than anyone at this forum.. this may be or not be a shock to some members here that cables actually make a difference in an audio system and their performance and reproduction abilities .. and you can not only measure capacitance and inductance and claim there's no difference .. no science there...
My only point is, don't piss on people that's trying to get the best out of THEIR sound system with all means available..
And last , I really like comments that add to the discussion with different perspectives.. to the troll lot , please eat the cyanide capsul now, the cometh is coming....

Capacitance , inductance and resistance are sufficient to characterize analog audio cables. State of the art performance is available at $0.50/ft for line level and $1.50/ft for speaker cable, spending any more is a waste and will get you worse measurable performance, not that any of us would hear the difference.