Why pick on cables ? - Page 21  

If a friend wants to listen to music, he picks it and I give him the chair. They usually start talking anyway, so what's the difference? I have never had multiple guests when no one talked through the music. After not too long, everybody does on and off.

I am accomodating and not hard core about anything but my own listening. For me, if the music doesn't rate my full attention, I don't care about it. Phil Hill, the late Ferrari Grand Prix driver, was unusual for an American (but not for a European classical listener back then). When he had company over and put on his classical, everyone had to be totally quiet and listen.
Edited by Clarkmc2 - 9/8/12 at 11:55pm

I have great friends I guess! All they ever say is, "Can I get you another drink?"
Edited by bigshot - 9/8/12 at 11:59pm

My take on it is that with out equalization, proper room dimensions and treatment, even the sweet spot will be a bit wonky... Specially with large full range powerful speakers in small rooms... And no amount of virgin tears treated cables is going to change that.

 

Room limitations are among the reasons I'm into headphones. I don't have a dedicated room that would satisfy the requirements for a proper listening room. Add to that that I have a wife and two little ones, and the problem is compounded 

Edited by ultrabike - 9/9/12 at 1:00am

Aftermarket headphone cables can make a difference (not necessarily better). However, they are all extremely overpriced. I suspect that non of the $300+ aftermarket cables will have a production cost of more than $10. This is similar to the market of fragrances. The nature of the demand side makes it super profitable for the supply side.

If the stock cable is prone to oxidizing, with too week mechanical support, and fragile connectors, aftermarket cables could make a positive difference. I believe the cost of such cable should probably factor cable length, wire gauge and interconnect depending on application. A decent stock 6ft USB cable IMHO should not be more than $10 given standardization and mass production.

 

Things may be different if we factor aesthetics and custom build. Still, $300 seems excessive to me, and it should be clear that one is paying for the customization and aesthetics. From the little I know, if ones objective is better sound quality, money maybe better spent on a decent pair of headphones and well recorded music than on uber-pricey cables.

 

As a point of reference, $330 gets you an entry level iPad mini.

Edited by ultrabike - 12/11/12 at 6:56pm

 

Or a new Beyer 880/600

That too! 

I yanked the plug off my Sennheiser HD590s and a replacement cable from Sennheiser was $8 shipped.

Those are more than likely not cryo treated with holy water, so you will not hear things you never heard before.

 

There's a word for those who suddenly start hear things they have never heard before...

Regarding 'cables' and pricing :

Some of you probably remember the cassette-tape ..

Do you remember how many different brands you could buy in it's glory-days ?

Do you also know how many factories existed that actually manufactured 'the raw material' ?

 

It's the same with 'cables' : The machines used to make the actual wire cost a ton of money .

The few manufacturers will generally sell their wire to anybody who can pay, and allow them to 're-brand' as they please .

(IF it really made such a huge difference : Where are all the patents ??)

 

Anyone who has been in a recording-studio or done Live-jobs has probably noticed the name 'Mogami' ?

If it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me - And it sure as crap don't cost a thousand buck/foot !!

Edited by AKG240mkII - 12/23/12 at 4:54am

My 0.02 cents is that cables mentally make a difference. IF different types of cables were so important then why do the majority of manufacturers of the amps and preamps etc only use normal copper wire of the correct thickness.

If you open most "high end" equipment that cost thousands of dollars and look inside you won't see any of those fancy cables. Yes they don't have to cover the same distance but that also means that by the same token they don't cost as much to implement as the distance is so short so cost is low. For those high priced items if the cables make a sonic difference would they not use them even as a selling point?

If the amps wiring to the connection posts of the amps have to carry such high current and the speaker cables do why are they so thin. From a heat point of view thicker cables would mean less resistance and less heat.

Amp internals 1
Internal 2
internal 3
Internal 4

Cable to speakers
Speaker cables
Edited by Habitat - 1/23/13 at 6:29am

You do understand that wire resistance is measured in ohms per unit length, right?

16ga wire is about 4 ohms per 1000ft. A 3 inch length has a resistance of .001 ohms. That's 1/10 of the contact resistance of a banana plug in a binding post jack, and there are 4 of those plug/jack combinations in each speaker circuit.

Heat is the result of resistance and current. It's dissipated over the length of the wire. The average power delivered to speakers at normal listening levels is hardly ever more than 25 Watts. Assuming a 4 ohm speaker, that's 2.5 amps.

2.5 Amps through a .001 ohm resistor causes it to dissipate 6.25mW of power (spread over 3 inches). There could be up to 10,000 times that figure being dissipated in the power transformer at idle.

Funny you mention it, I recently purchased a current meter to measure electricity usage on my computer at idle/load, and I tested my receiver with it. The receiver puts out 120w per channel into 6ohm, or 75w into 8ohm, 5 channels. Speakers are 6 ohm @ 87db sensitivity, so they are relatively hard to power. Total electricity usage playing 5.1 material at 0db gain (really loud): 40 watts and 3.5 amps for the entire receiver. I can't specify how much was going to each channel, but it must be a fraction of that, minus the power required to run the DSP chips, LCD screen, etc. The amount of power amps really put out is overblown. You'll never see the staggering wattage figures on the box in real life. Ever. That said, I think gauge thickness is the only reason to spend more money on wire and I can understand slight overkill for it. I'd rather buy 16 gauge radio shack wire than 24 gauge of anything else, no matter how many Buddhist monks may have blessed it, or how pretty the braiding is. Gauge is the only rational variable. 

 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
Edited by Strangelove424 - 1/23/13 at 12:07pm

 

 

Indeed!!

 

Unless a product is built by hand in a small workshop it's likely using a small selection of parts as everyone else

 

I suspected the majority of cable companies to be literally scam outfits run by a marketing team/investors since it's very unlikely they could modify the cable machines to spew out the

magical unicorn material properties some claim to have without raising prices significantly.

 

Infact, chances are very high the cable company will claim they did the requested treatments then charge 150% more. Followed by giving them same un-modified cable they usually sell in better packaging.