[proglife]

So I have these LAT IC-200 Mark II IC's that Tom Hankins gave me. These are $250/meter interconnects. Recently, I picked up a few pairs of the Stereophile recommended cheapo AR interconnects off of Audiogon at around 15 bucks a piece. I have had no need for new IC's anywhere, but being incredibly bored the other night, I decided to A/B the LAT's and AR's.

I absolutely couldn't tell the difference (even with the un-burned in AR's). Believe me, I tried. It might sound strange, but I sort of wanted to notice the difference. I find some form of comfort in the infinite upgradibility of my stereo, but in the case of IC's (at least between these two) I could not tell the difference at all.

Is this possibly a case of "same cables packaged and labeled differently"? Am I alone in the lonely and value-stricken world of not hearing the difference in interconnects?

 

[JohnnyCougar]

Some equipment is effected more than others when it comes to cable changes. Just be happy that yours isn’t so receptive.

 

[RYCeT]

Proglife, can you pm me the link for that cheapo AR IC, I can't find it on audiogon.

 

[tortie]

Quote:

Originally Posted by proglife Am I alone in the lonely and value-stricken world of not hearing the difference in interconnects?

No your not

I think I can pick up some differences between ICs and these are very subtle to me but I'd most likely fail if you'd subject me to some sort of IC blind test.

 

[proglife]

Here was the auction:

http://cgi.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/auc....68457&item&auc

 

[Bill Ward]

Be happy. You just saved yourself a ton of money, at least in the short term.

And, as JohnnyCougar points out, upgrades in your rig hold the promise of future extravagance.

BW

 

[Jeff E]

Quote:

Originally Posted by proglife Am I alone in the lonely and value-stricken world of not hearing the difference in interconnects?

No.

Notice the "DBT-free" in the title of this forum. DBT stands for double-blind test, a technique where the subject as well as the experimenter is ignorant to the conditions of the study. This sort of rigorous testing condition is deemed necessary when the study's outcome can be subtly influenced by knowledge of the conditions. Interconnects' effects on sound are notoriously controversial. As I understand it, the ban on DBT in this particular forum is intended to reduce the repetitive chatter about whether someone's perception of a cable's sonic effects is real.

You are not alone in your failure to experience differences in IC sound.

 

[proglife]

Ah, I see. Thanks for the heads up!

 

[loveheadphones]

I'd just like to echo that some setups change more than others with different IC's. I've noticed a difference and it was not too subtle.

 

[jmzzz01]

Sounds like a case of "The Emporer's New Clothes".

 

[proglife]

Actually, it sounds like nothing, hence the post

 

[tiberian]

time to do a system upgrade

.

 

[kyrie]

Think on the bright side: at least you're not one of those people who upgrade ICs constantly thinking that they hear differences, though in actuality they don't.

 

[Oliver :)]

Quote:

Originally Posted by proglife I absolutely couldn't tell the difference

As the others said, consider yourself lucky

I consider myself to be still in the sane waters regarding ICs, and I have a theory whereby ICs will only have noticable effect if the rest of the chain is up par. It won't help much to throw killer-ICs into your mediocre setup if you had decent ICs before. I noticed this when I upgraded my speaker amp. The ICs I got with it were about twice the price of my old ICs, which probably were overkill in the old rig. Nevertheless, the difference was minor. I should do another comparison now the new ones had plenty of time to burn in.

Anyway, the better the IC, the less you should notice it being there at all.