bangraman
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Oct 3, 2002
- Posts
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- 65
When I had a regular amp and I was swapping cables, I was always under the impressions that there were subtle differences in the cable. That is, until I did what I did recently and use the dual-input switching capability of the SRM-007t with the dual 2-channel feature of the Sony SACD players. I chose... you guessed it, Snorah as a test in picking up nuances in the tone.
I recently picked up another pair of the $350-ish Nordost Red Dawn interconnects on discount, and I also have two pairs of the $300-ish Atlas Navigator cables. I used them both as 'controls' to see what difference there was between the 2-channel and the front two-channel outputs, found none to speak of, as well as the differences between input 1 and 2 of the SRM-007t. Thus callibrated, I went on to compare cables I have.
In tests of all the cables I had which did not use sound shaping techniques through additional resistance, I could hear absolutely no difference when doing the A-B switch. There's shock for you. The most dismaying of all was A/Bing between the $300 Atlas Navigator cable, generally regarded as an excellent cable (and which I concurred with until now) and the $5? inclusive cable which came with some piece of equipment.
The result? Zero difference
I was quite horrified and not entirely willing to believe it. But I can't really fault my method of testing. The input switch on the Stax amp is instantaneous and it by far provides the best auditioning platform I've come across. In fact, I actively invite you to pick faults with my testing method because I can't quite believe it myself. I ran out of time comparing, but the Navigator vs Freebie was easily the most shocking test. I will have to run a deeper comparison later but you cannot imagine how depressed I am at the moment. I easily have $2,500 invested in interconnects and... well, this is bad news.
I really don't know what to think anymore. Sound through cables can be controlled through resistance and capacitance. However most IC's out there do the job of moving electricity from A to B without mucking about a lot with it. And it seems that the only advantage of more expensive cables seems to be guaranteed standards of construction.
I recently picked up another pair of the $350-ish Nordost Red Dawn interconnects on discount, and I also have two pairs of the $300-ish Atlas Navigator cables. I used them both as 'controls' to see what difference there was between the 2-channel and the front two-channel outputs, found none to speak of, as well as the differences between input 1 and 2 of the SRM-007t. Thus callibrated, I went on to compare cables I have.
In tests of all the cables I had which did not use sound shaping techniques through additional resistance, I could hear absolutely no difference when doing the A-B switch. There's shock for you. The most dismaying of all was A/Bing between the $300 Atlas Navigator cable, generally regarded as an excellent cable (and which I concurred with until now) and the $5? inclusive cable which came with some piece of equipment.
The result? Zero difference
I was quite horrified and not entirely willing to believe it. But I can't really fault my method of testing. The input switch on the Stax amp is instantaneous and it by far provides the best auditioning platform I've come across. In fact, I actively invite you to pick faults with my testing method because I can't quite believe it myself. I ran out of time comparing, but the Navigator vs Freebie was easily the most shocking test. I will have to run a deeper comparison later but you cannot imagine how depressed I am at the moment. I easily have $2,500 invested in interconnects and... well, this is bad news.
I really don't know what to think anymore. Sound through cables can be controlled through resistance and capacitance. However most IC's out there do the job of moving electricity from A to B without mucking about a lot with it. And it seems that the only advantage of more expensive cables seems to be guaranteed standards of construction.