[gregorio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Those who pay more than $200 for a source are more crazy than I am. I'm the sanest audiophile in this forum. It doesn't matter how you spend the money as long as it gives better sound than some other alternative for the same price.

Exactly, I think you are arguing against yourself here!! There is no way that spending $15,000 on a cable is going to give you better sound than spending this money on an alternative: Speakers, room acoustics and amplifier to name but three. Improving any of these (for considerably less than $15,000) will give you way better sound quality (probably by a factor of more than 100) than a possible fractional difference with the interconnect! So, by your own argument you are not doing the right thing.

How are you going to notice a tiny, fractional improvement (if any) in the noise loss from your cable which is probably 10,000 times below the noise floor? If it were just below the noise floor or possibly two times below the noise floor, maybe you might notice it but 10,000 times below the noise floor? Sorry Patrick but there is no way!

"Paying $15 000 for perfect interconnects" - Sounds like you are deluding yourself Patrick, there is no such thing as a perfect interconnect, not for $15,000 or $5,000,000. Unfortunately, such a perfect IC does not exist, just like perfection does not exist anywhere in the signal chain. All you are doing is possibly improving the noise loss by hundredths or thousandths of a dB, nowhere near perfect.

G

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Which is more insane? Paying $15 000 for perfect interconnects or just bypassing those interconnects and soldering the connectors together instead?

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregorio /img/forum/go_quote.gif "Paying $15 000 for perfect interconnects" - Sounds like you are deluding yourself Patrick, there is no such thing as a perfect interconnect, not for $15,000 or $5,000,000.

You are cherry picking what I wrote.

If there were perfect interconnects you wouldn't hear a difference when cutting it shorter. I have heard a huge difference between 7cm, 15cm, 27cm, 44cm Nordost Valkyrja and Valhalla, the shortest had the most bass and low-level detail. Removing the wire completely and only soldering the connectors together gave the best sound, I was surprised how much 7cm of "reference" wiring reduced the sound quality.

If I have speakers with amps built inside I don't have a choice, I need to use interconnects from DAC into the speakers, but I refuse to connect them together with Nordost "reference" wiring because it reduces the audio quality, I need something better, that's why I asked if Tara Labs Zero is good enough. But I think I will go with Genesis XLR instead, as a headphone cable it's amazing, but I haven't tried it for interconnects between DAC and amp yet. I'm worried because the unamplified signal between DAC and amp is more sensitive.

I have tried 22awg vs 16awg for both interconnects and headphone cable. For interconnects the 22awg with single filament dielectric was better than 16awg with Dual Filaments, but for K1000 headphone cable the 16awg was better than 22awg.

Making the headphone cable longer doesn't hurt the sound like it does for interconnects. I went from 1meter Valhalla into 2meter Valhalla and barely heard a difference. Also, replacing 35cm Valkyrja 22awg with 1meter 16awg Valhalla gave an improvement because the cable was better. Doing that with interconnect between DAC and amp would have reduced the sound a lot.

Ok, I have come to a conclusion, Adam A5 won't be good for me, I need speakers which use an external amp instead. Or perhaps I can mutilate Adam and disable the internal amp?

 

[jeffreyj900]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrick82 /img/forum/go_quote.gif Ok, I have come to a conclusion, Adam A5 won't be good for me, I need speakers which use an external amp instead. Or perhaps I can mutilate Adam and disable the internal amp?

Just get different speakers Patrick.

 

[n3rdling]

Why not bypass the power cable and solder the amp directly to your wall socket? Make sure you keep the breakers on for extra "sparkle".

 

[Patrick82]

Quote:

Originally Posted by n3rdling /img/forum/go_quote.gif Why not bypass the power cable and solder the amp directly to your wall socket? Make sure you keep the breakers on for extra "sparkle".

I have compared 5cm Nordost Valhalla vs 9feet Genesis plugged into wall, the Genesis had more low-level detail and bass. It's because of the filtering. Virtual Dynamics power cables are like power conditioners.

 

[sunseeker888]

Yeah, what's with that signature? A bit greedy, IMO...

Personally I can see spending 15k on a killer set of speakers, but i wouldn't spend more than 1k on a cable.

 

[tyrion]

I am sorry I didn't see and close this thread sooner.