[pinnahertz]

7.) No, I do not assume. I do give new things a fair chance. And if they are at least equal to whatever they are meant to replace and are less expensive, more reliable and more user friendly , they are wholeheartedly embraced. But after you get mostly negative results with upstarts, you can recognize the pattern. See 2.) above .

It’s your method of evaluation that is in question.

 

[bigshot]

I never quite understood the folks who buy multiple headphones that all share the same signature.

I've never understood why someone would want headphones that sound different. I just find a headphone that is perfect and I stick with it. Recording studios don't have different response curves for different kinds os music. They just have a balanced response. That's what I want my headphones to have. It's OK to add coloration if I feel like it, but it's a lot more effective and precise to do that with an equalizer or DSP than it is to mix and match sloppy manufacturing tolerances in different sets of headphones.

 

[bigshot]

Well, sad - but true; about the time "expired" consumer equipment in question, things generally NOSEDIVED in quality - and starting with the studio equipment. Consumer has been spared by some delay, but has caught up decades ago.

I think you just aren't as familiar with current equipment as you are old stuff. I know all about 70s technology. I've always had a good stereo system. I bought my first Thorens turntable with an Ortofon MC cart when I was fresh out of high school 40 years ago, and I have gone on to incrementally improve over my components over time. The system I have now kicks the stuffing out of any that I've ever owned. It has everything I could hope for, and the electronics are basic off the shelf midrange consumer models. The only thing I think was better in the past was the mid bass thump of old JBL 15 inch cloth surround woofers. That is a very distinctive sound and modern speakers don't match it... mostly because modern speaker designs are way more accurate than older ones. I just like that old bass sound.

I think we're living in a golden age of home media. I would never go back again to the fussiness of LPs and the constant battle to minimize distortion and noise. It's OK if people are fond of that old sound because of nostalgia or because they are used to it. But the whole time I was struggling to put a great sounding system together back in the day, the goal that I had in my head is what I can buy at Amazon today for a few hundred dollars.

 

[Don Hills]

Advice well taken. The only reason I bring up tinning the tips is for older folks like me for whom inserting a half-inch of stranded bare copper into a spring-loaded terminal is becoming more difficult by the day.

I can appreciate that, I have https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_tremor .
Tinning indeed makes sense for spring-loaded terminals, but I am surprised that any speakers with pretensions to high fidelity would have them.
My personal philosophy is that speaker wiring should be done to the same standards as mains wiring in terms of wire gauge and terminations.

 

[TheSonicTruth]

I can appreciate that, I have https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Essential_tremor .
Tinning indeed makes sense for spring-loaded terminals, but I am surprised that any speakers with pretensions to high fidelity would have them.
My personal philosophy is that speaker wiring should be done to the same standards as mains wiring in terms of wire gauge and terminations.

Uhm, NO. It's not a matter of tremors as I get older, more like coordination. I twist the strands as tight as possible, yet still manage to smash half of them outside of the little hole where they could arc into the opposite polarity neighbor. And I'm not trying to jam 10-12AWG in there, just the OEM bookshelf 20gauge for a demo at the store where I work, or 16AWG at home.

So in your second paragraph you're suggesting screw-down terminals across the gamut of consumer, pro-sumer and pro?

Another anecdote: I recall seeing them starting about 25 years ago: terminals on consumer receivers that *look* like spring-loaded, but are just flip-open. You have to close them yourself after inserting the strands. WORST. SPEAKER TERMINAL. DESIGN. EVERRRR! At least spring-loads maintain constant pressure on the connection, good if you have to move something a couple inches.

 

[71 dB]

Do not tin the wire if it's going to be terminated in a screw or clamp. The solder will cold flow over time and the connection will loosen.

There is a very easy fix for that problem: Every now and then check that the screws are tight.

 

[KeithEmo]

I can only recall one recent headphone cable that i found to be audibly inferior.

I had purchased a new pair of HiFiMan planars (several years ago now), and they arrived wired with some sort of "audiophile cable" that appeared to be several strands of solid conductor cable with Teflon insulation braided together.
(It looked like a knockoff of Kimber Kable.)

The wire itself was so stiff that, when you moved, the wire actually clattered together... and, also because it was so stiff, the sound was actually transmitted to the earcups.
As a result, every time you moved, you heard a sound rather like coils of wire rattling against each other in the earcups.
(I ended up removing the connectors and attaching them to a length of Canare StarQuad - at 50 cents a foot - which is nice and flexible, and soft and rubbery, and sounded just fine.)

Your SMPTE 311 cables are far more exotic than any audio cable, in that case the connectors are very expensive and only a few companies can terminate them. The newer 12g SDI cables like Belden 4855R far more exotic then any of these audiophile cables, and nobody is making it in a garage. Even it is three dollars a foot.

 

[bigshot]

I guess microphonics is probably more of a problem with headphone cables than conductivity.

 

[Glmoneydawg]

I had a set of hd560 headphones for years....was pretty happy with them but,rubbing your fingers on the cable was like running a bow over a violin string...purely mechanically induced noise though.Strangely the cable didn't need to be pulled tight for this phenomenon to happen.

 

[pinnahertz]

A friend of mine who used to design and manufacture high-end consumer audio equipment came across a pair of speaker cables he didn't like the sound of...because he left them at home when setting up a demo system at an audio show! He ran out to a hardware store and bought an electric lawnmower extension cord, 3/12ga, and cut it to length. It sounded a whole lot better than no speaker cables at all.

 

[Don Hills]

...

So in your second paragraph you're suggesting screw-down terminals across the gamut of consumer, pro-sumer and pro?

...: terminals on consumer receivers that *look* like spring-loaded, but are just flip-open. ...

No, in my opinion, spring loaded is fine for low to mid fidelity. As I said, on speakers with pretensions to high fidelity I prefer screw terminals. Banana plugs used to be OK so long as you got good ones, there are some bad ones around. Sadly, the safety wowsers have largely nixed them. Pro-sumer and especially pro should have speakons.

The flip-open terminals are spring loaded, at least the broken ones that I've seen the innards of. (I used to clean up thrift shop 3-in-1 systems and give them to nieces and nephews as birthday presents.)

 

[Don Hills]

There is a very easy fix for that problem: Every now and then check that the screws are tight.

Why not avoid the problem altogether and not tin the wires?

 

[TheSonicTruth]

No, in my opinion, spring loaded is fine for low to mid fidelity. As I said, on speakers with pretensions to high fidelity I prefer screw terminals. Banana plugs used to be OK so long as you got good ones, there are some bad ones around. Sadly, the safety wowsers have largely nixed them. Pro-sumer and especially pro should have speakons.

The flip-open terminals are spring loaded, at least the broken ones that I've seen the innards of. (I used to clean up thrift shop 3-in-1 systems and give them to nieces and nephews as birthday presents.)

I broke a Speakon connector in college once, as a media tech part time. I was trying to connect it the speaker, or disconnect, I don't exactly recall, and the next thing you know I had a handful of parts and a little spring! More like it came apart, not actually broke.

Thank heavens for powered speakers! Just run XLR all over and make sure all speakers are on same circuit to avoid loops.

 

[prescient]

Can someone explain why high end speakers don't use something like SpeakOn connectors? I'm not that familiar with them, but looking at them it seems you just plug them in and twist and then they lock? That makes way more sense to me versus spades or banana plugs. What am I missing here?

I'd move to active in my living room if I could get my wife past the look of Genelecs. Their ugliness is a non-starter especially when contrast with the Focals she is used to.

 

[analogsurviver]

Can someone explain why high end speakers don't use something like SpeakOn connectors? I'm not that familiar with them, but looking at them it seems you just plug them in and twist and then they lock? That makes way more sense to me versus spades or banana plugs. What am I missing here?

I'd move to active in my living room if I could get my wife past the look of Genelecs. Their ugliness is a non-starter especially when contrast with the Focals she is used to.

SpeakOn connectors ( which are excellent, BTW ) would be a death sentence to 99+ % of audiophile speaker cable bussiness. They are UTTERLY incompatible with anything found on home oriented gear. I managed to place them on ONE DIY built power amp for a friend, who - reluctantly - gave up whatever speaker cables he has been using before. On the other end - you've guessed it - it was the usual audiophile folklore in connectors. So "bring over to try that super cable" is inherently out of the question - and some would rather die than have the freedom of choice of their own speaker cable (regardless how irrational ) taken away from them.

Only a little less awkward / user unfriendly as LEMO connectors used on some vintage Mark Levinson electronics. Lemo-to-RCA cables ( EVERYTHING audio is nowadays on RCAs ( and XLRs) - save for some vintage European gear sporting DIN and some DIY ultra high end sporting mini DIN ) in itself cost a small fortune - and although LEMO connectors ( as well as quality mini DIN ) do sound better than RCAs, they are sooooooo big PITA the second you want to connect to your "hermetically sealed system for all times" any other normal component withg RCAs.

So, we're stuck with RCAs - like them or hate them, I do not see them replaced anytime soon.

Same with spade, banana and bare wire speaker cable connections - regretfully.