Audioquest Cables

[Irvrobinson]

Well its not only in audio things, I used to work in sports retail when I was studying and some of sport equipment and clothing also have 400% markup.

Actually, businesses prefer if we discuss their gross margins as a percentage of the retail price, like 80% gross margin for those cables. It makes taking advantage of naive people sound less onerous.

 

[Mikado463]

You should get good cabled under 50$ and there is no reason to pay more for cables, unless you want something that looks better, but sound wise they will be the same.

actually cables can 'sound' different. Buy altering their properties (capacitance, resistance and inductance) can make an audible difference. Now I'm not saying one needs to spend stupid $$ on 'wire' , rather as other have said proper shielding along with a solid electro-mechanical connection are important considerations.

As for crazy priced wire, take a look @ MIT top of the line speaker cables ........ around 75-80k a pair !

 

[Verdinut]

Cables can sound different? Pure nonsense!

Also, for lengths of less than 50 feet, capacitance does not affect frequencies situated in the audio range, unless you're using one of those esoteric expensive cables which have an added high capacitance to reduce their impedance.

 

[William Lemmerhirt]

If your cables alter the sound you should throw them away, or get a refund. If you want to change the sound get an EQ. Anybody remember genes hanger "speaker wire" test?

 

[Mikado463]

Cables can sound different? Pure nonsense!

Also, capacitance does not affect frequencies situated in the audio range. Period!

hey nut, your nuts ! seriously though I've sat through the MIT demos where they can make cables sound different, so you're wrong. As for your capacitance comment, your wrong again, for in speaker cables when used in conjunction with electrostatic speakers they can have an adverse effect on one amplifier which in turn can have an adverse effect on ones speaker / amplifier interaction........ understood ??

 

[Verdinut]

Smart alec, It's not a cable that will have an adverse effect on an amplifier. It's the speaker!

 

[lovinthehd]

hey nut, your nuts ! seriously though I've sat through the MIT demos where they can make cables sound different, so you're wrong. As for your capacitance comment, your wrong again, for in speaker cables when used in conjunction with electrostatic speakers they can have an adverse effect on one amplifier which in turn can have an adverse effect on ones speaker / amplifier interaction........ understood ??

Mikado has drunk deeply of the kool-aid!

 

[tyhjaarpa]

hey nut, your nuts ! seriously though I've sat through the MIT demos where they can make cables sound different, so you're wrong. As for your capacitance comment, your wrong again, for in speaker cables when used in conjunction with electrostatic speakers they can have an adverse effect on one amplifier which in turn can have an adverse effect on ones speaker / amplifier interaction........ understood ??

You answered to that yourself. "They can make cables sound different" indeed is the trick. Cables do not have sound and they should not alter sound anyway. What they do in those demos to make them sound different is different story.

Was the volume same? Was all other components same in chain? Was the source same? Did they use same content? Was all settings same?

There are some known cases where audio shows have used different volume and different content to trick people to believe they are hearing improvement. You cant compare them if anything else in chain changes.

 

[rojo]

There are some known cases where audio shows have used different volume and different content to trick people to believe they are hearing improvement. You cant compare them if anything else in chain changes.

*cough* Nordost at Axpona *cough* (part 1 / part 2 / attack lawyers silence the story / mirrored for posterity)

 

[Speedskater]

Cables can sound different? Pure nonsense!
................................................

Mostly true! But there are rare situations when there can be differences. Most of these differences can be traced to noise, interference, ringing or oscillation. A few low impedance loudspeakers may have L or R cable differences.

 

[Mikado463]

Smart alec, It's not a cable that will have an adverse effect on an amplifier. It's the speaker!

agreed ..... to a point, while the high capacitance of an electrostatic speaker can indeed unsettle certain amplifiers it can be further exacerbated with cabling of high capacitance.

as for the kool aid, haven't had since a kid. LOL !

 

[jinjuku]

hey nut, your nuts ! seriously though I've sat through the MIT demos where they can make cables sound different, so you're wrong. As for your capacitance comment, your wrong again, for in speaker cables when used in conjunction with electrostatic speakers they can have an adverse effect on one amplifier which in turn can have an adverse effect on ones speaker / amplifier interaction........ understood ??

Critical thinking has truly went out the window. Any 'cable' with a magic box of components in the middle of it is no longer a cable.

If sound changed due to this (just like a cross over) I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[Mikado463]

Critical thinking has truly went out the window. Any 'cable' with a magic box of components in the middle of it is no longer a cable.

If sound changed due to this (just like a cross over) I wouldn't be surprised.

you bet and that is what I was trying to point out but some of the inmates here were delusional in their thinking that I was on that bandwagon, which I am not !

 

[Irvrobinson]

agreed ..... to a point, while the high capacitance of an electrostatic speaker can indeed unsettle certain amplifiers it can be further exacerbated with cabling of high capacitance.

You're making more out of this aspect of the phase angle of an electrostatic speaker's impedance than is usually observed. Worst typical case it's a couple of microfarads, and I've heard Martin Logans powered by relatively inexpensive AVRs connected with common zip cord with no problem. I've also recently auditioned (and considered buying) the ML Renaissance 15A, and the dealer said he hasn't encountered an amp that has problems driving it. Modern high quality solid state amps simply do not have problems with loads like this.

I suspect that you've read the Stereophile measurements of the Sound-Lab A-1 speaker, which due to its size is a larger-value capacitor, and John Atkinson did call it "amplifier hell", but that's a speaker that's currently in the $35K-45K per pair price range, so it's not typical of anything. Furthermore, that cable-happy physicist reviewer Richard Olsher was using an OTL tube amp to drive them, which IMO is just plain dumb.

If you stick to speakers up to the 99th percentile case (the Sound-Labs are substantially beyond that), well-designed speaker cables are irrelevant to a system's sound. Yes, if you try you can find weird cases of weak amplifiers, highly unusual speakers, or cables purposely designed to be odd, but outliers like that don't support your case, they just show how silly it is.

 

[Mikado463]

true Irv, modern Logan Hybrids are a much more begin beast but the older CLS's, try driving one of those with your 'nickel ninety eight' receiver ........

 

[Irvrobinson]

true Irv, modern Logan Hybrids are a much more begin beast but the older CLS's, try driving one of those with your 'nickel ninety eight' receiver ........

You just can't let it go, can you?

 

[Mikado463]

let what go Irv ?? ...........

 

[Verdinut]

Mostly true! But there are rare situations when there can be differences. Most of these differences can be traced to noise, interference, ringing or oscillation. A few low impedance loudspeakers may have L or R cable differences.

Noise and interference can be picked up by interconnects but not in the amplifier to speaker cable.
However, I agree that ringing or oscillation might originate in an unstable amplifier connected to a high capacitance cable.

 

[Mikado463]

to the Op, sorry if I've derailed your thread, not my intent. I AM in the camp that most of this cable talk is snake oil and thus my reference to the ridiculously priced MIT cable I mentioned. Wether you or anyone believes they can hear a difference in cables is not worth arguing about. But if you feel incline to demo you can reach out to the Cable Company ........

https://www.thecableco.com/default.aspx

I believe they still have their demo program intact.

 

[lovinthehd]

to the Op, sorry if I've derailed your thread, not my intent. I AM in the camp that most of this cable talk is snake oil and thus my reference to the ridiculously priced MIT cable I mentioned. Wether you or anyone believes they can hear a difference in cables is not worth arguing about. But if you feel incline to demo you can reach out to the Cable Company ........

https://www.thecableco.com/default.aspx

I believe they still have their demo program intact.

Just watch out for this scummy site's nonrefundable loan fee of 5% plus shipping for the privelege of having experienced snake oil in your very own home. https://www.thecableco.com/content.aspx?iid=5777