Audiophile Cable Synergy: Real or Snake Oil?

Is Cable Synergy Real?

  • Yes. Cables make or break the sound of a system.

    Votes: 4 7.3%
  • No. Cable Synergy is snake oil.

    Votes: 51 92.7%
  • I go wireless, no cables.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    55
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Seems we're at odds within the thread as to silly cable as proprosed....but sees no reason to think there's ay advantage with the stupid idea of synergy at least.
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
Cracks me up everytime I think of audiophools and synergy with cables....the lost boys somewhat.

ps And for current poster/fan bois @OHMisback is leading the way....LOL
 
Replicant 7

Replicant 7

Audioholic Samurai
Again, profanity. Why do you need to use expletives? Do you curse people out for spending more than $500 to $2K on amps too?
Those "synergy" cables are BS! The person paying those prices for lol, synergy cable's are paying a higher price for lack of understanding. I'm calling the cable's BS synergy marketing. "Synergy", that's the stuff Star Trek tv series is made of. In the end it's a personal choice when choosing audio gear, their money, people give money away all the time.
 
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Replicant 7

Replicant 7

Audioholic Samurai
I guess when you lack any facts, intelligence, or experience about cables potty (poopy) mouth is all that comes out.
Prove with test and post up the results, findings that those BS synergy cables are worth the money.
Examples of the word synergy used in:
Screenshot_20220731-200504~2.png
 
B

Beave

Audioholic Chief
2015: witchdoctor makes a bunch of stupid posts about cables.
2016-2021: witchdoctor is not active on Audioholics.
2022: witchdoctor returns and makes a bunch of stupid posts about cables.
 
Verdinut

Verdinut

Audioholic Spartan
Again, profanity. Why do you need to use expletives? Do you curse people out for spending more than $500 to $2K on amps too?
Amps are not cables! It's no use continuing discussions with you. Why don't you go to another audio website to propagate your senseless information and stupid arguments?
 
lovinthehd

lovinthehd

Audioholic Jedi
I guess when you lack any facts, intelligence, or experience about cables potty (poopy) mouth is all that comes out.
Which is your particular position in all this? You obviously have little actual knowledge of such....
 
O

OHMisback

Audioholic
What is strange is a guy like Danny at GR had the same view about CABLES. He knew good cable equaled no induced issues.
He wasn't building in a problem to the product, by not doing the final test, "LISTENING". He was so use to measuring everything
and relying on what he knew to be true. Then and only then did he realize being hardheaded about speakers would equal to the
same silly nonsense about cables. "HE LISTEN" with the equipment he used. I'm not saying expensive cables don't do something
for peoples egos. Not mine. Very good cables doesn't have to cost much more than zip cord.

His playback system is pretty impressive. I think he uses Dodd amps and some pretty sensitive planars arrays. He found out though.
A certain type of Power cable with some equipment works very well together. I think he was at a show and used a loaner PC or something.

Some equipment sounds like a blanket is thrown over the speaker.
Aluminum stranded cable with copper clad and PVC will do it. There is a company that was making a weave cable that actually caused problems
with some amps. They were power cable. They seemed to think pretty was equal to quality and bigger is better. IT'S NOT.
Some cable is not made to be bent or woven. It's made to be flexible for placement, not constant movement.

Cary valve gear is VERY sensitive to crappy PC or any IC for that matter. Mac, Pass, First Watt, not so much.
I didn't make the stuff, I just use it. I quit limiting the SQ of my systems by not being so hardheaded 30 years ago.
Quality cables and terminal ends along with good cable routing pays huge dividends. Cost = ZERO, just time to routing correctly. All of the little
things add up to synergistic approach. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts".
I never believed in buying from one manufacture, especially cable looms. 5-50k for looms. How about 3-500.00 and a good pizza? :)
 
witchdoctor

witchdoctor

Full Audioholic
What is strange is a guy like Danny at GR had the same view about CABLES. He knew good cable equaled no induced issues.
He wasn't building in a problem to the product, by not doing the final test, "LISTENING". He was so use to measuring everything
and relying on what he knew to be true. Then and only then did he realize being hardheaded about speakers would equal to the
same silly nonsense about cables. "HE LISTEN" with the equipment he used. I'm not saying expensive cables don't do something
for peoples egos. Not mine. Very good cables doesn't have to cost much more than zip cord.

His playback system is pretty impressive. I think he uses Dodd amps and some pretty sensitive planars arrays. He found out though.
A certain type of Power cable with some equipment works very well together. I think he was at a show and used a loaner PC or something.

Some equipment sounds like a blanket is thrown over the speaker.
Aluminum stranded cable with copper clad and PVC will do it. There is a company that was making a weave cable that actually caused problems
with some amps. They were power cable. They seemed to think pretty was equal to quality and bigger is better. IT'S NOT.
Some cable is not made to be bent or woven. It's made to be flexible for placement, not constant movement.

Cary valve gear is VERY sensitive to crappy PC or any IC for that matter. Mac, Pass, First Watt, not so much.
I didn't make the stuff, I just use it. I quit limiting the SQ of my systems by not being so hardheaded 30 years ago.
Quality cables and terminal ends along with good cable routing pays huge dividends. Cost = ZERO, just time to routing correctly. All of the little
things add up to synergistic approach. "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts".
I never believed in buying from one manufacture, especially cable looms. 5-50k for looms. How about 3-500.00 and a good pizza? :)
You know how a $300 DAC from today can sound better than a $3000 DAC from twenty years ago, maybe even five years ago? Things have progressed in cables and power conditioning too. My $1000 power conditioner from 2001 finally bit the dust after a lightning storm when it saved my equipment from a power surge. I got a new conditioner from Black Lion audio with the same number of outlets, but improved features and improved SQ for only $399. The members here that think cables are "expensive" might have a processor that costs more than $10K which would sound good even if you connected it with tin cans and a string. What I appreciate is how a better quality cable has allowed me to squeeze every last bit of performance from my current gear. Of course synergy is important, you need to integrate the power, the gear, the cabling, and the room.
 
witchdoctor

witchdoctor

Full Audioholic
As for Danny at GR-Research he has a lot of great videos about cables and speakers too. Here is a video from The Vinyl Attack when he went to Danny's with an open mind and that is exactly the point he makes to his channel, keep an open mind and the "key" is testing in your own system. At 4:45 in the video he aptly describes the behavior of the potty mouth crowd in this thread, it is so true:
 
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Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
As for Danny at GR-Research he has a lot of great videos about cables and speakers too. Here is a video from The Vinyl Attack when he went to Danny's with an open mind and that is exactly the point he makes to his channel, keep an open mind and the "key" is testing in your own system:
After @Beave wrote his post I checked it out and you for sure you have a cable fetish.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
Well many or most antennas are made out of wire!
So can AC power cords, interconnect cables or speaker cables act as interference antennas?
Yes occasionally they can, but several things have to go wrong:
a] interference has to be present.
b] the cable/cord has to be a length had have a placement to act as an antenna.
c] the connected circuit has to be susceptible to that interference.
An antenna is part of a circuit that's tuned to accept specific frequencies with relatively weak signal, whereas an amplifier isn't designed to accept any RF at the input OR output. Most interference is accepted in some input or intermediate part of the device, often because of a faulty component or poor connections.
 
highfigh

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
J

Telling some unsuspecting audio consumer that just spent $30K on a pair of speakers to use $3 lamp cord to connect them to his $12K amp and $7K preamp is even more egregious. In fact you could shine the light of value on every component and vendor and there will always be a few that use shady tactics some where, why limit it to cables?
You ought to discuss this with an electrical engineer with experience in communications equipment design. The ones I have spoken with all looked at me like I had three heads when I mentioned 'special' cables. FWIW, a few of them have worked for companies like Honeywell & Raytheon in circuit design, testing and implementation for RADAR, missile guidance systems and nuclear hardening. I think they know a bit more about RFI/EMI than some schmuck who sells cables because they want to make a buttload of money by fooling people into believing their fairytale.
 
Trell

Trell

Audioholic Spartan
2015: witchdoctor makes a bunch of stupid posts about cables.
2016-2021: witchdoctor is not active on Audioholics.
2022: witchdoctor returns and makes a bunch of stupid posts about cables.
Thanks for reminder way before I was a member! Here is a @witchdoctor post, along with the proper smack-down in the thread.

>>>
I would upgrade either your powerstrip to one of the ones made from Mapleshade or replace the wall outlet using the Mapleshade one. Here is a review:
http://www.enjoythemusic.com/magazine/equipment/0502/clearview.htm

Power feeds all of your gear so when you got the equipment right I would start from the power source and work back to the gear. Outlet, power conditioner, power cords. After that I find the digital cable makes a HUGE difference between your source and your AVR.
<<<

 
O

OHMisback

Audioholic
What I appreciate is how a better quality cable has allowed me to squeeze every last bit of performance from my current gear. Of course synergy is important, you need to integrate the power, the gear, the cabling, and the room.
Cabling, fine tuning the last part of the room acoustics, getting that plant in the right place, moving the bear skin rug to the perfect spot, are all last touches
on a long project usually. Some people get it perfect right out of the gate, I guess. Bully for them. I'm usually not that lucky.

I don't use processors from 280hz up to modify anything. I do use a bass management system. It has all kinds of stuff if you use it.

I treat most of the room issues mechanically first and polish the sound to my ears with a PEQ in the bass region via DCX2494s.

Once I found cables that worked well for my setup, I stuck with it. Tweaks don't come in the form of cables. They are not a tone control, but it's
strange to me some speaker manufactures cater to network cables and visa versa. 200.00 USD is pushing great cabling for a 3 meter speaker
cable with terminal ends. I use simple weaves and ribbons with very good terminal ends. I pressure weld if I can, use screws if I have to,
and solder only as a last resort. :)

I'm with you. A few people sure are quick to call others names. I was pretty much called a "Witch" and burned alive by the zip cord cable lovers.
You have an Ignore Button. When people learn manners and to be polite, turn the Ignore OFF. Pretty simple. They start with the name calling. IGNORE.
It's up to you to accept THEIR gifts or return them to their rightful heirs. You think you were at AG or something.

My Granny was pretty clear about manners. "Manners pay, they don't cost." RIP 1889-1988. 99 years 7 months.

BTW Batteries not included.

Regards
 
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