Speaker cable listening test last week

[Swerd]

Frank Van Alstine owns a small internet-direct company that makes amplifiers, preamps, and other models of electronic audio gear. His company is Audio by Van Alstine. He has always been a harsh critic of high-priced audio cables. Since 1990 he has refused to recommend or sell interconnects or speaker cables, claiming that they provide no audible improvement. He maintains a standing challenge to cable makers to prove him wrong.

Last week at the Rocky Mountain Audio Fest (RMAF) in Denver, he shared a display room with Salk Signature Sound, where AVA provided amps and pre-amps, and Jim Salk provided speakers. Some representatives of MIT cables approached Frank and Jim to do a little cable listening test. Read about it here.

Although the results were predicatable, I thought this was both informative and funny enough to post about it here.

 

[mike c]

I do admit than when I voted, and I voted last, I said that the differences, if any, were very very small, and that I thought that session two (MIT cables) were slightly better than session one (MIT cables), and that I thought that session two was slightly better than session three (zip wires). I was as random as anyone else there.

LOL

 

[mtrycrafts]

Interesting

I wonder what those 4 from MIT had to say afterwards

 

[Haoleb]

The simple answer is that everyone involved in the test has tin ears

In my early days of audiophiledome i thought cables made a difference, heck thats all i ever heard so why not. I even got a couple real nice sets of interconnects for free and I truly thought i could hear a difference. I actually still do think that my nicest set that has solid silver hot conductor sounds the nicest by a small margin... But now i really dont care anymore about cables. I just buy ones that are good quality and look good with good connectors.

One cable I really want to rewire my entire system with are Liberty Cable Z500 series interconnects. They look pretty sweet although a tad pricey.

 

[mtrycrafts]

The simple answer is that everyone involved in the test has tin ears
.

Maybe those MIT employees with tin ears should look for other employment?