Meeting a High Priest of the world of hi-fi BS.

[PapaZita]

But you still want your power cables to be able to be nicely coiled when not in use.

Indeed. I remain in dispute with our lawn mower over its cable’s reluctance to coil neatly. I should threaten it with being recycled into nice orange speaker cable.

 

[DCBassman]

Any Hi Fi buffs ever had a hearing test I wonder? If the receive end is cr&p the send end doesn't matter. Unless some clever kit can somehow compensate at the send end.

This. Anyone past 30 is already biologically unable to hear most of the claimed benefits if "hi-fi", let alone be able to discriminate between different bits of wire...

 

[Globalti]

My cycling buddy has a big expensive hi-fi system, which he likes to play very loud. One day he and I sat down and listened to three identical recordings on CD and vinyl and we did agree that we had no preference but the vinyl did sound somehow less harsh than the CDs.

 

[Profpointy]

My cycling buddy has a big expensive hi-fi system, which he likes to play very loud. One day he and I sat down and listened to three identical recordings on CD and vinyl and we did agree that we had no preference but the vinyl did sound somehow less harsh than the CDs.

Back in the olden days when CD players had just come out, I listened to a Linn turntable vs a CD player and the turntable was miles in every respect other than surface noise. CDs have improved a lot since then and are now much cheaper too, so it's not "digital bad / analogue good" or anything, but just that CD wasn't, and still isn't magic, and like most things was very much overhyped back then. People then impressed by CD were generally comparing a £30 turntable with a £300 CD player. Comparing similarly priced items, the vinyl would win. Now of course, you'd be comparing a £30 CD player with a £500 or £1000 record player and the differences would be much less

 

[swee'pea99]

This. Anyone past 30 is already biologically unable to hear most of the claimed benefits if "hi-fi", let alone be able to discriminate between different bits of wire...

Hmmm. I'm as dubious about hi-fi esoterica as the next fellow, but even at knocking on twice your 30 limit, I can most certainly tell the difference between a good system and a mediocre one. And the benefits are considerable - for me at least.

 

[dodgy]

I bid for and won a pretty exotic valve amplifier on Ebay ten years ago. I phoned the company that made it and asked if they would recommend a loudspeaker cable....

"Well, blind tests have shown that house wiring 2.5 TWE cable does as well at £100 a metre exotics. It's all a bit psychosomatic really."
Refreshing!

You have a good memory

 

[raleighnut]

This. Anyone past 30 is already biologically unable to hear most of the claimed benefits if "hi-fi", let alone be able to discriminate between different bits of wire...

There is a point of 'diminishing returns' with cabling, just about anyone can tell the difference between thin wire with no shielding and crap plugs (as given away free with some components) and a decently made cable with good plugs but those aren't that expensive. Whether anyone can tell the difference between a decent cable costing maybe £20 and these 'esoteric' cables costing hundreds is debateable, likewise the difference between 'bell wire' used as speaker cable and a decent speaker cable of 2-2.5mm is very noticeable but to then spend thousands on a wire and say it sounds better is again open to question.

BTW for my choice of speaker cable I use '79 strand' wire that's about 2mm and cost 79p per metre so the 4 speaker leads of 5m each in my 'bi-amped' set up cost just over £15. Mind you they're probably about a foot shorter now cos every couple of years I cut off the oxidised ends and bare a bit of fresh wire to make clean connections and unplug and plug back in all the interconnects again to provide better contact.

 

[Grant Fondo]

Been using this stuff for a few years now, because it looks nice No idea if it sounds better than cheapo or pricier? QED silver anniversary

 

[DCBassman]

There is a point of 'diminishing returns' with cabling, just about anyone can tell the difference between thin wire with no shielding and crap plugs (as given away free with some components) and a decently made cable with good plugs but those aren't that expensive. Whether anyone can tell the difference between a decent cable costing maybe £20 and these 'esoteric' cables costing hundreds is debateable, likewise the difference between 'bell wire' used as speaker cable and a decent speaker cable of 2-2.5mm is very noticeable but to then spend thousands on a wire and say it sounds better is again open to question.

BTW for my choice of speaker cable I use '79 strand' wire that's about 2mm and cost 79p per metre so the 4 speaker leads of 5m each in my 'bi-amped' set up cost just over £15. Mind you they're probably about a foot shorter now cos every couple of years I cut off the oxidised ends and bare a bit of fresh wire to make clean connections and unplug and plug back in all the interconnects again to provide better contact.

Indeed, really cheap and nasty is audible, but, for example, the oft-touted skin effect at high frequencies as a reason for thick heavy cables is garbage. There certainly IS a skin effect at high frequencies - begins to be problematic at around 200MHz, not audio range.

 

[DCBassman]

Hmmm. I'm as dubious about hi-fi esoterica as the next fellow, but even at knocking on twice your 30 limit, I can most certainly tell the difference between a good system and a mediocre one. And the benefits are considerable - for me at least.

I'm not talking about those rather obvious differences, but about the excessive claims, for example, of expensive cable and very expensive cable. Quite apart from ears being incapable, there isn't, in any real sense, a difference to be heard. Every system will sound different. There's no way any of them give 'perfect' reproduction or anywhere close. It's largely a money extraction process.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of good cables. But there's good and there's ridiculous.

 

[raleighnut]

Been using this stuff for a few years now, because it looks nice No idea if it sounds better than cheapo or pricier? QED silver anniversary
View attachment 489150

Not a fan of 'banana' plugs much preferring binding post connections but last year one of my poweramps went back to Quad for repair and they swapped the output sockets from their old design which took these nickel silver plugs,



to 'banana' plug sockets as an 'upgrade'. To say I was a bit miffed is an understatement.

 

[Poacher]

Thorens TD-160 (Mark 1?) up for auction tomorrow at local auction house, estimate £40-£60.
Will it sell cheaply? Would it be an improvement on my Garrard 401with Acos Lustre arm? Am I bovvered?

 

[raleighnut]

Thorens TD-160 (Mark 1?) up for auction tomorrow at local auction house, estimate £40-£60.
Will it sell cheaply? Would it be an improvement on my Garrard 401with Acos Lustre arm? Am I bovvered?

Probably not with the standard arm but you can get a replacement arm board kit to fit a Rega arm to those (and the 166 like mine) then it'll give an LP12 a run for it's money.

 

[Gasman]

5 pages in and nobody else thinking of this...

 

[ColinJ]

I got the exact bike shop equivalent of that when I got back into cycling 30 years ago.

ColinJ: Hello, I'd like to buy some cycling gloves please

Bike shop owner: Feel the cold, do we?

ColinJ: Eh?

Owner: You said that you wanted 'gloves'...

ColinJ: Yes - to protect my hands if I fall off, help prevent blisters on long rides, used to wipe off sweat and so on.

Owner: And you want 'gloves' in the summer?

ColinJ: Er, yes...

Owner: Long fingered?

ColinJ: No, as you said - it's the summer - short-fingered gloves.

Owner: Oh - MITTS - you don't want gloves, you want mitts - track mitts - why didn't you say so!

ColinJ (under breath, to self): You total effing w****r!!! If I hadn't just travelled 2 miles in my lunch break to buy the bloody mitts, I'd walk out without buying them, and never return!

ColinJ (with forced smile, and clipped voice): Yes, please, I'd like to buy a pair of track mitts...