The Great Cable and Interconnect Swindle: An Etiology

10 hours ago, Teresa said:

 

I disagree with the second paragraph as I don't like listening to music or genres I don't like when I'm at a live event, so I should also dislike the recorded versions as well. Thus if an audio system makes recordings of music I dislike when listening in person likable then IMHO it is not an accurate audio system.

Which makes perfect sense. Everyone is different - and I have a problem with live music, if the performer is just grinding away, getting the notes on the paper in front of him, into the air ... music is about emotion, most times - if the performers have no interest, then neither will I ...

34 minutes ago, fas42 said:

and I have a problem with live music, if the performer is just grinding away

...so, you have a problem with most gear, most rigs don't get it right, audiophiles who spend money on questionable gear/bling...rooms don't matter much...and now we get the revelation that you have issues with live music too. Perhaps a different hobby would be more enjoyable for you...and for your readership. 😉

BTW: Since the original topic is cables, may I ask: What interconnects do you use in your rig? Have you found something you like? 

15 minutes ago, MarkusBarkus said:

...so, you have a problem with most gear, most rigs don't get it right, audiophiles who spend money on questionable gear/bling...rooms don't matter much...and now we get the revelation that you have issues with live music too. Perhaps a different hobby would be more enjoyable for you...and for your readership. 😉

 

BTW: Since the original topic is cables, may I ask: What interconnects do you use in your rig? Have you found something you like? 

BJcables with Gold plated locking banana. 

https://www.bluejeanscable.com/store/speaker/index.htm

Mogami DIY cables for the balanced connections.

Mogami DIY for the high pass bass connections. 

Reasonable priced cables without breaking the bank.

33 minutes ago, MarkusBarkus said:

...so, you have a problem with most gear, most rigs don't get it right, audiophiles who spend money on questionable gear/bling...rooms don't matter much...and now we get the revelation that you have issues with live music too. Perhaps a different hobby would be more enjoyable for you...and for your readership. 😉

 

BTW: Since the original topic is cables, may I ask: What interconnects do you use in your rig? Have you found something you like? 

Well, for a start, you don't have to read my posts ... 🙂

The good thing is that recorded music is usually of people trying; rather than going through the motions - after all, they usually want to sell a few copies of what they put down ... 😉. There are a few people who I find tiresome - late Yehudi Menuhin requires a rig at absolutely top form, to not start thinking, "Why on earth am I listening to this ..." 🤪

Cables apart from the first setup, 30 plus years ago, have never figured. And then they were the Van den Hul cables that everyone was enthusiastic about, in that period.

They were hardwired, back then - which made me aware that the integrity of their connection at the endpoints was what really mattered. Since then I have used only cheap, everyday stuff that any electrical store sells - however, solid core conductors are what I would always use, unless forced otherwise; and I always strongly twist paired conductors. Note, audio friend up the road is very strong on the ANTICABLES line - and used properly they don't seem to cause problems ...

Current digital actives don't have anything of course - a key reason they do so well for the money, 😉 - only an everyday, plastic Toslink optical goes to the back.

10 hours ago, Racerxnet said:

REW has most of the tools built in. Room sim calculator, Pink noise, tone sweeps, RTA, and a host of other applications. A cheap Umik 1 and Free REW can show the room interaction with the speakers. No need for the test CD.

https://www.roomeqwizard.com/

https://www.minidsp.com/products/acoustic-measurement/umik-1

 

Good advice.  There is a bit of a learning curve with REW, but it is an incredibly useful and powerful tool once you get used to it.  Educational too, I have certainly learned a lot from using REW.  As it happens, I have an old "test tone" CD, but have not had any need or use for it for years.

Note that Frank would need to find a way to run the sound from his laptop to the Edifiers.  Toslink or Bluetooth maybe?  Although this would have the added bonus that he could then listen to his favorite YouTube clips via something a little better than his laptop speakers.

@fas42 - REW can perform incredibly sensitive measurements.  (I could pick up differences in my measurements just from changing the speaker spikes to IsoAccoustic Gaia's)   You could measure you Edifiers with / without your mass loading system and publish the results.  Might be interesting.

13 hours ago, Confused said:

 

Note that Frank would need to find a way to run the sound from his laptop to the Edifiers.  Toslink or Bluetooth maybe?  Although this would have the added bonus that he could then listen to his favorite YouTube clips via something a little better than his laptop speakers.

Something to be done down the track ... however, physically the laptop is as far away as one can get in this house, from the speakers, 🙂. There's spare, unused m/c around - which as some stage will be kicked into use - to do this very thing.

13 hours ago, Confused said:

 

@fas42 - REW can perform incredibly sensitive measurements.  (I could pick up differences in my measurements just from changing the speaker spikes to IsoAccoustic Gaia's)   You could measure you Edifiers with / without your mass loading system and publish the results.  Might be interesting.

I appreciate the usefulness of software like that to pick up annoying anomalies - a way to put numbers to things. But I could easily hear what was happening decades ago, from ears alone - that told me, that increasing the stability deblurred the sound, tightened the bass, turned speakers that sounded tiny into ones that created huge soundstages; the downside is that it ruthlessly exposed distortion artifacts that were otherwise masked by the blur ... which meant I had to fix the latter ... 😀.

Yes, would be interesting to do - but first priority, sort out these interference weaknessses.

8 hours ago, fas42 said:

Something to be done down the track ... however, physically the laptop is as far away as one can get in this house, from the speakers, 🙂. There's spare, unused m/c around - which as some stage will be kicked into use - to do this very thing.

Have you got one of these new fangled immovable non-portable laptops then?  

Edit:  By the way, what is an m/c?

4 hours ago, Confused said:

Have you got one of these new fangled immovable non-portable laptops then?  

 

Edit:  By the way, what is an m/c?

I'm one of those old fangled guys who just uses a laptop like a desktop - I like a decent sized screen, proper mouse; battery is dodgy, so power supply plugged in all the time ... I'm the bit that's immovable, 🙃.

I've been using m/c for "machine" since forever  - can't remember where I picked up this mechanical engineering term ...

Just tack this video, which I discovered on another forum, to the current end of this thread, because I find it a very good overview on the whole cable 'debacle' ... I don't disagree with a single thing he says ...

did someone say they wanted measurements for cables?  

https://alpha-audio.net/review/megatest-speaker-cables-real-measurements-samples-and-blind-test/

For those who despair at the lack of development of measurement techniques, for determining why different cables may perform differently, ,

http://boson.physics.sc.edu/~kunchur/papers/Interconnect-cable-measurements--Kunchur.pdf