News-Audiophiles can't tell the difference between Monster Cable and coat hangers

[gamalot]

I think there is another point being completely missed.

"Audiophiles"! I'm sure there is a dictionary deffinition and think it would have more to do with knowledge and the pursuit of sonic purity than it does with having magic ears or exceptional hearing.

Audiophiles may have a good idea of what to listen for but the label does not in any way give them a better ability to hear.

I always fall back on "What ever floats your boat", if you think this is better then that, it's your money and your right to spend it.

Gary

[gamalot]

I think there is another point being completely missed.

"Audiophiles"! I'm sure there is a dictionary deffinition and think it would have more to do with knowledge and the pursuit of sonic purity than it does with having magic ears or exceptional hearing.

Audiophiles may have a good idea of what to listen for but the label does not in any way give them a better ability to hear.

I always fall back on "What ever floats your boat", if you think this is better then that, it's your money and your right to spend it.

Gary

[Art J.]

The reason I like this board over others, besides the green background,
is that this has been more a technical and engineering forum rather than
any dealings with consumer issues and perspectives. (audiophiles?)
I hope it stays that way.

Just to add a different twist to the humor, I used to attend conventions when
I was an Electrical Contractor and the wire manufacturers had their booths set
up showing off their abilities.
I could order wire in any imaginable custom configuration, size and color for a
minimal extra charge even with my name printed on it. I was amazed at their
tooling abilities but if my brain worked like PT Barnum, I could have entered the
wire craze early on. Old Art J could have been a self proclaimed famous wire
designer just by filling out a form.

[RonSSS]

No, it needs to be "Ron Wire"
In fact, it needs to be "Ron Speaker Wire" and "Ron's Interconnects". And it needs to be metallic blue....to match bof my cars!
FWIW....I use Belden 94ohm Coax with BNC connectors for all my interconnects. A spool was cheap. I have the required crimper, and BNC is far better than RCA....doesn't sound better though. Just works better....call it my Tektronix connection......doesn't corrode, and works well past a Ghz, and makes ground before hot.

I got the orig intent of the post....just trying now how to weld coat hangers together and connect them to the amps and speakers!


Ron

Originally posted by Art J.:
The reason I like this board over others, besides the green background,
is that this has been more a technical and engineering forum rather than
any dealings with consumer issues and perspectives. (audiophiles?)
I hope it stays that way.

Just to add a different twist to the humor, I used to attend conventions when
I was an Electrical Contractor and the wire manufacturers had their booths set
up showing off their abilities.
I could order wire in any imaginable custom configuration, size and color for a
minimal extra charge even with my name printed on it. I was amazed at their
tooling abilities but if my brain worked like PT Barnum, I could have entered the
wire craze early on. Old Art J could have been a self proclaimed famous wire
designer just by filling out a form.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">

[GM]

Originally posted by RKLee:

..........it looks like a group of 12 self-professed "audiophiles" recently couldn't tell the difference between Monster 1000 speaker cables and plain old coat hangers.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Not surprising considering both have essentially zero L/C/R, so this appears to be more a 'test' to either embarrass and/or prove the invalid point that different speaker cable construction can't affect speaker performance based on its electrical properties.

GM

[bfish]

'zactly.

The common assumption (that I long shared) is that fancy wire just can't practically surpass plain wire in the REDUCTION of L/C/R, which is true...if we could make wire better, we'd be using it everywhere...

It's not easy to accept that a mfr would sell fancy wire with HIGHER L/C/R values than plain wire, but that's exactly what most are. Anyone that thinks you can't alter the sound by ADDING L/C/R, well, back to school.

Added;
Can't resist...

The really funny part is that you could get the same results as any of the "fancys" with plain wire and <$20 worth of parts from RS...!

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ March 06, 2008 03:34 PM: Message edited by: bfish ]</font>

[GM]

Actually, there are some fancy wiring systems made from cryogenically treated and/or continuously cast wire ($$$) that have measurably better specs than your traditionally 'best' spec wire. Whether there's an audible/better difference to justify their high price in all but the highest efficiency systems I'll leave to others to debate.

Yep, my standard argument against using boutique interconnect/speaker wiring in general and 'rolling' in particular is to use vanishingly low L/C/R units with some form of adjustable EQ to dial in the speaker system.

GM

[timp]

A few years back, a black magic man put me under his spell and caused me to buy a pair of very expensive speaker wires. They were not $1000 but paid way more than what I paid for my 414s I am telling you it wasn't me. It was the voodoo magic. Anyways, the voodoo man promised me a huge improvement in detail, image, and blah blah blah! Well the sound? I could not tell. Wait! May be a little improvement. Then, I ran into a man who broke the spell for me. He told me to buy some 18g solid cores from a local radio shack. Twist one red and 2 black 18gs together and open one of the blacks on the speakers side (one co actually does this). Well, they sounded much better than my black magic wires. Really! So, if the coat hangers are solid core copper, they may even sound better! The only drawback? Three 18g solid cores are not flexible! But sounded really good! My 2 cents of course! Hey Ron and Bfish, I am still wrestling with my preamp. Just finished building 6sn7 pre. Will it smoke or what ? dunno .


Tim

<font color="#FFFFFF" size="1">[ March 07, 2008 08:28 AM: Message edited by: timp ]</font>

[Old Guy]

Hmm- Wires by Art?

Art Wire?

You may have missed a bet- coulda been millions there!

[Tom Brennan]

I hear a huge difference when the wires are too short.

I also noticed that "interconnects" sound much better than "patch cords". Much better to salesmen.