FYI, How to judge interconnects, power cords, speaker cable, etc. Let's share techniques together..

Like a spurious current!

 

I had a similar moment when I splurged and bought some decent speaker cables and interconnects. My wife heard a difference and asked what I did to it. She thought it sounded like the vocalist was in the room.

 

Maybe discretized forces at play.

 

To answer Steve’s question I usually judge cable improvement on a long period of time. Warmth, musicality, soundstage, clarity/blur/fuzziness/aggressivity. Listen at the musical material as a whole and then spotting the details specifics.

I am not looking for air or definite space around the instruments as this could seems an improvement at first that will become an annoying disturbance after 50 hours or more of listening.

IMO upgrading power cables is a fair linear improvement, you can’t go wrong. Upgrading interconnect is, again IMO, more tricky as you are trying to match 2 piece of eqpt.
Source equipments usually benefit from better cables and vibration isolation as they amplify/convert the low level signals.

Some can argue that cable burn-in is another hi-fi myth but it is real . I usually leave the cable in a burn-in mode for a week using a combination of an old integrated + tuner + load when burning speaker cables.

Better the cable, less its signature will be imprinted on the final sound enveloppe. Bigger sounding differences are then expected when switching from one musical program to another.

Weakest point in all cables is always the connectors...

Weakest point in all hifi system is the musical program

 

I've been sort of a high end cable curmudgeon in the past. Not that I used cheap cables. I didn't. I use decent interconnects and since I have Naim I use their recommended speaker cable. Last year I did some very significant upgrades and really took my system to another level, so I wondered how much higher end cables would matter now.

This past week I have been home auditioning a Transparent Cable Ultra RCA interconnect for my phonostage/preamp connection. I was initially skeptical how much a difference I would hear over my 8 year old (and a fraction of the cost) MusicLink Plus RCA interconnect, but I am impressed that it does indeed sound better, and not a tiny amount either. Does it sound better for the price? I have a hard time justifying that, so my plan is to live with it for a bit, and then return it to the dealer. If I find that I miss the improvement, I am going to try a level down from the Ultra – the Super RCA for half the cost – and see if that satisfies me. If not, I may just have to defer that upgrade. My priority for this year is a new cartridge.

 

Audiophiles are the type of people who believe in power cords and speaker cables making a magic difference, but acoustic treatment is completely out of the question. I can see clean power making a real difference, but the whole interconnect/power cord thing has always been completely illogical. I heard somebody's system once and he had it all - a massive Audio Research power amp, silver speaker cables, interconnects that cost as much as a used car, all going into beautiful speakers - but the turntable was running a half-step slow, and the room was ringing like the inside of a bell. If somebody can't notice the audible, measurable distortion of vinyl records, especially one that's turning too slowly, and the massive destruction of the sound created by an untreated room - how am I supposed to believe he can hear the difference between one copper wire over another?

This is why I use Lowe's speaker wire I cut straight off a giant spool, and stripped with a pocket knife.

My system sounds better or worse to me sometimes. It usually depends on how pissed off I am, how I slept the night before, how many air conditioners are running in the city (it's getting close to that time of year again...). I think stress impacts the perception of audio a lot more than cables.

 

This advice can apply to any piece of stereo equipment or comparing pressings of LPs or issues of CDs etc. I have certain songs and certain portions of songs where I pick out a certain aspect of that recording to evaluate equipment, just like you say. I have several examples to use, each one or two will allow me to concentrate on bass, or treble, or how a stick hitting a woodblock sounds or brushes on a cymbal, or the transient attack on the fingers squeaking on guitar strings, and so forth. Soundstage depth, height and width are also cues and certain recordings demonstrate that.

So many times I try to point out these things to other people who are into stereo and they have not learned how to listen to these things (and many of them reside on the Klipsch forum, where "no Klipsch speaker could POSSIBLY be the problem it HAS to be something else" crowd).

 

Well then there is this article which refutes everything. (Starts on page 5)
https://www.biline.ca/audio_critic/mags/The_Audio_Critic_26_r.pdf

 

Absolutely not true for me. My tests are controlled and it works for me. Not saying it works for you..

 

System improvements should start with the room rather than anything else.

I know your post, and my reply, are both likely to be deleted, but I'm glad someone said it.

Been there, heard that. A system costing more than I've made in my life put together - sitting in a room entirety filled with hard surfaces.

Put it this way, if you know someone with a studio, ask them to play something you love, not through the big monitors, but through the Yamaha NS-10s or the Aurotones - two speakers known and loved for their consistent mediocrity. They are there to approximate the "average home system." But because they are an acoustically well-treated room, they are going to sound far better than they should. Now imagine good speakers in that room (or ask them to switch to the big speakers.)

 

Our first contestant?

 

curious: wouldn't a power conditioning unit / line conditioner make some difference here too?

searching online I see that "ac regenerators" are a thing too.

 

Has anyone tried a simple upgrade in size of power cord? Say from 16 AWG to 14 AWG or 12 AWG?

 

Indeed, Steve.

 

Experiment. Move it around. Where do you hear the largest difference?

Then get another power cable... but if you have a mid fi system save your money and focus on equipment upgrades.

 

That’s what hobbies are all about

 

As with wine snobs, I think there are probably a lot more wannabes than there are folks who actually do have incredible senses of hearing.

 

When I evaluate equipment changes I play decently recorded, well liked records. Particularly ones I have known for many years.

The sonic landscape is burned into my brain.

Improvements, or not, are revealed in short order.

I do believe in the merits of burn in so I run stuff on my Hagerman cooker for several days ahead of time. Just to level the playing field.

For most of us this is our hobby. If I was a pro in the music industry I’d probably have ulcers over it.

 

That is one of the basic concept combined with teflon/air dielectric, better copper conductors, foil and mesh to reject noise, telescopic ground (or not) in some instances and better connectors.

You can loose yourself quite easily when starting to experiment with cables.

The commercial entry level cables are usually not the real deal as you can build better ones for the same price. On the other end, high end cables worth their price in terms of development, used material, parts and labour but unfortunately not always on the amount of sound improvement you will get from them.

 

This is an expensive method but it works for me. I have purchased new cables and then switched them into my system. I then leave them in and just keep my routine listening habits for a few months. After a while I switch back and listen to my old cables for a while. I repeat this process a few times until I decide which one I prefer. The one I don’t like gets resold.

This way it’s not a pressured situation. The differences may be subtle or obvious but you need time to see which one is a match to your components. The one that draws you in and makes you want to play one record after another is the one you want.

I realize this statement will drive hardcore objectivists crazy but it works. Sometimes that rich syrupy cable you loved will seem slow and muddy with time. On the other hand, all that exciting hyper-detail from a new cable after a couple of weeks may start to get on your nerves.

I used to a-b it and try different recordings. I’d focus on the bass, then the treble, then the midrange. It made me lose my perspective when I did it that way.

The Cable Company used to have a loaner policy that helped if you want to try my preferred technique. I haven’t switched cables in a long time so I don’t know if that policy is still in place.

 

I have always said, cables should be considered as a final polish on a system. If one finds a huge difference's with cables, then I would say you better be looking at what is wrong in your system The most obvious that can be heard is if a shielded cable lowers hum or distortions (both from your system and picking up others, like a radio station or an appliance that is producing a 60hz cycle or other things). Different type's of cable construction and materials (solid silver, copper, silver plated copper, and a host of materials like Teflon, cloth etc) can have some impact. A lot of the cable hype is just that, HYPE

 

When upgrading [IMO] from unbalanced to balanced cables, found it very helpful because it was just switching inputs, not having to physically switch the cables for initial comparisons/evaluations [in some cases].

Would also try new balanced cables on the source, then the preamp, & then the amp.

Would suggest dryer/brighter/accurate/detailed cables further up the audio chain & darker/richer cables further down the audio chain.

Not against matching cables, if that works for you.

Just, unless every audio unit in the chain has the exact same tone, it's a way to tame each audio unit more to your liking [by a few %].

Enjoy.

 

The house I've been fixing up for my brother originally had 60 amp service, and one of the two bus bars in the panel had literally melted.