I also think its about proportional cost, if I have a 1500 dollar AVR Pre and a 1500 dollar stand alone amp, spending I think about 10- 25 dollars per cable on every channel out is about right. I run all 12-14 gauge wire, less than 25 feet on the longest run with banana plugs, half as much for ease of use than quality alone. The smaller gauge wire goes to my surrounds etc. I think I will be all in now and in the future for under 350 dollars for every wire on me...lol To include HDMI, optical etc...
@Joshua Sterling: Thank you because initially, I thought that he is serious; stopped watching and went to the comments; found yours and thank to you, I went back watching. So again, thank you.
I have one of the Audioquest HDMI with a battery. It rocks. Company was going out of business, final day of clearance, paid 20 bucks for it, regular price of several hundred. My friends are impressed with how it looks, but their minds are blown when I swap with a "cheap" HDMI and they don't see a difference. Fun times.
You hit the nail on the head, with ‘superconductivity’. It is the absolute key to true, ultra high fidelity. When I put my ‘high end’ hifi system together, I did not purchase a dedicated rack. I bought an upright, freezer. You know the type, a glass door on the front allowing supermarkets to display their frozen produce. All my ultra expensive components are housed in this freezer, the LED interior lighting makes my components the focal point of my lounge. But that’s an added bonus. The transparency of my musical reproduction is unrivalled by systems costing multiples of mine. The glass door means that my infrared remote controls are still effective from my listening position. I did used to find that the CD drawer on my CD transport used to ice over and refuse to open, but a regular application of antifreeze, and deploying an dehumidifier, resolved that minor niggle. Other bonuses are that the longevity of my components is extended, my DAC is now 50 years old and sounds as good as it ever did. Extremely prudent of me to purchase that DAC prior to the digital revolution. There again, I’ve always been ahead of thegane. I bought a Wi-Fi router, prior to the internet going live. The biggest plus is that I don’t have to keep leaving my listening position to go to the kitchen to fetch another cold beer. I keep 2 8-packs on the shelf between my pre amp and monoblocks. Of course, my electric consumption is substantially reduced as I’ve enhanced the efficiency of every component. So I can realax in the knowledge that I’m doing my bit for the environment, reducing my carbon footprint. Please don’t mock this methodology until you’ve tried it. It works!
@@NalliKalliOlla that is the exact problem. Zoom sucks but it's easy to use. Until I find a better program with a small learning curve, compression will still exist.
I substituted high-quality, high-dollar interconnects for the lamp cord on my bedside lamp. It was like a veil was lifted. The light was no longer harsh and glaring.
Would you believe that my system sounded so much better when I listened to love songs with my wife. Her energy transformed everything and all the frequencies just rose to a new level.
As you and Hugo pointed out about 5 years ago in a video, if the cable thing was magic recording studios would be on board. Well, I'm a recording guy and have worked in a dozen different studios over the years, including studios with high 6-figure consoles, and there's none of this cable nonsense there. It's all high quality wire. Belden, Mogami, whatever, with Neutrik connectors, but that's it. And if recording studios aren't using these magic cables, then I'm guessing you don't need them.
Finally you nailed it with TONE CONTROL. Cables should NOT be used for TONE CONTROL!!! THANK YOU. As a musician and amateur pro-audio studio guy I can absolutely tell difference between a Mogami, Canare and some "Free with Microphone/Guitar" cable. But it isn't a matter of better, worse (well sometimes), "Reference", or "Correct. I have heard cables "Brighten" or "Warm" the sound, absolutely. It is a matter of TONE, and the better cables (Mogami) simply have lower capacitance, better shielding, which makes life easier at the mixing (tone) console. Science! Thank you.
I just saw a video where some guy bought $17,000 speaker cables for his system and he swears he can tell the difference. I messaged him and told him I had some primo beachfront property in Kansas for sale.
ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-GaCX8SaFPtk.html This guy shows the difference between the two cables. I’m not saying it’s legit. I’m just saying that he says that the two picture differences involve the same setup except with a different cable. Any thoughts?
I appreciate Gene's humor at the beginning of his lesson . I was able to pay more attention to the science and useful recommendations from Gene due to enjoyment of his humor mixed in to an otherwise technical lessen. BTW: That was the first time I was exposed to the term "Sounds more Chocolately"?
Unless it's an "Audiophile" oven blessed by Michael Fremer, you will be wasting your time. Sure, you'll bend the space time continuum and your cat will age at an accelerated rate, but you'll fail to bend it at the correct "Audiophile" angle and the sound will have 30% less angelic sheen in the midrange and 22.0098% bulbous fludge in the bass..... I think I have a graph somewhere that proves it.
Totally agree on Bedlen, Canare and 10-12awg wire , best bang for the buck. Anything more expensive you won't hear the difference! Gene speaks the truth!!
This is not totally accurate. I do happen to know by experience that I personally had bought a $14 headset from my local Family Dollar Store that has much better sound quality and even the mic quality than my original Logitech 930 gaming headset that run me $145 when it came out.
8 ish years ago i bought my first really good, big, " flat screen " , funny i cost bout the same as the first good tube tv i bought in 1992.... 27 " Sharp... not a Sony.... was still a grand, and the top o the line VCR that played back in stereo, had 4 HEADS and a frame by frame fog shuttle on the remote! Woopee , oh the vcr was $600 lol, so ya when i buy my big ole Plasma i got a smoking hot deal on a Monter HDMI cable was $150 on for a $100 ! the box it came in.... with the thing in a white, silk bag.... was worth as much as a normal hdmi cable.... at least i can say i never bought a Beats bt gay headphones, or a iphone... but ive spent enuff on sony playstore Pontiac... possibly Sega
@@tech-ii5sh gaming headsets are their own bottle of snake oil, buy headphones from reputable companies like sennheiser and add a mod mic on it for the microphone.
I'm a cryogenic physicist and I find your rant about freezing quiet interesting. As it's quiet true that cables at cryogenic temperature are likely to perform better than at room temperature. As the one thing that ís important in speaker cables is their resistance, which in case of copper roughly doubles when going to liquid nitrogen temperatures. When going even lower in temperature, the grade of copper really starts to matter, and yes OFC is then better then the regular copper. The resistance may even lower by a factor of 20 when going down to -263°C. Now I don't reccomend heating them up as this will increase the resistance again, but I would endorse running your OFC cables at -263°C! An additional advantage running them at lower temperature, is that you can reduce the cable by this factor of 20 while keepin the same resistance as you would have at room temperature. So you could run a 24 gauge wire instead of 12 gauge. This would reduce the capacitance of the cable so that you have even less distorting cables. You're a genius for suggesting this, you should patent this imediatly and start making millions on them. p.s. Copper however does not become superconducting, ever. For that I would reccomend CCA cables as aluminium does become superconducting when within 1° of absolute zero. (-273.15°C)
LOL what are the odds. Yes cryofrfeezing cable will reduce the resistance when the cable is at -263 deg C. However, the normal resistive properties are restored at room temperature again. CCA cables are not as good of a conductor as copper at room temperature however so your proposal is good ONLY if the cables can be kept frozen while in use. Perhaps they can be permanently encased in a cold vacuum while in use. Could you imagine the complexity, expense and waste of energy required for such a feat?
I agree with everything you mentioned. When I first got into high end audio the shop I went to tried to sell me super expensive speaker wires and interconnects. The guy even once described a set of wires or interconnects (can’t remember which it was) as being so good I would be able to hear the fingers on the fret of the guitar!🤣 I just looked at him and I think he got the message, he just played himself. I was demoing some speakers and noticed they had a set of speakers set up with the exact speaker wires you mentioned, the AudioQuest wires with the battery thing attached. I’ve seen USB C to A adaptors selling for $160! For all of 3-4 inches of wire. Never knew there was such a thing as audiophile USB cables. If high end audio manufacturers thought those power cables being offered for sale would make their product sound even better wouldn’t they include them with their products or recommend them. None of them do. They all include $6-10 power cables. Oh I also love it when wires or interconnects are directional.
I kept looking at the calendar, it was January, but yet you were doing an April Fools joke. I personally use extreme high tech Quantum Physics cables. Once those electron entangle, wow. Actually, for speaker cables, I go to the hardware store and get 14 gauge lamp cord. 23 cents a foot. granted, I am running them almost 4 feet, but they work great, and you can get them of black, brown, or white no extra change. Now I did build coax interconnects between my equipment into the amp. Using a Dynaco ST70 as my amp. Took that down to bare chaise and did all the Bob L upgrades. Works for me
What I always wondered, why would a manufacturer of audio equipment always place a basic RCA cable or wire inside the box if it wasn't good enough to reach its desired quality.
I worked for Richard Long and Associates 30 years ago. We were a sound company designing and installing some of the best Disco sound systems in the world. We had some consumer speaker lines for our residential projects (Allison, ADS, Klipsch and Bozak) . It was in the late 70s Richard and I were at the AES convention in NY visiting with our vendors. Roy Allison a friend of Richards said we should come to dinner with him. It was a dinner of some of the New England audio elite (Roy Allison, Rudy Bozak, and Henry Kloss). A discussion on wire came about and before you know I was sent on a mission to score high end audio and speaker wires from all over the city. We ended up at Acoustilog Labs on SOHO for the testing and the group has grown with NY audio notables: such as, Alan Fierstein, Alex Rosner, Harry Muntz and Mike K. After many hours of testing and discussion long, also, many bottles of wine. The clear winner was a 16awg lamp cord, its brother 12 gauge, a close second. The worst was M____ter Cable, all M____ter Cables. M____ter Cable changed the frequency response of the signal drastically with added capacitance. So your best choice for speaker wire is no further away than your nearest Hardware store.
I'm a huge fan of Audioholics! I mention you guys a lot on my channel. You made the same mistake I made and you said the S-word...snake oil. You're going to upset a lot of these "audiophile" reviewers now. 😂 I would love to be in contact with you guys one day.
@@IsmaelMartinezPR I did. I made a video calling it snake oil and Steve Guttenberg made a video saying that he was irritated that people call it that. I'm in contact with Ethan Winer. Talked with him on the phone for a while. Cool guy!
@@joentell When you see a horse, you call it a horse. Don't worry about Steve and anyone who gets irritated by calling something that is snake oil, snake oil. They are part of the problem. Why would anyone defend companies and products that are only out there to rip you off?
@@RoseGold823 I'm not worried about him believe me. I do what I think is right. I thought it was a bit funny. My original comment was tongue in cheek. I publicly offered for Steve to have a discussion with but he either didn't see it, he ignored it, or didn't want to. If these cable companies had data to backup their claims that their products audibly improve the sound, then wouldn't it be in their best interest to show that data? Most companies are eager to show how their product performs in a way that is superior using facts to support their claims. Those same companies are reluctant to show how their product works because they don't want others to copy them. High-end cable companies on the other hand are backwards. They are eager to show the technology behind why their product "works", but they fail to come up with any facts to show that the performance of their product is superior.
@@joentell I posted Ethan Winer's recent challenge to Paul McGowan (CEO PS Audio) to do a test comparing audio cables in the PS Audio forum. Paul responded by saying he was going to ignore Ethan's request. It's amazing how so many of the people who state there's something magical about special cables often refuse or ignore a simple blind listening test. Ethan's null test pretty much proves there's nothing electronically measurable with expensive cables vs basic cables. And if you can't measure or detect it it electronically, than it's all in your mind.
Thanks Gene you are so right. I did it , I froze my cables and found something incredible for sound. The frozen cables I dipped in my coffee to cool it off to drink, forgot to wipe the coffee off, and hooked up my speakers. It’s coffee Gene! Coffee makes your speakers sound more lively! Put it on your cables! My friend tried it and said that I was full of shit! I drove to his house to prove him wrong and guess what! He was using de-caff! What a dumb ass!
Hi, im professional video/movie maker. Your comment about expensive HDMI cables matters. I got news for you, it is DIGITAL DATA that goes in there. NO magical cable makes the video "look" any better what is encoded in the videofile..... Oh, good you GOT ME :D HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Brilliant! Priceless..
It also helps if you keep you home theater room as cold as possible, putting towers in wash tubs of ice makes a huge difference. I couldn't agree more. I have about $30K in my HT, but very mid range cables. Once you get past adequate gauge/materials/connectors electrons can't tell the difference. 10 gauge, good connectors, you're set............
Loved this. Before I listen I always pop them in the freezer. I have found defrost in the microwave really helps the bass, imaging and detail😂Had one of those power cords that improves your amp, CD etc.. I tested it on my kettle and wow what a improvement on my cups of tea and coffee. The toaster, never tasted toast like, incredible 😂 however, don't use one on your microwave, my food exploded. I guess sometimes it just improves things too much 😀
$10 cable vs $92,000 cable, they both do the same thing nothing different except in the cost differences. You are right, most of what you said is hog wash. Only thing to remember is the gauge of the cable you need that you need to run the distance you need to run. This is due to the distance and loss of the signal drop along the route. 50 feet will cause approx., half the sound quality drop if using a small cable. Longer the distance, need a heaver wire while short distance, the smaller. You do not need a thick cable to run 3 feet. Look up the required gauge needed for the proper distance you need to run.
I am from the industry (India) and I used to be an AV journalist. We had to review cables and very few of them showed real difference (again, good or bad or worst even - more accurate or less is a question of next level altogether). But we have many people in the industry who would make a keen gesture by raising their specs on forehead and discuss about super-expensive cables and are ready to kill if you differ... But then - no one is ready for a double-blinded test challenge. Says a lot about their knowledge and listening capabilities! IT and telecom industries are to be followed here whre tangible differences and improvements are gatekeeping hallmarks to accept a new practise.
You forgot to mention Monster Cable...they had maybe 3 or 4 standard wire stock for all of their standard to premium cables and speaker wire. I caught on to what they were doing by reading the bulk number on the outside of all of their cables. The M-Series was nothing but a standard wire stock for example. Noel Lee is a total fraud!
Yes, but be careful, they will sue you. Monster is the most litigious company out there. They once sued an auto repair shop over their name "Monster Transmission" , as in your cars transmission. A$$holes. ;-)
Sensible advice.Cables can only go so far.Once loss has been minimized,there is nowhere else to go.But the vendors always need to make money to survive,and will therefore always come out with a newer,better cable.They need to create ''problems'' with flowery language in order to ''solve'' them for the consumer.Add in some fancy packaging,brochures,a confident salesperson and you're home and dry as a manufacturer.Speakers and rooms will always have a greater impact overall,and will cost alot less to change than some super duper cable at tens on thousands of pounds.
Took the Harvey Gizmo challenge years ago and made a set of magnet wire rca cables. Compared them to my mega bucks cables on a headphone amp set up and was amazed how much better 22 awg copper sounded than cryo-treated-unicorn-dust cables. Good way to learn to solder too.
LOL Can't make you guys happy. I have about 6 different mics and the limiting factor appears to be the crappy editing software compressing the audio stream. Oh well. Enjoy.
You neglected to mention 'cable cooking' .. Audiophiles have convinced me that there's a huge difference and the fact that I cannot hear the difference reflects a deficiency in my senses, a lack of fine taste. The same problem I suspect that causes me to think that the emperor isn't wearing any cloths.
I love your channel, I've learned a lot from it and it has made me a more informed enthusiast and to stay away from all the bs sorrounding the Hifi industry. Many thanks.
LMAO GENE! I knew from the beginning of this video you were kidding all along. I was literally laughing my butt off! Great video and thanks for posting!
Before the video, I did some research about cables and quality but was not satisfied I was looking for someone who says the cables matter and watching the very beggining I was being convinced kkk I ever liked a golden cable it is like better quality of sound
Total Truth: My little Cat, Tinka can hear me opening the refrigerator from across the house, but then she has Cat ears and ZenCat Magic as well. they also know when Im pulling up outside and wen I’m going to to the bathroom. Cats are definitely Magical!
JBL told me to use 14 Gauge Lamp Cord. I left the station with that cord 30 years ago and it still works. In another 30 years I might want to inspect the insulation which I suspect may become brittle.
@@swinde -- For the more typical run of 6-10 feet, 20 or even 22 AWG will do just fine. I usually use jacketed 18 AWG line cords salvaged from defunct vacuum cleaners. The idea of specialized "audiophile" or "high-end" speaker cables is absurd on the face of it. :-)
Bruce ...Absolutely correct. I normally just buy 18 gauge zip cord from a hardware store for speaker leads. Back in the 1980s a friend of mine had purchased $100.00 or more Monster speaker cables for his McIntosh/ Klipsh horn La Scala speakers. He asked me to come over and do some measurements. We found that these cables had a rather high capacitance compared to the zip cord. But he decided that it sounded better with the Monster cable anyway. I really could not hear any difference.
@@swinde -- I switched out some ordinary 18 AWG zipcord for the original Monster Cable (glorified 12 AWG zipcord with very finely stranded conductors) back in the 1980s and, if anything, the pricey stuff slightly degraded the performance of my old SAE/Adcom "high-end" system, but not enough for me to bother changing it back. That's when I concluded that the whole idea of fancy "audiophile" speaker cable was codswallop.
Thank you for coming back to the fundamentals of audio. Audio advice is better than product reviews. The problem with audio advice is that all themes can be exhausted. Don't hesitate to come back on things that you think have been referred before. We will keep listening.
Damn .. i half covered myself in ice to improve my performance and now im told its BS... i may wear a braided jacket with batterys in my pocket just to try it though
There's a video somewhere on here about a guy who spent close to $13K for a two-meter pair of helium-filled XLR cables. Someone saw him coming from a mile away.
Love your videos but please use better mics to record. Just listen to Joe N Tell's show to see the huge difference it makes. It is especially aggravating to see "audio"holics use crap mics.
Man,listen,i was just about to tear you a new hole,verbally,yet when you started talking about freezing cables ,expiration dates,etc,i knew you were either HIGH or pranking us.you really got me,i admit it,for about 3 minutes.Yeah,we are really tired of that cable bullshi-,especially considering many people have hearing loss,so what the hell would it matter.
I would be interested in your thoughts on cable manufacturers like MIT and Transparent who use those networks in their cables. A lot of audiophiles swear by Transparent, but would be interesting to do a double blind listening test.
bluejeans cables... thats as good as it gets... no need for anything else... mogami xlr , monoprice speaker cables.... these offer great value and its hard to get any better at any price
Not only the cable matters, but also the shape. The cable need to follow the curvature of the earth. So not totally straight. Remember that. And make sure that your amplifier is a little higher than you speakers. Now electrons can flow better (since is it downhill). Also remember to not use sharp bends, because the electrons can fly out the corner! Last but not least; make sure that the static air pressure left and right are the same. Different air pressures will make the sound faster on one speaker and slower on the other.
All cables, including power, do make a difference. Read the whole article here. It makes perfect sense : www.stereophile.com/content/gramophone-dreams-23-audioquest-triode-wire-labs
Jim Nixon of course they do. When you’ve paid $1000 for a cable, you will listen to your music a lot more carefully, and you’ll notice a lot more details. Of course, you could also do this without paying $1000, but...
I added a motor vehicle battery to each end of my speaker cables. Better than that, I run each of my speaker cables through a freezer. Now the system gives me electrifying chills!
I was so ready to hear out the other side of this discussion. I was all set up with full patience and calmness to hear some arguments. But funny, very funny....
Let's see. I put a $200 a foot power cable that is shielded on the last meter of power to my component. It's at the end of miles of aluminum power lines, many feet of cheap Romex, and at the component end, there is just plain copper inside the box. Will that last meter of shielding take out the EFI/RFI? I buy 8 feet of OFC/Cardas One etc speaker cable to connect to my speakers. Does it matter if the wires inside the speaker are non-OFC/Cardas One? Or the amplifier has non-OFC copper inside it? Same with interconnects. Keep in mind that the chain is only as good as the weakest link. The weakest link is inside the component, inside the speaker. Those wires are not $500 a foot. What's inside the mixing console at the studio? Probably Belden if you are lucky. The production equipment? It's just commercial grade. You can't make it better with expensive cables. You at best will just preserve "the weakest link". Save your money.
Not that I give a fk, but your logic is fking lame. Here is a pro tip, bundle all of your cables together along with all the power cables, and only use the generic power cables that came with your gear. Zip tie that bundle up nice and tight. Sweet, yeah!
Zi m, shielded power cables do nothing for the magnetic fields, regardless of the advertising hype. The shielding can help RF from affecting the cable, but for magnetic fields, it takes ferrous material, and fairly thick for the line frequencies involved. That copper or foil shield will do nothing for magnetic fields.
One meter of so-called "Shielded" power cable isn't going to do anything for the RF that entered before or after the shielded part. The power wires on the poles and the Romex in your house is a giant antenna. It would be better to invest in a Power Conditioner and the best is going to convert the AC to DC and back to AC again. Toroidal transformers will remove lots of potential gremlins. Probably the best conditioner is made by PS Audio. But their lowest priced model, the P12, is 5k. The problem with the Furmans, the Panamaxes , Richrad Gray and the Monster units is that there is no real testing and comparisons out there. You buy on faith that it removes noise,etc. But most are just overpriced outlet boxes with spike protection. I really laugh at the Pangea Audio Premier AC Power Distribution Strips. 8 outlet model on sale for only $399! Hurry!
I have a highly resolving system. My HDMI’s are BJC. MY AES/EBU,, XLR’s and speaker cables (9 awg) are all Analysis Plus. They are made in the USA. Their geometry is what sold me. Gene are you familiar with this brand?
So you're telling me that raising my cables off the floor with ice cubes is not going to re-align the crystalline matrix of the wire within them?? I'm so confused right now, since I've heard the resulting lowered noise floor in a double blind test...and you know you can't argue with that; confirmation bias be dammed!
So I was watching an audiophool talk about special power cables. It seems nonsensical at first glance. But when I thought about it maybe it could make sense. In theory the only signal that should be in a power cable would be the phased 60hz/50hz AC signal. But that power is used to amplify the audio signal. Perhaps something about the amplification process interacts with the power cable, making the audio signal pass through the power cable, and suddenly being limited by the characteristics of that cable. What made me think about it was that he claimed thicker cables attenuated the bass less, exactly what you see with these low resistance speaker wires. The test would be to see if you can somehow measure or detect the audio signal in the power cable, at the plug, or even going all the way back to fuse box. He did also claim that house wiring and even the transformer coil was important, which in that case would be logical. I also remember reading an article talking about how, since speakers are not perfect loads, but reactive, some of the power may be reflected back into the amp and cause distortion there. Apparantly that's very difficult to measure but it could be worthwhile to investigate as well. The problem is they may really hear something that isn't just placebo, but they make up a lot of nonsense to explain it, muddying the waters. Jitter turned out to be real, even though early digital audiophiles made up a bunch of mumbo jumbo to explain why early CD players sounded bad.
I don't understand why an Audiophile who has been in operation for 20+ years can justify and admit to having recording audio quality issues and is wearing a headset. You want people to actually take you seriously? Watching your videos and hearing the content is like watching something that was put out 10+ years ago. I'm glad you expected the negative comments, at least you wont be surprised.
Hey Gene I took my new 5000$ stereo pair of cables to a late night massage parlor. It made them instantly happy and charged up like never before. Music sounded 10 times more amazing. Thanks!
I think generalizing is always wrong. Here is what I have learned in the past 40+ years, listening to setups ranging from 400€ up to 80,000€ (Cd player, DAC, AMP, and cables) 1) Some expensive cables are not necessarily better than ordinary cables. Scammers do exist. 2) Until you have a very revealing setup there is no point paying a lot of money for cables: you won't hear the difference. 3) No point spending in cables more than about 10% the cost of components. 4) If you are deciding to spend a given amount on better cables or a better component, go for the component 5) The benefit from cables follows the law of diminishing returns, only it's steeper than with components. 6) A given cable may sound well in a given setup and not so well in another one. It happens. 7) Some cables enhance given properties in order to sound appealing and immediately strike the listener. They equalize sound. Personally I keep away from them. 8) Only buy a cable if the improvement in your setup is perfectly noticeable for a few days in a row, at different hours, with different types of music, different volume settings and different subjective condition. Buy it if you REALLY LIKE IT in all situations. 9) Do not allow price redefine what you like. The new cables will probably sound different, but do you REALLY LIKE the different sound? Are you allowing the price tag tell you that YOU SHOULD LIKE IT to become a hi-end audiophile? You are paying money to receive enjoyment, not to enter an exclusive club. 10) Do not allow the seller into your listening room. Do not listen to the seller talking about the cable. If the difference is there, you will notice it. If you need someone to tell the difference for you, spare your money. 11) Choose components and cables to listen to your favorite music, do not choose music to listen to components and cables. If you apply these rules, most times you will NOT buy. That's why vendors prefer to convince you that if you pay more you will hear better (which is NOT true in general): it makes their life easier and they sell more. At the same time, in my experience there are cables that make a striking difference, and are worth the investment. Not very often. So in general the snake oil position is, in my opinion, wrong, but the industry has been doing its best to convince people of it.
Shame on you to debunked the myth. I just spent $65000/pair on the Transparent's new Generation 5 -- Magnum Opus speaker cables before I discovered this video. Please do not let my wife see this video because I cannot afford divorce lawyer after spent my house's mortgage on the cables :-)
I wear grounded chain mail when listening to fast music, I then have to get my assistant to switch to copper and wrap me in wire whilst listening to classical or jazz. All while doing this the vibranium chair is swapped for unicorn horns...
Gene audio cables matter! I just got my stereo cables blessed by a Rabi and got them Kosher certified for stereo use My next step is to get them baptized so they absorb some heavenly juices Lastly I am going to an Imam and get them certified halal Please let me know if I should perform any other rituals for that perfect, sweet delicious magical sound! Also I use my 1/ ♾ gage pure silver power cable that connects my power amps directly into nuclear power plant because standard wiring just doesn’t give me that last bit of audio bliss that I crave!
I'm going to completely kill this joke and point out that 1/infty gauge conductor isn't even the largest you could measure in AWG. 0 AWG exists, and there are even 3 sizes above that (2/0, 3/0, and 4/0). When you go larger than that, you get into kcmil, goes up to and beyond 1000 kcmil, which is 1" in diameter (compared to roughly .5" for 4/0 AWG). If you're interested, a source I found lists it for $32 a foot.
If there's one thing I've learned, it is that the cost or design of audio cables makes NO difference whatsoever with regard to sound quality. And if there's something else I've learned ... it's that any RU-vid channels which discuss equipment of any kind, even photo equipment, which happens to include a list of affiliate links, are very highly suspect. In effect, such RU-vid channels are nothing but a Goddamn commercial for products.
The power of suggestion thing is true. We call light blue, well, light blue, or sky blue, etc. But what do we call light red? What do we call dark orange? We call light red "pink" and we call dark orange "brown". And because we use different words, we actually percieve them to be different colors, not just lighter. There is actually a you tube video about most cultures having now word for "blue" until just the last couple of years. Yes, they saw "blue", but just perceived it differently. And that sort of thing is going on with music.
Is there a reason why consumer manufacturers who supply balanced XLR inputs and outputs don't opt for locking connectors? One of the plus features of professional balanced equipment is that the connectors lock and remain secure until the user decides to disconnect. Hifi gear, even from many respected high end manufacturers, rarely incorporates this feature that's an accepted necessity in the pro world. I also think consumer manufacturers do us a disservice when they don't back up the connector with a proper balanced circuit to match, but that's another issue. People should use balanced interconnects if they have the ability to do so. Removes a lot of variables.
Agreed 100% i hate when the connectors aren't locking. Also balanced connections withput trully balanced circuits doesn't fully taken advantage of the design.
