Thad E Ginathom
Well-Known Member
The digital cable is not so expensive, BJ would have cost 15-20-ish, but for me, it is not so much the money as trusting the company.Thad, The Forest USB and Digital cables are not expensive at $35 and $29 respectively....
Mine were about $30-ish (bought in UK). I slightly exagerated that my five cables cost less than your one: about 140 is rather more than $149, but hey, a little hyperbole never hurt anyone, as the cable sellers know all too well . Yes, on the scale of expensive, $149 is not very.$149 at musicdirect.com so even though expensive, it is still cheaper than the exhorbitantly priced ICs from other companies..
The funny thing is that the BJ cables I bought are cheaper than the current equivalent to the old Cambridge Audio cables they replaced! And I believe them to be top-notch in every technical way, as per Square_wave's comments.
Yes, belief comes into it. On another thread, someone pointed out that even BJ are doing marketing. So we all choose the marketing flavour that suits us. I choose the one that doesn't smell of farmyard.
NB: Blue Jeans may not be the only straight-talking, reasonable-price cable sellers out there who do not indulge in hyperbole, half-truth, pseudo-science, weird claims, and downright lies to sell their products. They just happen to the one that I know. I was following links to their articles from both here and Audioholics before I actually bought from them --- and that's why I keep talking about them. Others can mention other companies that I do not know about, or have only vaguely heard of.
Of course, some might ask if I heard a difference. Yes, i think I did. I'd say more transparency. Transparency is something we often say we want, but when we get it, it just might turn out to be a little brutal: like listening to a CD (assuming it is a good master) after having been used to an elderly LP... but, when the ears settle in, the lack of noise and extra detail can be appreciated.
square_wave, I don't think that network cables can ever make a difference to audio transmitted as data over an ethernet network. I'll make that a 99.999% sure, reserving 0.001% for the possibility that any cable can pick up some kind of noise and feed it into the box to which it is attached. It is Audioquest's network-cable offerings that made me decide that I will never buy anything from the company. No, not even a Dragonfly DAC, although I have no problems with that product at all.
[insert my favourite cable company here ] has an article on cat5/etc cables. It seems that most of the ones we use, for data cabling or whatever, are actually nowhere near spec. Curious thing is that they still work. Of course, if you want one that is to spec, BJ will sell you one, made by Belden, and individually tested and certified! I'd buy that if I was still an IT manager! :lol:
Panditji, enjoy the music... that's what counts Don't take too much notice of these side arguments about bits of wire!