Some of my friends have lent me few cables to try out. Mainly XLR, power and speaker cables. I am going to give all a try. Bit overwhelmed how to do a comparison with so many cables at hand.
IMHO, the best way to compare cables is to record a track with your existing setup, swap one cable at a time record again and then listen on headphones may be to have close analysis. Playing and then swapping then playing again is not helping at all. Our memory is not that great to remember how a track was played while the difference is subtle.
All suggestions are welcome.
Thanks.
Mic Recording and Listening via headphones will add lots of variables to the mix, Apart from being more laborious, I'd advice against it. Don't complicate things in my opinion. These are my Routines while comparing 2 cables, which may help you in decision making.
1. Select an album or a Playlist with WELL RECORDED familiar songs, covering most of the attributes of the system like, Tonality, Vocals (male/Female), Dynamics, Sound stage, Resolution etc.. Songs which You can listen over and over again without getting fed up.
2. Select the Time of the day, when the ambient noise and intrusions are bare minimum, for me its late nights Or early morning sessions. You should be fresh enough for critical listening.
3. Ask
unbiased Family members or audiophile buddies to help you with inputs. One of the most yielding Interventions can be sought this way.
4. Play your Default system for a while before starting comparing, at least 1 cd length or 45min, this warm up is bare minimum. Give at least 15 minutes for your new component (or cable) to settle in, before concluding.
5.
Change only one component at a time, absolutely important. I go with Power Cables first because they make lots of change in the SQ, once you decide the best sound after deciding on the power cable go for changing the other components. You need to mix and match things many number of times.
6. Always see is there an incremental upgrade over the default cables you had previously, its very important to differentiate this. Also on the previous cable you are comparing with.
7. Vary the volume during listening, but Use the phone app at least for recording the Spl level,
always try to compare 2 components at the same listening level. The major mistakes can be avoided here.
8. In general, the
component that allows you to listen louder without producing A fatigue, Distortion or shouty character
Is mostly the better one of the two. Similarly the component which doesn't lose details and dynamics at low volume is the better. Just remember that it's not necessary for a same component to excel in both areas, but more often I've seen that I prefer the same component for low volume listening which I prefer to listen loud. Use Subjectivity to your advantage and pick the one which sounds better at your listening levels. Walking to and from the listening area sometimes gives out the difference between the two components. Repeat the cable change again to reproduce your judgment again before concluding.
9. Not every component changes every attribute of the sound, do read up to know what to expect to change from changing each component. Do read up on the Manfacturer mentioned capacitance, conductivity and impedance numbers if available. But, Remember that
Not Everything that can be Measured Matters & Not Everything that Matters can be Measured.
10. Finally, all said and done; the difference (including subjective preferences) between two well made cables is hardly ever more than 10% ( unless there's a significant synergy issue with one cable). That's why you see many people whining and being sceptic about cable changes. I usually pick the expensive cable if the difference is at least 5%. Once you have optimized everything else, each 5% increment in SQ via cable changes costs a lot.
Finally if you are unable to differentiate, Feel that you are Blessed With a Great System and stick to default cables , don't bother changing cables. Enjoy the process anyway.
