What do some audio professionals say about wires ?

[square_wave]

All this nonsense about wires, beyond the actual kit is all bollocks. I must admit that my speakers are triwired...with just the speaker cables costing 2.5L . That's just the speaker cables, and Iam not even taking interconnects. Now add power conditioning and power cables to it...thats another 3L of it. 5.5lL to try to optimise a system which still sounds crap to my ears.

So get the basic synergy between source, pre amp, power amp and speakers right first. All these fancy wires and power treatment is just Trying to smoothen out the rough edges on the sound that your kit makes. It is never going to change "the sound" if you don't like it to start with.

So spend money on these at the end, when you are wholly happy with your system, and have no plans of a upgrade for the foreseeable future, and just want to optimize what you already have. And I still can't promise beneficial results.

If I said I was a cable non believer straight away, I would have been scoffed at. Now my speaker cables, interconnects, power conditioning and vibration control alone account for almost 8L. And I still say cables don't matter a donkeys ass..
Correct me

Strong statement but I understand were this is coming from. From that context, it is correct.

If you have focussed performance goals for a system, after careful speaker positioning and important acoustic tweaks, the system should be able to satisfy those goals (at about 90 to 95 % ) with decent quality wires from the likes of Mogami, belden etc. These are wires that are in use at studios worldwide and they do the job quite well. If this basic level of satisfaction is not there, that system is not for you. You need to do a system revamp. Rethink your priorities according to taste and setup a different system. This is where professional help is very important. This help can come from very experienced dealers or even seasoned audiophiles.
Wires give you that last 5 percent or in some cases 2 or 1 percent. For many people that last bit of tweaking is very important. But they cannot solve problems like basic system incompatibility with the listener.

 

[firearm12]

Placebo effect maybe?
The only true way to tell is by getting someone else to do a blind test for you..
Or get someone else to randomly swap cables without telling you which one is connected.
Run a random test of say 10 samples and see if you get it right

Not a placebo effect certainly my wife also hears same. Some cables are easy on ears, can hear for long sessions, some have shiny sound so i cant listen for long times. Soundstage is affected mostly.

 

[firearm12]

Wires give you that last 5 percent or in some cases 2 or 1 percent. For many people that last bit of tweaking is very important. But they cannot solve problems like basic system incompatibility with the listener.

I think its surely more than that percentage, especially power cables do have very big effect. Then comes speaker cables and ics and digital cables. My experience if you are not liking a system, try different cables and there is one point when yilou start to like it. They can easily make or break a system imo. I have two setups infact 3 its my observation, there is a suitable cable for every system.

 

[firearm12]

Also its not related to price of cables. Infact i have not liked any costly cables in my system be it speaker or ics or coax. Maybe the impurities of cables make the system more lowfi that i like. These days i try hand on any low cost good cables to find if i like them.

 

[square_wave]

I think its surely more than that percentage, especially power cables do have very big effect. Then comes speaker cables and ics and digital cables. My experience if you are not liking a system, try different cables and there is one point when yilou start to like it. They can easily make or break a system imo. I have two setups infact 3 its my observation, there is a suitable cable for every system.

Consider a situation where you have access to many options of cables that are being used by pros in the Industry.These cables are usually not very expensive. Lets say, you tried many and chose what you liked. Keeping this as the baseline, lets say you started trying out esoteric cables. Will it completely change the tone or personality of the system ? Can it change its basic presentation characteristics ? I have never seen that happen.

On the other hand, if you were using cables that were a really bad match for your system ( due to lack of choice or experimentation ) and then you chance upon some cables that really work with your system, you may think the change was quite extreme.

 

[firearm12]

Consider a situation where you have access to many options of cables that are being used by pros in the Industry.These cables are usually not very expensive. Lets say, you tried many and chose what you liked. Keeping this as the baseline, lets say you started trying out esoteric cables. Will it completely change the tone or personality of the system ? Can it change its basic presentation characteristics ? I have never seen that happen.

Imo it does change the presentation upto the extent that i can start liking or disliking the system. I have preferred cheap mx, mogami, klotz over aq,furutech,vdh,chord,kimber. Maybe i am a nutcase.

 

[square_wave]

Imo it does change the presentation upto the extent that i can start liking or disliking the system. I have preferred cheap mx, mogami, klotz over aq,furutech,vdh,chord,kimber. Maybe i am a nutcase.

Thanks. For context, can you post the system details where you found MX to sound better ? Also, can you post the details of the wires tested. I agree with you that cost is usually not a big factor especially when you explore cables made by competent OEMs. I know some folks who are using some really old designs after comparing it with $$$ cables.

 

[firearm12]

Thanks. For context, can you post the system details where you found MX to sound better ? Also, can you post the details of the wires tested. I agree with you that cost is usually not a big factor especially when you explore cables made by competent OEMs. I know some folks who are using some really old designs after comparing it with $$$ cables.

I use mx coax cable only and have preferred it to audioquest cinnamon and furutech coax cable for conmection between my audiogd dac and amp