Does anyone here believe in expensive cables?

I think, even if such cables do make any difference, and there is no evidence to suggest they do, then it is so slight that most of us would be hard pressed to hear a difference. My choice is to grab a half decent prices cable that isn't complete tack and should last for years. I should imagine that in a blind test most of the super Dooper cables and cheapo ones will sound the same with a few exceptions due to manufacturing faults etc. But if people have a hobby they will find a justification to spend more money on it!
 
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Merlin5 said:
Yep, super rich people at headfi who buy into the whole snake oil marketing.

Oh yeah, that power cable one is a gem. 'Clean' power from the wall that will supposedly improve audio quality. :rolleyes: :D

Oh gold taps definitely improve the water. Also, if you paint one side of your headphones in blue and the other side in pink, this will bring out the mids and widen the soundstage, a little known secret I've kept to myself all these years. :p
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When I was experimenting with building a headphone amp I was unable to detect any difference between using some cable from an old router power supply and some more expensive shielded stuff - aslong as the amp had proper filtering/chokes.

However there was a fair difference sonically between different power supply setups - a more expensive power conditioning stage as well as a higher end virtual ground circuit using relatively expensive capacitors and proper regulators, etc. resulted in better bass handling and slightly cleaner vocals, etc. compared to basic chokes/inductors and a few run of the mill discretes or even a rail splitter chip.
 
No. but I do believe in good cable. I replaced the cable on the last two headphones I bought, only really as the stock cable felt weak, or too short.

Got to get braided. Just got a new cable for my HP200's, though was a little hard to source due to the propriety locking mechanism on the normal cable they use.

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rids57 said:
Nope, once you have reached a standard that provides optimal connectivity I don't believe it makes any audible difference.
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Yes this is my experience, anything more expensive than QED cables is a rip off, everything I have read about cables and from what I have used, it will either be obviously bad sounding, ok but with some sibilance / distortion, or it will sound good.... and when it is good, spending more does not make it better (well it might but it is probably in your head).

Profigold make decent cheap cables and QED make very good quality cables that are a bit more expensive. All this £200-2000 cable BS should be illegal its fraud, even £100 is too much, most I will spend on a cable is about £35. Most of it is placebo effect and "expectation bias". This has been shown many times in blind testing etc.

But the cheap junk cables around £5, often sound terrible, for example this cheap 3.5mm extension cable I found the other day lying about and plugged it in, next day I thought my headphones were broken, then I remembered I plugged in the junk extension cable, removed it and they sound good again.
 
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rids57 said:
It's funny, even some very highly respected reviewers claim that these ridiculously expensive after market cables do improve the sound.
They are normally pretty quick to admit that they don't know why though, because there is not one shred of evidence to back up their claims.

As far as I am personally concerned, any competently built cable that uses good quality (and not necessarily expensive) materials and provides close to ideal measurements, is going to sound much the same as any other.
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Even the "highly respected reviewers" (and every person) is susceptible to placebo effect and "expectation bias". I have done it many times and eventually realised it can make a big difference.
 
All I care about is if the outer sheath etc is of a sufficient quality more for wear and tear. Speaker cable I use the 79 strand stuff at TLC Direct which seems perfectly fine.

I have various HDMI cables (from £1 to one I got free for buying a lot of AV equipment that retailed for £150, no difference between them all)
 
londonbairn said:
All I care about is if the outer sheath etc is of a sufficient quality more for wear and tear. Speaker cable I use the 79 strand stuff at TLC Direct which seems perfectly fine.

I have various HDMI cables (from £1 to one I got free for buying a lot of AV equipment that retailed for £150, no difference between them all)
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HDMI cables will either be very obvious things like blocks on the screen or they will work, simple as that, none of this "enhanced contrast and richer colors" absolute BS. Maybe the audio in HDMI *might* be affected by jitter but that would still 99% likely be inaudible anyway.
 
He's obviously a believer in audio pixie dust so there is nothing you or anybody could say that would persuade him otherwise.
 
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