I've seen what hi-fi's staff suggest that it could be worthwhile to pay a hi-fi shop £50 to break in a cable, because if it doesn't make a difference, you can just send it back.
The hi-fi industry is based upon the moral belief that if someone pays for something and they are happy then it's all well and good. Sadly, most of the stuff promoted by these magazines is a con. The problem is, it's impossible to prove that something doesn't make a positive difference to a listening experience, but you can prove that under controlled conditions a listener is not able to tell A from B. Such tests have demonstrated that hi-fi bods will struggle to identify a £2 cable from a £2000 one, a £200 amp from a £5000 one and a £100 CD player from a £10K one.
ANd what hi-fi don't help the noobies, plus their forum is full of people recommending cables varying on how much their equipment costs.
Amps do make a massive difference, my arcam delta 290 (greta amp with solid 75w rms) was brought to its knees by my ATCs and sounded like an old pensioner wheezing, but my lyngdorf is like angelina jolie and jennifer aniston having a lesbo experience together. Lyngdorf is about £1400 new (I paid £600) and the arcam is about 12 years old and about £100 now. Massive difference, but then to upgrade from my lyngdorf, well could look at a £4k karan but the law of diminishing returns would really kick in.
surely there must be differences in technicial specs. Its like comparing a £100 amp/speaker with a £10,000 isnt it??
No no, because speakers have better mechanical parts, like the drivers, tight tolerance parts, better crossovers, and cabinet designs, all of which can affect the sound. Twisting the conducters in a cable a different way, or adding extra rubber, teflon, cotton, or solid gold won't affect a digital cable. Analogue cables are more susceptible to interferance and can be made to sound different, but Ihave not actually done a proper comparison, just made up my own with fancy twisted silver wire in teflon over some tubing in a helix fashion and covered in cotton. Why you may ask, because I paid the same for my materials as a good quality mark grant canare industry standard interconnect (cdp -> amp) and wanted to try DIY. Haven't compared them yet as am just enjoying what my diy concoction does, and frankly have better things to spend my money on.
Mid range is where it is at, price and quality. Not for cables though, although i will try some zanash speaker cables eventually when I have more disposable income and time.
