hifi Delusion at it's greatest?

[Mr_Sukebe]

..You seem to believe that people need to have visited your house to know wtf they're talking about. Are you the only licensed host of blind Hi-Fi testing in the country or something?

Did I say that someone needed to have listened to my system, or simply that they could/should make some effort themselves to go get a dem? After all, most cities have some decent dealers around.

Let me re-iterate this. Despite have a background in electronics, I really don't understand why a power cable should make the slightest difference. Do I believe that it can, well in the right system, yes. All I'm saying is that people should make their minds up based upon their own experiences, not what some peddlar is telling them in an online forum.
For that matter, that goes for my own comments too. Whilst I have heard varied results from power cables, others may have different opinions, and that's cool too.
If you want a classic example of overhype online, go checkout some of the comments about BD players and their differences. Some people claim they've seen massive differences, some absolutely none. Who's correct? Frankly I have no idea. I've tried three and couldn't see any significant difference. What's the correct answer then? Easy, try it yourself and make up your own mind.

I think that what it comes down to is that I've put the effort in to listen to different gear, and perhaps understandably, I get a bit upset when someone tells me that I'm delusional, which I must be if they're right.

See where I'm coming from?

 

[Dr.EM]

that is the whole point - the mains lead / ext between the wall socket in your house and the audio equipment IS what will make the difference

The supply coming in to your house is spikey and for a better word "dirty", and this feeds the mains cable / extension that you attach to your equipment which "cleans" the spikes to make it a better supply to the PSU of the equipment in question

This is exactly why it COULD (rather than definitely will) make a huge difference

If it included any filtering components then this would be true. As far as i'm aware it's just a straight lead, though presumably a fuse is included!

I know that when I design equipment, I ensure it will get full performance even from a 'dirty' mains supply by including any required filtering internally. Any high-end manufacturer should do this, so mains filtering may actually be more applicable to low cost equipment!

 

[Participant]

...when they have made bugger all effort to actually find out for themselves.

If you guys really aren't interested in actually proving it to yourselves, then why bother getting embroilled into a thread that you can add bugger all value to?

Did I say that someone needed to have listened to my system, or simply that they could/should make some effort themselves to go get a dem?

My point was that you were assuming that everyone rubbishing your findings has not already done this. Maybe you should lend more credence to people's opinions, or at least ask them what tests they have carried out, before accusing them of making "bugger all effort to actually find out for themselves".

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

My point was that you were assuming that everyone rubbishing your findings has not already done this. Maybe you should lend more credence to people's opinions, or at least ask them what tests they have carried out, before accusing them of making "bugger all effort to actually find out for themselves".

Just perhaps I credit forums members of OCUK with the gumption to state whether or not they've actually had experience with kit, using not particularly difficult statements like "heard X cable against Y cable, couldn't tell any difference". See, it's only 10 words.

As I don't remember reading much evidence of that, I don't think I'm being unfair in assuming that said posters have not actually made any personal comparisons, and are simply playing at being a keyboard warrior.

 

[DreXeL]

Mr S, you are an intelligent guy, you must realise that there is simply NO WAY these cables alone are making any difference to the sound. You say you can hear the difference, I say it's placebo

Didn't you once buy a 'CD Lathe' that makes the discs more round or something? :/

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

Mr S, you are an intelligent guy, you must realise that there is simply NO WAY these cables alone are making any difference to the sound. You say you can hear the difference, I say it's placebo

Didn't you once buy a 'CD Lathe' that makes the discs more round or something? :/

Don't you find your own statement a bit of a contradiction in terms?
You're happy to credit me with being fairly switched on (and therefore aware of placebo), yet think I'll still spend my dosh on something that makes no significant sonic difference.
Now maybe I really am losing the plot, but have you considered that maybe I'm not? I can't help but think that I'm happy to stand up infront of the whole of this forum and try to argue something that many consider ridiculous. If you think I didn't really believe it, do you think I'd bother? I promise that I have a lot of far more interesting things to do.

What I'm trying to say is that it would be seriously appreciated if people had a more open mind on the subject. I'm not suggesting that people go spend their own money on this kind of stuff without a second thought. I am suggesting that they don't sprout opinion based upon zero experience, and that it would be a lot more useful if they actually did some listening themselves.

 

[9designs2]

They once said no way a man could fly to the moon...........

No look at the Piece of wire as another component, what if it's construction, be it woven multi wired design, as RA's is, and plugs etc which perhaps had some capacitance effect, all COULD MAYBE cause a reduction in RFI and spikes ??? Is it impossible to consider ?..... is it science fiction that a cable could be an engineer component with an effect ?
Personally the effect has always bee minimal for me, as most of my stuff runs switch mode power supplied that seem more immune than traditional PSU's ....... But I try and keep and open mind.

 

[lunarwolf]

If you think I didn't really believe it, do you think I'd bother?

aka delusional; meaning something that is believed to be true or real but that is actually false or unreal. don't mean to be insulting but you are handing out the stick to get beaten with.

PS did you try the pwr chord on your PC to see if it runs faster?

 

[Yamahahahahaha]

aka delusional; meaning something that is believed to be true or real but that is actually false or unreal. don't mean to be insulting but you are handing out the stick to get beaten with.

PS did you try the pwr chord on your PC to see if it runs faster?

I got a £130 silver braided power chord for my PC and it feels so much faster, like I overclocked my processor a million times.

I'm not going to prove it with benchmarks because it's so obvious.

 

[marl]

My point was that you were assuming that everyone rubbishing your findings has not already done this. Maybe you should lend more credence to people's opinions, or at least ask them what tests they have carried out, before accusing them of making "bugger all effort to actually find out for themselves".

In defense of Mr S. In previous threads on the topic of cables the sceptics have rarely shared their listening experiences!

 

[imamosher]

This is even better.

http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM

Thats right, its a Cat5e cable .

I knew my day was going to improve when the truck pulled up at my home with this cable deep within. No ordinary truck, this one was Holy White, and the gold Delivery logo sparkled like a thousand suns reflected through shards of the purest ice formed with unadulterated water collected at the beginning of the universe. The driver, clad in a robe colored the softest of white, floated towards me on the cool fog of a hundred fire extinguishers. He smiled benevolently, like a father looking down upon his only child, and handed me a package wrapped in gold beaten thin to the point where you could see through it. I didn't have to sign, because the driver could see within my heart, and knew that I was pure. Upon opening the package, an angelic choir started to sing, and reached a crescendo as I laid this cable on my stereo system. Instantly, my antiquated equipment transformed into components made from the clearest diamond-semiconductor. The cable knew where to go, and hooked itself into the correct ports without help from me - all the while, the choir sang praises to the almighty digital god. With trepidation, I pushed "play," and was instantly enveloped in a sound that echoed the creation of all matter, a sound that vibrated every cell in my body to perfection. I was instantly taken to the next plane, where I saw the all-father. I knew with my entire soul, that all was good in the world.

But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.

Possibley best review ever

 

[Raikiri]

lol took you this long to figure out what hi fi is utter rubbish

and yes, audiophiles need to put down the crack pipe

Hi-Fi isn't utter rubbish, trust me my Mezzo 2s sound a hell of a lot better than any PC speakers I've ever heard. However, certain aspects of Hi-Fi are rubbish, for example:

http://www.highendcable.co.uk/Nordost ODIN Power Cords.htm

Yep, £18,900 for a 5m power cable. While a cleaner power supply may reduce ripple and some interference... the effects are minimal.

You've got miles of crappy cable between you and the power source. The last couple of feet won't make any difference.

I win

http://www.russandrews.com/product....&customer_id=PAA2478037210012SDXWIQOLMENHZPIX

Yes - That's in Pounds and Pence, also check out the 2m price - £6,257.30

Rich

I think I've got you beat.

 

[lunarwolf]

Hi-Fi isn't utter rubbish, trust me my Mezzo 2s sound a hell of a lot better than any PC speakers.

my CM9 aren't too shabby either

 

[marc2003]

Yep, £18,900 for a 5m power cable.

and what do they think people are using to record the music they are listening to?

 

[PardonTheWait]

and what do they think people are using to record the music they are listening to?

This is where the argument stops, in my eyes.

Music is made by people playing instruments which are made out of wood and brass and plastic and bits of string and blah blah blah, and recorded by microphones made out of god knows what and then put through this and put through that and so on and so on and so forth....

the power lead makes it sound better?

It's absurd. It is absolutely absurd. Honestly makes me wonder how much time these people spend actually listening to music compared with how much time they spend ****ing about with their system, researching new bits, demoing new bits, reading about new bits, and doing a whole host of things which are not about LISTENING TO MUSIC.

Magazines like what hi fi have lists of albums and so on and that are impeccably produced and are excellent for testing new bits of kit with.

Wait.

WHAT ABOUT MUSIC THAT YOU LIKE?

When you get to the point where you're listening to music that you don't even like just because it shows off your new speakers, you've entirely missed the point of what music is and what it's for.

 

[TONY]

I bought a £50 power cable when I got my subwoofer a few years back, I was not really convinced it would make any difference but because I had spent thousands on speakers and kit I decided to spend another £50 if there was any chance it would be an improvement.

 

[Mr_Sukebe]

...It's absurd. It is absolutely absurd. Honestly makes me wonder how much time these people spend actually listening to music compared with how much time they spend ****ing about with their system, researching new bits, demoing new bits, reading about new bits, and doing a whole host of things which are not about LISTENING TO MUSIC.

Magazines like what hi fi have lists of albums and so on and that are impeccably produced and are excellent for testing new bits of kit with.

Wait.

WHAT ABOUT MUSIC THAT YOU LIKE?

When you get to the point where you're listening to music that you don't even like just because it shows off your new speakers, you've entirely missed the point of what music is and what it's for.

Now that's something I definitely agree with.
The amount of times I read someone saying "I listened to x, which has got the most amazingly deep bass and is incredibly recorded". For that matter, just about anyone with non-classical SACD. Most of what they're talking about is lift music.
There's tons of ace music around, and some of it really isn't that well recorded, but so what, listen to what you love, not what happens to sound great with specific systems.

I have to say that one of the real benefits of moving to streaming is how easily it throws up some brill stuff I've not heard in ages. With CD, it was just too easy to focus on your top 20 CDs and not play that much else. I now random play across all 1000+ CDs that I own. Yes it does throw up some naff stuff too, but that's what the "next" button is for.

Lastly, some of the real "hifi" systems are probably worst. They're terrible for giving music an almost etched and overhyped and over detailed view. With really well recorded music, can sound amazing. But I don't want to just listen to well recorded Jazz. What about the day you fancy a spot of Definitely Maybe (which is truly awfully produced, but has some wonderful songs on it). These upfront systems simply rip your ears off with the wrong music. Still, that's progress, at least according to the hifi rags.

 

[marl]

On several occasions I've been to dems/friends, and they've played a so called well recorded 'test lp' to show of their systems.

Much to my surprise, on a few occasions I've bought the album as I actually liked it!

 

[probedb]

I stopped even bothering arguing on WHF forums when their editor said that PCM sound tracks sounded better than lossless ones

 

[Yamahahahahaha]

PCM conserves the original jitter!