I can't understand the idiocy of my father

[Neil79]

Is he happy with it? or happy?

You want to swap with my dad? who sulks in his bedroom , or sits in the conservatory and doesn't want to speak to even the kids? .... Takes steriods and thinks its everyone elses fault but his own?... Who ended up on an Iva because spending money on his car was more important than his own life?

Yes i don't like my dad , he doesn't even have a bath more than once a week!

 

[Ken]

That test is more complicated than you would think...

Do explain.

 

[DailyGeek]

Admittedly it's his money and he can spend it on anything he wants but £1000 power cables? That is a little redicolous. In PC speak (as someone said about the OPs CPU cooler) that would be like buying a £1000 air cooled CPU cooler. Who on earth could really justify that. A £1000 amp or set of speakers, fine, but a cable? No.

But why is the cable of less importance than the rest of the system? Granted whether the cable is actually physically worth a grand is certainly debatable - just because its a connector rather than a unit does not suggest its a less important part of the system. Therefore why should it be worth less? Surely the hifi nut is generally buying for their own pleasure, so its in the ear of the beholder as it were.

Ideally you want great units + great cables.

You wouldn't want crappy units + great cables, nor vice versa. It just isn't logical if you are looking for the best performance.

Plus whoever said about a 1k power cable being hilarious with the 19miles of crappy powerline behind it hit the nail on the head. That is precisely why high end power noise filters and cables are used, to stamp out as much of the crap generated by that 19 miles of cable as possible.

I'm far from an audiophile (don't even have a hi-fi!) but I totally understand the logic of good quality interconnects.

 

[DRZ]

Do explain.

What would changing the furniture do to the RT60 of the room, for a start.

 

[tom_nieto]

How can you say "rofl".

Don't you just love wondering what your speakers could actually sound like if you had even the crappest of speaker cable as apposed to none at all.

I like connecting up my speakers...

anyone who buys speaker cable is an idiot.

 

[B@Th*nG]

My dad likes hifi. He spends loads of money on hifi.
The next thing that he buys is always going to make a huge difference to his hifi system. Then, a few months later he's looking at another item to improve his hifi. I dispair. Interconnect leads costing £500! Power cables costing £1000! It's completely insane. I can't tell the difference.

errr... what?

B@Th*nG

 

[sinister_stu]

I'd love to prove you wrong. Have you actually used anything other than bell wire?

Yes. I have used Cabletalk 3.1, QED Silver Anniversary, Chord something or other and Gale Bi-wire something or other.

I would never say that the standard "bell wire" is better than "speaker" cable, but cable is just stranded copper/silver with some kind of outer covering. So there is no reason to use expensive "speaker" cable over, for example, standard mains cable.

Perhaps you need to read up on capacitance, inductance & resistance.

I'd have to check whether they teach those particular fundamentals on an MEng Electronic and Electrical Engineering degree course, but I think I remember something about those 3. Maybe you could give me a short description of them and how they apply to this particular situation, just to jog my memory of course...

 

[Efour]

I'd have to check whether they teach those particular fundamentals on an MEng Electronic and Electrical Engineering degree course, but I think I remember something about those 3. Maybe you could give me a short description of them and how they apply to this particular situation, just to jog my memory of course...

oooh noob got owned!

But on a side note. Like many things in life premium items are hardly worth it where a cheaper alternative is availible but thats the way capitalism makes us consume.

Stop having a dig at your old man, he can afford it, he enjoys it. it makes him happy. You should understand this you are a PC enuthiast. HE could be having a midlife crisis?

 

[Snow]

HE could be having a midlife crisis?

yeah!!

at least he's not buying sportcars and high power motorbikes.

 

[dirtydog]

Is he happy with it? or happy?

You want to swap with my dad? who sulks in his bedroom , or sits in the conservatory and doesn't want to speak to even the kids? .... Takes steriods and thinks its everyone elses fault but his own?... Who ended up on an Iva because spending money on his car was more important than his own life?

Yes i don't like my dad , he doesn't even have a bath more than once a week!

Hmm that's not good!

 

[neocon]

Stop having a dig at your old man, he can afford it, he enjoys it. it makes him happy. You should understand this you are a PC enuthiast. HE could be having a midlife crisis?

I will just forget about it. But its hard when he comes to tell me about the specs of new hifi equipment or the new records he's bought.

 

[dirtydog]

I will just forget about it. But its hard when he comes to tell me about the specs of new hifi equipment or the new records he's bought.

I find it sad when someone doesn't understand that just because he is enthusiastic and excited about something, doesn't mean that someone else will be My dad is a bit like that too.

I might get excited about the bhp of an engine, or the MHz of a computer chip but I would never dream of boring someone about it who I knew wasn't interested in such things.

 

[SidewinderINC]

It's quite sad that you think of your own father as an idiot.

i think my father is an idiot, i'd say i'm pretty level headed and not sad at all - but thats another matter!


i think spending THAT much on anything is ridiculous, i mean i'll spend £2,000 on a guitar amp, and then £20 to connect the amp to the £600 speaker cabinet

 

[Amp34]

But why is the cable of less importance than the rest of the system? Granted whether the cable is actually physically worth a grand is certainly debatable - just because its a connector rather than a unit does not suggest its a less important part of the system. Therefore why should it be worth less? Surely the hifi nut is generally buying for their own pleasure, so its in the ear of the beholder as it were.

Ideally you want great units + great cables.

You wouldn't want crappy units + great cables, nor vice versa. It just isn't logical if you are looking for the best performance.

Plus whoever said about a 1k power cable being hilarious with the 19miles of crappy powerline behind it hit the nail on the head. That is precisely why high end power noise filters and cables are used, to stamp out as much of the crap generated by that 19 miles of cable as possible.

I'm far from an audiophile (don't even have a hi-fi!) but I totally understand the logic of good quality interconnects.

The cable isnt of less importance than the rest of the system (same with my analogy, a ocmputer won't work without a cpu cooler). Its just that £1000 is a bit over the top for what is essentially a piece of wire. If the cable has some kind of filter on the plug end as your post may suggest then perhaps it is more worth it. A component will have far more complicated stuff in so deservedly can be more expensive. But as I said in my previous post, its his money and if he really thinks he can hear the difference and doesnt need to spend the money on more important things, then go for it.

 

[z0mbi3]

My dad likes hifi. He spends loads of money on hifi.
The next thing that he buys is always going to make a huge difference to his hifi system. Then, a few months later he's looking at another item to improve his hifi. I dispair. Interconnect leads costing £500! Power cables costing £1000! It's completely insane. I can't tell the difference.

Couldn't you compromise by combining your knowledge?

 

[Tesla]

i think my father is an idiot, i'd say i'm pretty level headed and not sad at all - but thats another matter!

I meant sad as in the context of upsetting and not as a derogatory term.

I have a lot of respect for my Dad, we share some hobbies and interests and also have our own things we enjoy.

I couldn't imagine hating my Dad and having nothing in common.

 

[AmDaMan]

there are cables out there for a fraction of that price that will be nearly as good.. Maybe he just wants the best even if it's unecessary, for some reason

 

[Skiddley]

I think you should give him a break, if he can afford it so what. It's not like he's an alky and beats your Mum or anything.

 

[Dr.EM]

I wouldn't have a problem with him buying these things, but I do believe much of it is pointless.

The distortion introduced by modern electronics systems can be minimised to the point it is inaudible without even speding massive amounts (scientific measuring equiptment has immesuarably low distortion and isn't that expensive). However, the distortion introduced by the room you listen in can be many times higher. You are far better off spending money on acoustic treatment for the room than on the expensive cables imo. Even my moderately cheap setup (£800) sounds hugely different in this room to in the room it used to be in. Even moving the computer chair around makes audible difference, whereas bi-wiring made none to me.

Also, the quality of your own hearing affects how everything will sound. Past a certain age, you simply won't have the same quality of hearing and many Hi-Fi upgrades will not be audible to you. I also find the recording quality of many things quite dubious these days (massive overcompression is popular now). I don't feel I miss anything from these recordings with my current setup, better setups just show up more faults in the recording. Of course, this depends what you listen to, but i'd say only a very small number of recordings take advantage of a very high end system.

 

[[DOD]Asprilla]

My dad is a fool too.

He plays golf and spends money on clubs expensive clubs whan I can't tell the difference between them and the ones in Argos, tells me about his round when we are having a conversation, watches golf on television and spends even more money going on golfing holidays.

What a loser he is.

GET SOME PERSPECTIVE IN YOUR LIFE