Do cables make a difference ?

I was going to set up a poll ....as this seem a contencious issue. But I can't see how to do it.

My questionaires ......

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes/no


2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's....................%
Mains.................%
Speaker...............%
Digital..................%

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? yes/no

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? yes/no


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes /no


6.What IC cables do you use? Out of the box/ DIY / After market/ Custom made.

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end................................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+.......2500+.......1000+......500+.......

I hope this is of interest.....if anyone has any suggestions feel free to speak.

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes


2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's....................+20%
Mains.................+10%
Speaker...............+20%
Digital..................+5%

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? yes

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? no


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes


6.What IC cables do you use? Custom made.

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end......X..........................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+..X.....2500+.......1000+......500+.......

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes

2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?

As a percentage of 100%, which cables make the most difference:
IC's....................20%
Mains.................25%
Speaker...............40%
Digital..................10%

It is impossible IMHO to give percentages to absolute differences.

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? Without cables, no sound! Better cables unleash more potential.

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? Sure! I wish it was all the same!

5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes, many

6.What IC cables do you use? After market

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end........X.......................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? Yes


2.Which cables make the most difference? See below percentages
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's....................40%
Mains................. 20%
Speaker...............30%
Digital.................. 10%

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? Yes

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? No


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes


6.What IC cables do you use? After market.

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end........X.......................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes


2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's....................45
Mains.................25
Speaker...............30
Digital..................NEVER TRIED IT

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? they've changed the balance and it wasn't to my liking

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? no


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes


6.What IC cables do you use? Mostly DIY, couple of aftermarket

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end............x...................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes


2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's....................20%
Mains.................40%
Speaker...............20%
Digital..................20%

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? yes
- Though it appears to be system dependant. My Meridian is very mains cable dependant, my Naim kit hated aftermarket stuff.

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? no


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes


6.What IC cables do you use? Out of the box/ DIY / After market/ Custom made.

Digital interconnect and stereo interconnect from yourself.
Stereo interconnect, mains cables and speaker cables from Coherent systems (WM)

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end................X................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

I'll assume you're talking about estimated s/h value:

5000+.....X..2500+.......1000+......500+.......

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes


2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's....................40%
Mains.................30%
Speaker..............30%
Digital.................Not used

This is just a guesstimate, since all cables have an influence, and it is impossible to rate their relative impact.

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? yes (in fact all cables do, it is the trick to pick the one that harms less).

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? no (but that's Utopia)


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes


6.What IC cables do you use? After market

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end.......X.........................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? No

2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
N/A

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? No

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ?
Ideology doesn't come into it, just cold hard facts.

5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes

6.What IC cables do you use? Out of the box/ DIY / After market/ Custom made.
ICs: DIY (my kit is all DIY or s/h and didn't come with freebies so I made my own)
Speaker Cable: came with the speakers (s/h)
Mains: Bog standard black mains leads.

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.
Impossible to judge. My system sounds as good as many so-called "high end" systems I've heard costing many times more. What matters is that I enjoy it.

8. And an indication of system worth
About £2K probably in s/h value if I'm optimistic.

Michael.

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes


2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's.................10%
Mains................20%
Speaker..............10%
Digital...............5%

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? no

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? no


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes


6.What IC cables do you use? Out of the The majority are out of the box but I needed After market for the TT & DIgita sources as they weren't supplied. The mains leads are Custom made and run direct to the Fuse box.

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

Moderately High end

8. And an indication of system worth

20000+

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes


2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's....................40
Mains.................never tried
Speaker..............60
Digital..................never tried

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? yes
I compared the VDH D352 speakercable with some Audioquest Bedrock, which was the first time I heard a real difference between cables (the latter was far superior). There was far better resolution in the bass and midrange - but then this was using the opus 21 cdp, which made an incredible difference to resolution in the first place.


4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? no


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes


6.What IC cables do you use? After market
VDH and JPS

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end........X........................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+..X.....2500+.......1000+......500+.......

 

Answers as below in red:

 

Hi Michaelab,

I don't mean to start a war of words or anything, but I just noticed that in your kit page it says you have Isolda DCT for speaker cables.

I was wondering why you shelled out so much for these when you think cables don't make a difference?

Nils

Oh, and here's where you list it - bottom of the page

https://www.audio-forums.com/as-rediect/showthread.php?s=&postid=207#post207

 

I am with michael on this one. Past certain engineering considerations it is largely irrelevent and most "differences" in high end cables are deliberately engineered with anomalous LCR values.

1) No - not past a certain level dictated by engineering and characteristics of the connected parts, e.g. low cap cable for cartridge to phono and high quality connectors.

2) Properly built mains cables have the most difference compared with stock items. This apears to be related to earthing and connectors.

3) Yes - townshend cables made it sound worse due to anomalous electrical characterisitics.

4) Not if they are properly engineeered and matched.

5) Yes.

6) Custom with high quality connectors. Mains cables using lab grade filters - which do make a big difference.

7) Ultra high end - I have never heard a better system. Neither has anyone else who has heard my system

8) £30k.

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes, to your bank balance.


2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker

They all make equally little difference, once a basic level of compentent manufacture has been reached.

As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?

I've heard the odd 'difference' but I could never call it an improvement - just a change. 0%

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? no

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ?

Idealogy doesnt seem relevant.


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes


6.What IC cables do you use? Mix of:
Custom made/aftermarket/freebie

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end......X..........................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+.

 

.Do cables make a difference ? yes/no

NO


2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's....................%
Mains.................%
Speaker...............%
Digital..................%

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? yes/no

NO

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? yes/no

No

5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes /no

Yes lots

6.What IC cables do you use? Out of the box/ DIY / After market/ Custom made.

Home made mostly but one other I got v cheap and PCOCC speaker cables of ebay for 25 quid.

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end...............X.................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+ If it was all new.

 

.

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? yes

2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
As a percentage what difference does best cable make ?
IC's....................50%
Mains.................5%
Speaker...............45%
Digital..................Dont use digital%

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? yes

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? no


5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? Yes


6.What IC cables do you use? DIY/After market

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end..........X......................low fi

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+..X.....2500+.......1000+......500+.......

 

1.Do cables make a difference ? no

2.Which cables make the most difference? IC's/Mains/speaker
N/A

3.Have cables ever made your system sound worse? yes

4.Idealogically cables can't make a difference ? no
Don't understand this, what's ideology got to do with it?

5.Have you ever tried any after market cables ? no

6.What IC cables do you use? Out of the box

7. If you were to rate your system were would it fall.

High end

8. And an indication of system worth

5000+

Unclear whether this is cost of new equivalent bits or what system could be sold for.

Paul

 

That kit list is now extremely out of date. I no longer use Isolda cables. My s/h Dynaudio speakers came with a set of Dynaudio OCOS cable included which is what I use. I tried Isolda DCT for a while and then sold it when I realised it made no difference to the sound.

I'm off to edit my "Your Kit" post

Michael.

 

Realised the date soon after I posted