do people really believe this when they write it?

Firstly,I believe cables do alter the sonic qualities of your system.I believed this the day I invested in some £100 p/mtr cable for my Audio Physic speakers and immediately heard an improvement.Thats not what this thread is about.

I have just read a review of a cable that states a weakness as 'soundstage could be better'

is it me,or is that rollocks? I mean,how on earth is the cable affecting the soundstage? Unless he means the cable is inhibiting the speakers? but really,is that just arse?

In fact,cable reviewers are to blame fullstop for the growing naysayer movement,simply because they tend to write such shit.

or i may be wrong,and its a perfectly acceptable thing to say and its me who is an arse

 

I'm with you, it's complete arse. Improvement,yes. Soundstage, bollocks!

:bs: :bs:

 

saab,
to be honest if you buy into the opinion that cables can alter the sound of your hi-fi then i guess that the whole shebang is up for grabs. i.e. the cables will be able to alter most aspects of the sound - most likely in the case of soundstage by doing something to the phase of the signal. which iirc is to do with capacitance - which is a possibility with cables. - i may of course be talking arse there though.
cheers


julian

 

But if better cables offer higher bandwidth and reduce RFI signals then surely the sound stage would be more obvious? Cables can never add anything to signal (if they do they are bad cables) but cheap ones can really distort the signal.

I suppose I can't really see how cables can impove stereo imaging and thats related to the sound stage so you have a point. Cables can't really affect how the two speakers interact with each other, thats down to the source and amplifcation.

 

Hmmm... I don't really see why they shouldn't affect soundstaging. A generally cleaner signal transmission would do this, plus I could believe you get say more spatial cues from HF than LF, so a brighter cable might give better soundstaging? It doesn't sound a daft claim to me anyway.

 

I know I was pretty convinced when I tried FFRC cable it gave me a better sound stage, however I later put this down to my imagination due to threads like this. The FFRC is a very very bright cable.

 

hey,don't blame the threads!!!

 

A lot of reviews of hifi gear sound to me rather like people describing the taste of a wine ie, lots of waffle that gives you no idea about what the product sounds like. Human aural memory is pretty bad and our ability to describe it accurately is even worse!

Michael.

 

as has been said, reviewers rarely 'stick to the knitting' and start using words like 'colour' and 'immediacy' and 'holding a tune' and 'speed' and other either irrelevant or inappropriate words.

If you cant build a dream though, nobody can buy into it..

A.T.
Im sure you didnt mean it, but your post implies that cheap cables can distort, while expensive cables will not.

Im sure theres crap and quality equipment at all price levels

 

I have to disagree with you on part of this statement, Michael. Words used to describe the color, smell and taste of wine, when used appropriately, are extremely precise, although sometimes a bit far fetched.

But you are right if we are speaking of wine reviews in wine magazines. They cannot be trusted more than audio reviews in audio magazines, for the same reasons.

Cheers

 

Whilst due to certain qualities of the goods they're testing the wine reviewers may have some excuse, audio reviewers sadly do not !!

 

Yeah I know, its just at the cheaper end of the market more crap probably exists. Of coure you can probably pay £100m for cable that is crap but has lots of good marketing.

 

I think that's an absolutely fascinating analogy, Michael, and I think you are spot on.
Cable tasting is a tad like wine tasting, with superlatives, expletives, sensationalism and hyperbole applied by lavish verbose professional journalists.

I like Peter Walker of Quads quote when they ask what sort of wire to use, he replies, any old bit will do.

But it is nice to have posher cables and connectors, like wm's perhaps.

Dangly cheap wires don't look nice.

Its very interesting to note as an aside, that my local paper only gives a good review of a car if there is a dealer advert.

Last week, there was a Mitsubishi, and it got slated.

It occured to me that this paper gives such praise of cars, not finding fault with anything in reviews, that I thought I would search the whole motoring section for an advert, lo and behold, there was not a single dealer advert in the paper, any link to the bad review? hmmm methinkssss sssso

 

One BIG difference between audio testing and wine tasting is the use of blind tasting in the wine industry.

 

So typical of magazine/paper reviews. This is the reason I hate What HIFI and I just can't trust it anymore. I respect the opinions offered on this forum much more. No doubt the magazines will brand this place full of ingorant people who don't know what they are talking about.

 

Like winetasting, it's OK as long as you don't swallow!

 

or fellatio

 

my thoughts on wine are if it`s red has 14% on the bottle then that will do for me!! and pretty much the same same for cables try before you buy back to back test and if it sounds better buy it, bollocks to what the high paid reviewer in the mag tells you.

The Nankin

 

LRC,
I would like to polietly point out, our wires are made in a particular way, and the looks weren't at the top of the priorities list . If you feel that the asthetics are a positive, then who are we to discount it!.
I've been led to believe, by the odd one or fellows they have other qualities too, but would be inappropriate for my goodself to pass comment on them

 

yesterday i've read an article about testing of WBT's Nexgen plugs and sockets.
the reviewer explained in details what aspects of sound improved comparing to usage of previous WBT models.

they might be great but "clearer less harsh treble and more solid midrange" is hard to beleive for me..........