The merits of expensive cables

An interesting thread here:

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/t/89179/3abb6ea3b6315d3cd9ec5d53fb2e2155ds.html

Some people are in the know, others are content with the cheapest they can find (I saw Poundstretcher mentioned somewhere). I found it an interesting read to see others' views on the relative merits of cable upgrades - AV and Hi-fi.

 

Hmmm....I didn't read it all, but hard to take serious when they're buying their kit from Comet, and paying less than 100 notes for a component..??

 

I read it to here


" remember all the endless pseudo stuff in the 70's and 80's re
Monster cables - gold plated terminations - but I haven't touched my Linn Sondeck LP12 Valhala in 10 years because the output of my £90 Philips personal CD player on a pair of £25 Panasonic 'phones knocks it into a cocked hat. £100's even £1000's were paid for Japanese hand-made moving coil cartridges carved from exotic woods and all the rest.A lot of it was codology then and it still is but outfits like Sevenoaks can make a fortune out of it all."



A 90 quid CD walkman better than a Sondek?

What a dumbass.

 

Handmade Japanese cartridges being sold in sevenoaks? me-thinks this chap knows about as much about hifi as my fish's butt knows about origami.

 

Anyone up for a bit of expensive cable "debate" could check out this HFC thread...

http://forum.hifichoice.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=7589&start=0

The discussion gets better later on, with some at least interesting links posted.

 

I found it amusing. Someone thought Monster Cables were the best that could be had and think spending over £20 on a cable is worthless.

 

Of course it is - no pitch instability, no bass bloat, no going off every time you breath on it wrong, no "Linn" written on it so you know it comes from a brand that isn't a total rip these days...

The whole "the LP12 is the best thing ever built by the hand of man" stance is a really boring drone these days... It makes me :JPS: when there are so many more designs that can run rings round it - and of course, aren't a ripoff of "daddy's company's" design - the Ariston...

There's only been 1 LP12 I'd ever give house room to, and only then if someone else cued it up. CD might be crap, but at least you don't die of hearing your music through a bloomy sludge of one note bass and warble (unless your floor is a nuclear bunker of course)...

I'll duck for cover in said nuclear bunker now

 

So you've heard Bub's Ninja then??

I think I can see the general direction that this thread is going to head off into now...

:duck:

 

Funny you should say that....

I was having a chinwag with the owner of one of the local hifi stores here in Lisbon and he uses as his digital source an Aiwa discman from the mid 90s (I forgot to ask him the model name). I know this guy and he is not stupid - he could have whatever he wanted in terms of CDPs and DACs and he claims so far to have found nothing better than this old discman.

Many people laugh at him he says (including many of his customers) but they all stop laughing when they hear it

Michael.

 

He didn't tell you that it is Marc Levinson modded... :JPS:

And it sits on Isobearings, sujested by the man himself, odd as it might look...

 

No - he didn't...but still, an Aiwa discman? Have you ever heard it?

Michael.

 

Just the story, many times...

Apparently it was a special edition done by ML, or for him... :MILD:

 

Aha, admit it, Dom ,you only do it to see the reaction, don't you? I can only conclude that you have heard an LP12 in an alternative universe. As a lover of CD (which is most definitely not crap, at least so far as classical listening goes), I still maintain an LP12 for my record collection. No bass bloat and it never goes off, ever - I never fiddle with it, as it, not me, is supposed to do the playing.

And as a matter of fact, I do happen to have a nuclear bunker (all Swiss houses do - 30cm thick concrete walls and door), but I don't use the LP12 in it!

 

Well OK - my brain's usually on another planet, but my ears aren't. I really do NOT like the LP12 - I can't see what the fuss is about. It's not a BAD turntable in absolute terms, but that bass - eeeuk. Henryt's Sondek was blimming awful when he owned one - unless on pristine just-unsealed new vinyl - guess the mold release agent helped cover up the bloated boomy bass...

My Rega Planar 3 with worn out Linn K5 cartridge walked all over the guy's top spec (LP12, Ekos, Archiv, Lingo, Linto) turntable on all but the best pressings when I demmed it at his house - and I'm not kidding. Yes, I was gobsmacked too, but there you go - a turntable worth less than the power supply on the other sounding better (to me - iin the areas that mattered) - dang - that can't be right!

Henry - never heard the Ninja, but I wanna. I'm referring to the Audio-T Naim'd one in Reading - bloody ace deck - Forever Changes ROCKED on it for starters.

As for that Aiwa discman - well, you never know... A lot of people bought the Panasonic A350 DVD when it came out, because it was more "analog" sounding than many CD players... Euphonic distortion can be a very beguiling thing...

Maybe that's why the Linn sound is so popular?

 

Did he see it that way?

 

I'd suspect it was the Naim kit that was doing more for you than the T/T. Never did like that rig that much, although it was defo at it's best (IMHO ) when they were using Chord amps.