Interesting article on cables...drama ensues...

there was this one place that had an odorless/colorless liquid for fire suppression that was not conductive. first, it was not flammable, it was not poison (but you could not drink it) and the guy was dropping cd players and cell phones into it and they would work under 'water'. the crowd around, we tried to find out what the heck it was, snake oil? whatever - they were not talking. A few years after the show I notice the company - which I now forget) was outta biz so perhaps it was made from endangered species, but that was fun.

That would have been chloro-fluoro-carbons (CFCs). At some stage people thought they were the solution to all the world's problems. Then we found out they caused the ozone hole...
 
A significant amount of audiophile HiFi equipment comes without cables at all. I remember when the Japanese majors were putting really high quality cables in with TOTL products, but dealers around the world made it pretty clear they didn't want cables at all and they soon went back to cheapies or none at all. They wanted the add-on sales.

Consider even in the 70s, Kenwood shipped their LO7m with a super braided 1m mega-cable and wait for it, a directional 30ft screw lock, gold plated cable pair with the LO7c preamplifiers.

I remember us pulling out the Yamaha LC-OFC cables out of boxes where the customers didn't 'need' them.

I'm not sure that audiophiles 'upgrade' esoteric cables once they've spent the money on them. I think they stay in their systems indefinitely.

What the cable industry needs to do is follow the fashion/fragrance/sports shoe/bicycle guys. They have 2016,2017,2018 ranges with 'breakthroughs' and styling that renders last year's models ugly and obsolete. They need prominent 2018 printing on the cable jackets so audiophile friends are impressed. 2017 models can be clearanced cheaply in stores etc.
You mean like HDMI 18 gig high speed 4K HDCP 2.2 compliant cables.
 
I for one, am proud of the membership here at AK, with some judicious editing and pruning from the Moderators, in allowing a thread about cables to grow to 12 pages. Will wonders ever cease.
 
I remember reading an open letter in Stereophile magazine from the owner of Audioquest after this same Blogger (Mark W.) exposed their falsified Youtube video of cable performance made by one of their vendors. In every field, it is always good to have skeptics to help flush things out. Out of controversy comes awareness of truth.
 
Last edited:
I give you a Polt'esque: "Hihihi - Nikolausi!" for that. :) But yup, that's probably not too far off - although I additionally seem to have a bit of an Austrian colouration in my personal dialect, probably from watching ORF (Austrian TV) a lot during my childhood and youth.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

Story time! :D

A good friend of mine is from Austria. I met him and one of his friends when they were in California going to my undergrad university on an exchange program. The two of them were chatting in German while leaving the dorm, and when they walked past the girl at the front desk, she asked them "What language is that?" They responded, "German!" Bewildered, she replied, "What? I'm from Germany!" :rflmao:

The kicker was that she was from Bavaria and shouldn't have had a problem deciphering their Austrian-German. I guess hearing it in an unexpected place makes it harder to parse. :D
 
I remember reading an open letter in Stereophile magazine from the owner of Audioquest after this same Blogger (Mark W.) exposed their falsified Youtube video of cable performance made by one of their vendors. In every field, it is always good to have skeptics to help flush things out. Out of controversy comes awareness of truth.

It still makes me kind of sad that a company that makes a product as nice and budget friendly as the Dragonfly is so steeped in cable voodoo.

Their headphones are quite nice too.
 
I for one, am proud of the membership here at AK, with some judicious editing and pruning from the Moderators, in allowing a thread about cables to grow to 12 pages. Will wonders ever cease.

Agreed. hjames, our moderator has shown remarkable patience with this thread. This proves the independence of AK as a forum. Well done.
 
I don't think so. I'd rather think they're sometimes so concentrated on their mission to try to prevent other people from spending their money on false premises, that they don't really notice, if people base their buying decision on other, different premises or don't even care about the correctness of the premises, as long as they're pleased with the product/result. I.e., to me most people in the objectivist camp seem to have honest intentions - but they don't always have a talent for diplomacy, so that some don't notice, when their honorable quest for truth turns into a questionable crusade for truth.

You know, similar to those, who will always suggest the products, solutions or even ways of doing something they chose for themselves, regardless of whether that really fits to an advice seeker's request or not. Like for example those, who will still try to talk someone, who explicitely stated that he wants to buy a new turntable, into a used one, even if that person has already mentioned, that he or she is aware that this will most likely mean less good price-performance.

Greetings from Munich!

Manfred / lini

My take on this cable stuff and psychoacoutical phenomenon?: If I spent $5000 on a cable, I would hear a difference! If it was given to me, probably not.

And kudos to the moderator who kept and left this afloat! (I hope that isn't a comment on moderating; if so, pls delete)
 
I would have like to read the emails that went back and forth regarding re opening the thread. I was very surprised that it was unlocked and I was also very pleased. It really speaks to the integrity and independence of AK.
 
Sounds like you got some chip on your shoulder. I think there's something in the rules about giving Moderation back-handed compliments. Let's keep the focus on cable culture (not technology, physics, yawn, etc.).

I did not think it was back-handed. Keeping this thread open has been a benefit to me. Cable marketing and sales is a fascinating topic. I even got an private message from a resident cable-ista as a result of this. While I am even more unconvinced by his efforts to shape my opinion, I find the exercise to be more valuable than my own conclusion.
 
I did not think it was back-handed.
That's fine. IMHO the reason the cable discussions have "moderated" (no pun intended) was the sudden departure of one of our most zealous cable mavens which created a vacuum of sorts that thankfully hasn't been filled.
 
Great analogy restorer-john. When you spend $100K on components that are on display, it's unappealing not to connect them with beautiful cabling, even though a $5 Wallmart interconnect or lamp cord might suffice.
That said, in certain systems, very minor path components like cables can sometimes make a noticeable difference: At the old music room one at PSAudio, I heard first hand the effects different tweaks can have. A few years ago, the aforementioned blogger (Mark W.) met with PS's owner Paul M. and listened in that same room. I wonder what actually transpired but Paul, being the man that he is, spoke of it admirably (https://www.psaudio.com/pauls-posts/dr-aix/).
I appreciate that there are manufacturers of expensive cabling, power products, and other audio components out there as well as people that challenge their claims. These products give us something more to play with, and thats what keeps the hobby interesting to me.
It is a business after all. You want to see false claims and overpriced voodoo, step into the worlds of the cosmetics and supplements industries where WAY more money is extracted from people, sometimes actually doing harm.

EDIT: I too, appreciate the mindful hand of the moderators of this thread. Discussions on this interesting subject are always heated and typically closed down on most sites.
 
Last edited:
The reason the thread was kept open (I assume) is that the thread is not about the benefits of expensive cables. The subject is about how some vendors and a "society" tried to squelch one person's revealing of something shady

I agree. I don't find an ad-nauseum cable discussion to have any value; everything has been said a million times!
 
Back
Top Bottom