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Speaker cables.

notevenclose said:
Young people today, no stamina. All about instant gratification. I blame the parents.
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When I were a lad, in't old days, happen had a visit with ATC chief engineer and MD, well lad they said cables t' speakers 'as to be good enough, out else is a waste o' money.
 
westsea said:
When I were a lad, in't old days, happen had a visit with ATC chief engineer and MD, well lad they said cables t' speakers 'as to be good enough, out else is a waste o' money.
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Actually this is probably true, they don't believe in cables and connectors. Anyone and with latest SCM 11's, 19's, 40's pull out the binding posts and look at the monstrosity that they are. Pull em out and replace is my advice. Oh no wait for it....
 
Jowcol said:
I'm very disappointed that this topic seems to be running out of steam already.
'Fuses' made 23 pages.
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23 pathetic. Another Forum managed 57 for fuses. 56 then went quiet. A further discovery of sound difference was made and spoken about. Things were only quieted because a man capable of measuring offered to measure what these fuses differed by. Hush him fell the forum.
 
Foxman50 said:
Actually this is probably true, they don't believe in cables and connectors. Anyone and with latest SCM 11's, 19's, 40's pull out the binding posts and look at the monstrosity that they are. Pull em out and replace is my advice. Oh no wait for it....
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I did say when I were a lad - long before ATC hooked up with AVI as it was then; early eighty's when ATC made proper loudspeakers, nowt's like it used to be!!
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I do like a good laugh with cable threads. I find it a good measuring stick to find out who are stuck up their own backsides ...

I say try cables over a month or so, and if you like them, great, thats good for you, if not take them out and you may find that your original ones were just fine as they were. Just because some are more expensive than others, will not be a gauge for performance and sound quality gain.

Where I do find differences in cables is when I am TIG welding ... the colour of the arc differs between cables also Tig welders will change characteristics with the quality of the mains supply during the day.
 
Jowcol said:
I'm very disappointed that this topic seems to be running out of steam already.
'Fuses' made 23 pages.
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My issue with foo fuses is that so many of them are opaque rather than glass. I prefer the steampunk look of two shiny ends on a glass tube encasing wire. But it's simply a piece of wire so the foosters can't show you that bit. All of this tells me that true-foo audio wire should be transparent plastic and filled with gas excited by current that powers tiny LEDs that pulse.
And of course the ones with red lights will be popular and cost more, because everyone knows red is the loudest. The entire color palette is available depending on your favorite adjectives!
 
Marky-Mark,

Since you obviously have strong opinions on the subject of fuses, I think it is only right that you should revive the topic. I knew that it had more mileage in it.
Please don't be derailing this important matter.
 
I'm starting to come to the conclusion that hifi has been discussed to exhaustion, and there is nothing else for hifi enthusiasts to do but... well.... listen to their hifi.
Perhaps this is worthy of another discussion topic.
 
Purité Audio said:
The other issue is auditory memory, which is extremely short!
By the time you have disconnected/re-connected you have forgotten what the first option sounded like, much more fruitful to compare interconnects connected to two identical DACs and switch instantly.
Keith
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The actual definition of auditory memory appears to be something different to what you are talking about. A quick google finds that auditory memory is the bit of memory that allows us to do things like
  • Remember the name of someone who you just met
  • Recite a telephone number that you were given
  • Remember the address that you were just given
  • Listen to the radio during a contest, remember the answer, and call the number to give your answer.
  • Remember someone's voice
It has a duration of about 3-4 seconds, so they say (though how you remember a telephone number or address in that time is not explained).

So this may be, like expectation bias, something of a misappropriation of a technical term.

Also, if auditory memory only lasts 3-4 seconds, listening to any piece of music >4 seconds in duration is a waste of time, if that is what you are relying on for your comparison. But most people would struggle to make any meaningful comparison between loudspeakers (known to be different) using only a 3-4 second extract, which rather suggests the mental process involved is something other than merely auditory memory.

Again, then, this suggests to me that the straightforward (I might say simplistic) testing methodologies proposed don't actually understand or address the mental processes which lie behind our enjoyment of music.
 
The extract can be as long as you like, it is the time between switches that must be kept short.
The theory and research are all in Toole’s book.
Keih
 
But if auditory memory only lasts 4 seconds, on what basis can the extract be 'as long as you like'?

If you listen to piece A for 1 minute, make an instantaneous change to the system, the listen to A again, your auditory memory will, according to theory, have long forgotten what the beginning of A sounded like. So what would be the point?
 
The total length of time can be as long as you like, but short identical extracts with instanteous switching works best for me.
Keith
 
Purité Audio said:
The total length of time can be as long as you like, but short identical extracts with instanteous switching works best for me.
Keith
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I accept that works for you (it doesn't for me - it only shows up fairly gross tonal differences IME), but it doesn't seem to correlate to your stated reason why, because I don't see why the extract can be as long as you like.
 
Purité Audio said:
The total length of time can be as long as you like, but short identical extracts with instanteous switching works best for me.
Keith
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I find short extracts to be a poor way to carry out these tests, short extracts only allow for tonal balance to be measured, such as, more or less bass, more or less top end, this kind of thing, our brain focuses mostly on midrange, this is why longer listening tests are more important, this can allow for changes in dynamics, voice articulation, expression & involvement, all are focussed on the midrange area of the music, this is when you notice the bigger picture than with quick switching, more importantly, this is when you realise if you prefer one piece of equipment over another. There is no need for aural memory when carrying out blind tests in this manner, aural memory will focus on the less important aspects of music making, whereas the feel of a piece of music, by feel I mean the involvement, rhythm & expression, this will either be in place or not, a less than adequate set up can destroy this & I find this quite easy to notice in this kind of testing, even small amounts of change in this area can make the music more or less involving, these small changes may seem insignificant to some in the short term, but not in the long term IME.
 
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