Hi-fi woes

[Fluff]

It's very bizarre, the cheapo interconnect that came with the cd player sounds much more together than the expensive interconnect that the salesman said would make things better.

With the Chord interconnect which set me back about £40. I hear drums etc, better, but lose vocals, and midrange, i might try get a refund. In fact any of the other interconnects, i have tried. The best is the one that come with it.

Peter

System Nad c350, nad c 542, dynaudio audience 52's

Infact I suppose I should be happy.

[gt40]

tis a strange thing.
salesppl will always try to sell you fancy red or blue coloured interconnects, saying they sound or look better on the screen than just the standard ones, but yet they all seem to use the standard included cables in their showrooms.


hmmm.

[Fluff]

Hey you spell coloured with a U, is it just the US that spells color.

[KvHagedorn]

Just our way of declaring our independence, I suppose.

Some cables actually can make things worse.. the Monster Cable $40/pair interconnects supposedly did. There's good science and bad science, you know..

[Jammrock]

KvH has a point. What brand of "expensive" cable did you get?

[Fluff]

Chord Chrysalis.

http://www.chord.co.uk/chordweb/chrysalis.htm

[Jammrock]

7 x .3mm (~22 AWG) strands, shielded and insulated. Looks like they can't decide wether to use a stranded or solid core design. Or maybe trying to build a hybrid design?

They don't have this brand in the US. At least not that I've seen.

Anyway, a lot of people say that cables need a "burn-in time." Though I would have to agree with Greebe's opinion that the "burn-in time" is more your ears and mind adjusting to the tonal differences the cable provides (psycho-acustic adjustment so to speak) than anything else.

I would recommend listening to the cables for a week or two, but within your stores return policy limit, and see if the cables begin to sound a little more to your liking. If not, return them.

Each person has different likes in how their music is reproduced, and if the cable isn't doing it to your liking ... return it.

Jammrock

[Fluff]

To be honest, i swear most of these companies dont make their own cable. I think alot of them just use Belden cable, and put a nice colour on the outside.

Now only to find out which cable gets selected by which manufacturers.


Chord is a UK company, I have Qed X-Tube Speaker cable.

http://www.qed.co.uk/cables/speaker/xt-range.html

and some marketing that i got sucked into.

http://www.qed.co.uk/cables/speaker/xt-how.html

I thought it was pretty good.

[agallag]

Cable nonsense

[Fluff]

I am beginning to agree with you I think. I think there is an incredible amount of bull with Hi-Fi components, cables, speakers etc.

[Jon P. Inghram]

I use this stuff, makes everything sound much better!

http://www.altmann.haan.de/tubeolator/default.htm

[KvHagedorn]

Originally posted by Fluff
I am beginning to agree with you I think. I think there is an incredible amount of bull with Hi-Fi components, cables, speakers etc.

Cables, yes.. but speakers, definitely not. A/B listening tests reveal great differences between speakers. Higher quality amplification is also quite perceivable.

[Greebe]

All speakers require a breakin period, cables do not.

[Fluff]

Was reading somewhere, that the room acoustics, make a large impact on the sound of a speaker. I would love a manufacturer to do something along the lines of a Digital powered speaker with in built room correction / EQ. At a reasonable price, that sounded good.

The only two i could find were studio monitors, so are not designed for hifi unfortunately.

Cheapish £700/pr

http://www.alesis.com/products/ProLinear820DSP/about/index.html

And not cheap £3500/pr

http://www.dynaudioacoustics.com/Default.asp?Id=321

The second one has cool features, if you have the digital outputs you can have up to a 7.1 set up. (you can network the speakers and control them from a pc ) But costs bucks. But i wouldnt need any fancy speaker cables, or interconnects.

[gt40]

When I set up my system, I had two friends help.
one had a speaker each, and I had them move them to my directions while I sat in the 'listening position'.
once the sweet spot was found, it was jus a matter of convincing my beloved that the speakers 'had' to be there.
sometimes this procedure can save you alot of money/aggevation, and usually there is no money that can compensate for badly placed speakers.