PC Audio 101

It's hard to describe, but I'd definately agree that cables can make a difference (sorry, I know, wrong place for debate, but stick with me!)...

It's all about weakest links and spending your money to improve each part. The difference between a 12p/meter cable and a £10/meter cable is huge, but beyond that it won't be a weak link anymore. And it's also true that the difference between a £250 hifi and a £500 hifi is vast, the difference between £500 and £750 is great, but then the difference between £750 and £1,000 is only good.

It's all about finding a level (income aside) where the you personally cannot hear a gain... This changes for everyone and indeed, over time, it changes per individual.


The magic of this article is that it improves your sound quality without spending money!! So why not?

I also seem to remember that 75% of the population is to a certain extent tone deaf. I remember my uncle once having a VERY nice hifi, but it was setup sooo wrong and sounded tinny, he didn't have a clue! But fine, fair enough, he still enjoyed it. Also, there are too many people who put everything in bass... if you just wanted to be sick from a loud sound, go lie on a runway. Each to his own :)

Originally Posted by crazybob
If your speaker interconnects have a name more detailed than "copper speaker wire" then you're probably reaching a bit far. I don't doubt the usefulness of heavy-gauge speaker wire, and I'll certainly not question the usefulness of soldered spade connectors and proper heatshrinking on the joints, but that's the limit and I'm just as capable of doing those things as any company out there, for quite a bit less money.

I don't agree, and IMO cables do make a difference

the best way to tell is with AV interconnects, because you really can see the difference
However, i have difficulty telling the difference between expensive, and very expensive cables

Some say they do some say they don't. I sit in the middle.

Better cables do not improve sound they just reduce the degradation of sound. Any wire is bad. So the better the wire the less bad it is.

However the system you hear the difference on is important. All systems will react differently. Cheaper systems don't allow you to hear the differences easily. Unlike expensive ones. Same thing with low bit-rate mp3's and lossless.

The cables i use are silver and gold, but i made them myself so they work out cheaper than most purchased high purity copper wires.
DIY is the way to go with cables. Especially when you have a trade account with bullion dealers (people who sell gold and silver)

Originally Posted by wharrad
And it's also true that the difference between a £250 hifi and a £500 hifi is vast, the difference between £500 and £750 is great, but then the difference between £750 and £1,000 is only good.

This is again a personal thing, some people would not think twice about £15,000 on a power supply for the new top of the line cd player. Others £30,000 for a DAC etc.
As you move up the scale it does diminish, but the more you get comfy with your current setup the better a more expensive one becomes. 3 years ago £300 on a amplifier was a silly amount for me. Now i reckon at £1000 a component and when you take, preamp, poweramp, tuner, phonostage, cartride, tonearm, deck, deck powersupply, speakers, headphone amp, headphones etc. it adds up. But i use it and enjoy it so much that it is worth every penny to me.

Whoa, whoa. I didn't say that cables don't make a difference. In fact, I agree - they make a significant difference. I only said that I feel wires with model names are overkill. Brand names are fine, because obviously someone has to make the stuff and will want recognition. I just have a problem if they describe their products with a name as opposed to just using descriptors like wire gauge and connector types. I understand that dirt-cheap cable won't work as well as higher-quality stuff, and I respect the need for heavy wire and good end connections. However, as soon as your advertising goes beyond "our cable is really thick high-grade copper figure-8 with soldered spade connectors," then you've entered the realm of advertising lunacy where you find claims that sound like physics but actually aren't.

For example, I'm going to pick on your DH Labs cables because they make it easy.

Originally Posted by DH Labs
The conductors consist of slow drawn oxygen free copper, which are coated with pure silver, the silver coating thickness being chosen to provide optimum synergy with the OFC base metal. The conductors are insulated with a special Teflon copolymer dielectric.

Silver is a bit more conductive than copper, sure. Not a lot, but if you found that it actually made a difference, then you could just step your plain copper up from 20-ga to 18-ga and the copper would be cheaper and more conductive. The Teflon is ok, because it really is a very good insulator, though calling it a dielectric rather than insulator is just an attempt to confuse people into spending money. All that about the synergy with the copper is a complete load - they just plated some wire with a thin layer of silver. And then, oxygen-free copper. Oxygen-free copper is at the very best 1% more conductive than standard electrical copper. It's even less significant than the silver.

Originally Posted by Mister_Tad
If its a cable argument you're after, try a hi-fi forum ;)

I'd get banned quickly.

Did anyone read my post? Hehe

Originally Posted by MaximumShow
Did anyone read my post? Hehe

No, I had missed it. Thanks for calling my attention to it; I agree with everything you said (which would explain why I posted soon after with more or less the same statements).

Originally Posted by crazybob

For example, I'm going to pick on your DH Labs cables because they make it easy.

reading the marketing blurb of any company, be it hi-fi cables, computer components, cars etc is easy to pick at (though hi-fi components probably have the most comical blurbs). As a whole, they tend to have a lot of words that don't actually mean anything. Basing any purchase on market-speak is a bad move. I don't care why they think their cables sound great, I just care that out of the couple dozen I tried in my system, they sounded the best (and were nigh on the cheapest as well, which is always a winner) ;)

Claiming that X Y and Z can't make a difference is just the same as demnding that the difference is massive. If you think that garden variety copper cables are best, use those. If someone else thinks that they need to spend $1k/foot on cables, leave them to it.

MaximumShow - I read your post, I just think you're wrong ;)

sorry about resurrecting this thread, but i just tried ripping a disk to flac as i could hear popping in mp3s after buying the sehnnhesier omx70s, but im also hearing it in the flac does that mean its the headphones? sound card is a realtek hd but with the mp3s i also hear them on my sansa e280. have to say the flac is hell of alot better (40 mb common for a flac song?)

I know, I know, it's an oldie but a goodie.

Anyways, I just found this article that goes quite nicely with Joshua's rather excellent beginners guide:

http://xs.vc/eac/index.html

The article is compiled using knowledge learned from members of the hydrogen audio forums. It gives you some great advice on setting up EAC and FLAC, covering many of the caveats not included here. I've found it very useful indeed and thought it would be nice to pass on the info.

A quick thanks to Joshua again for getting me on the FLAC train, I haven't looked back ;)