[lithos]

I swear I have written exactly that same paragraph. Including the "whoops". Really!

I once listened to a system in which just the interconnects cost 40 grand. And it sounded good. What I really wanted to do was replace them with bog standard cable and see if there was a difference.

People in professional audio laugh at audiophiles.

There's an article I read on the web, about one of the engineers who designed a bunch of amps for Mackie ages ago, when they were first starting out.

They just used lamp wire. You know, the stuff that goes from the power plug to the bedside lamp. Probably made by a bored dude in overalls with grease under his nails. Used it in all their demos at shows, in show rooms, etc. It's just copper - it takes an electrical signal from Point A to Point B. He was puzzled and stunned when, in the 70s, these magic cables started showing up in stores, promising better sound, lower capacitance, lower dilithium crystal concentration, pure unobtanium solder, etc, etc, and he ended up thinking, what the hell is this for?

Sure, I do think there are some advantages to using the good stuff (ie, the stuff on the reel in the electronics store - NOT the stuff that comes in a freakin' satin-lined mahogany box)...in that it tends to be better made (and I do like the flat stuff, as it's easier to run around and doesn't tangle as much) but is there any audible difference to actual ears, not oscilloscopes? Doubt it. Maybe the defects in less pure copper might show up...over a run of a few hundred kms or so. 'Course, the price of the speaker cable will probably then pale in comparison to the price of the speakers need to play the sound back to you from the next state.

Granted, in a sufficiently small room, such expensive cables would make a difference, as the acoustics would no doubt be affected by your now-empty, hollow wallet.

I also love it when these guys make replacement headphone cables that look like they weigh about ten times as much as the 'phones they attach to. But rest assured, they're individually assembled by Jesuit monks, or something.

The James Randi-Pear Bijou Cables saga has got to be one of the classic stories of this sort of story. I'm pretty sure for $7000 I could get enough solid gold to make into cables - and that gold don't corrode, and is an even better conductor!

We're not laughing at you, Vaughn! We're laughing at the emperors in their new clothes.

[Nesster]

All this negativity from people who peep at pixels that won't be noticed if they printed out the picture instead of enlarged it 200% on their screen;-)

yep, there's a lot of similarities between the enthusiasms: the mine's more expensive and top of the line therefore everything else is crap, mine's the best brand and therefore etc, all the second or third hand info we read, adopt, and then pronounce as gospel... the upgrade-itis... the idea that if I just buy the next lens/interconnect/tube/camera/amp/whatever my enjoyment and skill will finally make that quantum leap to nirvana... spending insane amounts of money and seldom feeling satisfied... All this in the end a result of successful marketing by a) magazines and web sites b) manufactures c) the inevitable scuffle for pecking order amongst the cognoscenti.

That's the dark side

Then there are the counterculturalists, contrarians, vintage buffs, measurebators, artistic impressionists, and Pentaxians

There's some philosophical commonality too: both pursuits aim for (or at least pay lip service to) the realistic reproduction of a real event, through recording. This is another endless source of fun and debate.

Hi-fi unfortunately has adapted a mega-bucks mentality, which opens it to ridicule and dwindling clientele. Though we do have photographers who insist on the mega buck gear - but our megabuck gear tends to also be the gear the pros use.

Apart from all the fun to be had, the most satisfying aspect for me of either pursuit is the development of awareness and discrimination - auditory or visual things that previously weren't conscious now are, and subtle effects become apparent (and cherishable or excrementable)...

[VaughnA]

We're not laughing at you, Vaughn! We're laughing at the emperors in their new clothes.

I'm with you there. I sold crappy stereo rack systems at big box stores in the 80's but bought low end 'audiophile' equipment at the audio stores for myself. Sadly, much of today's Home Theatre stuff is about the quality of the rack system stuff I used to sell.

I won't even go into bose..

[Ben_Edict]

I won't even go into bose..

"Is it HiFi or is it Bose?" Was the question all around here

I am still weeping, when I remember my last pair of homebuild speakers, which I had to sell, because they were not exactly living room compatible, in the eyes of my partner. I ended up with small floor standing Linn Keilidh speakers, which are very nice, but not superb…

I still use most of my equipment from the 80s, like my Onkyo M505 power amp and my beautiful Philips CD 304Mk II cd-player, which sometimes will not open the cd-drawer. And even bought an older Dual 721 turn table, which certainly isn't "audiophile", but very good. That's all part of my office stereo.

I recently got an Harman Kardon PM655Vxi integrated amp, via ebay. The usual fraud. Amp was completely dead when it arrived and a lot of cleaning and some soldering was necessary to revive the beast. But when it runs, its amazing and really does a lot to improve the Keilidh's bass department in our living room. And my partner accepts the integrated amp much more easily than all the single components.

Ben

[Class A]

It's just copper - it takes an electrical signal from Point A to Point B.

A cable has more electrical properties than most of us are aware of. Since music is not a static signal, there is not only resistance to worry about but also capacitance and inductance.

A simple, long cable can audibly dampen high frequencies or limit the amount of damping an amplifier can exert on a speaker. When I was into this, I easily heard the difference between a good cable and a plain lamp wire (I used both since I first didn't believe in the need for anything more sophisticated than lamp wire).

The rest of your chain needs to be good enough to let you hear differences of the kind introduced by cables. I had B&W 801 Matrix S3 (these were used in Abbey Road Studios) plus Accuphase and Threshold amplification.

Having said that, the high-end industry is plagued with snake oil salesmen. The amount of voodo technology and overpricing is staggering. There is no need to pay astronomical prices for cables or other accessories, they just need to be properly constructed.

[Class A]

... and my beautiful Philips CD 304Mk II cd-player...

That is a beautiful player. A friend of mine had one. The player had very decent A/D converters for its time! It took a long time till these early Phillips chips were surpassed by more modern designs. They sounded better than most early "1-Bit" converters.

[VaughnA]

"Is it HiFi or is it Bose?" Was the question all around here

I am still weeping, when I remember my last pair of homebuild speakers,

Ben

I'm with you there. But my homebuilts were Linn Sara Copies. KEF B110 woofers and audax tweeters. They sounded great but I sold them when cash got tight.

My favorite system was Phase Linear amp & Preamp, Yamaha tuner. AR Turntable, Signet tonearm with grado of course and a magnavox CD-Player.

I'm still looking for an amp since the NAD didn't work out. I've got a line on a Marantz 1120 and a B&O receiver from a couple of sources. The Marantz is my choice but showed my wife the B&0 and she loved the look for our recently remodeled media room. Either way it will be a lot better than the 200.00 denon AV receiver in the basement den.

[rparmar]

"Is it HiFi or is it Bose?" Was the question all around here

Bose is crap for those with no money.

Bang & Olufsen is crap for people with money.

[rparmar]

I ended up with small floor standing Linn Keilidh speakers, which are very nice, but not superb…

A friend of mine has my Keilidh on permanent loan. He keeps saying they are not great but then can't stop listening to them.

What they are good at is extremely even and smooth reproduction that still has decent detail. They are non-fatiguing and pleasant to listen to. They cannot reveal every detail of the music. They cannot kick absolute bass end butt. But they are so lovely.

[VaughnA]

Bose is crap for those with no money.

Bang & Olufsen is crap for people with money.

I had a B&O turntable that I really liked back in the 80's. I don't know much about the receivers. I'm sure it's still better than todays junk but I doubt it will compare to the Marantz. But I can get the B&0 for basically free, maybe a 6 pack of beer.

I still miss my Marantz 2230..

[wjt]

The only decent thing BOSE made was the sounddock for ipods... before everyone else jumped on the bandwagon.

Best speakers i had were ones i grabbed off the side of the road on the way to work one morning, i remember looking them up on the net and they were quite good brand (can't remember what is was now) all that was wrong with them was one broken wire on one speaker, 5 minute and a little solder later and they worked just fine, They pumped the tunes in my old workshop for the last 6 years and still going strong.

[Perrumpo]

I'm not an audiophile, but I certainly enjoy a nice set of headphones and speakers, within my budget. I like Sennheiser headphones and Swans speakers, in particular. I got in on the Ultimate Ears TripleFi 10vi's when they were $99 that day, too.

As far as home theater goes, I'm a college student, so I don't have much of one. Bedroom just has a set of Swans M10 and Sennheiser RS130 wireless surround sound headphones, and the living room has a Polk Audio SurroundBar 360° plus Swans D1080 MKII 08's for music.

[VaughnA]

A friend of mine has my Keilidh on permanent loan. He keeps saying they are not great but then can't stop listening to them.

What they are good at is extremely even and smooth reproduction that still has decent detail. They are non-fatiguing and pleasant to listen to. They cannot reveal every detail of the music. They cannot kick absolute bass end butt. But they are so lovely.

I forgot how much better good speakers sound until I got the snells. They are SO much better than the polks I was using. I bought them from a guy who's wife wanted something smaller for the living room. He had offers to buy them from guys wanting to rip out the woofers for car audio. He refused to sell. I can't believe I got them for 100 bucks. Not a scratch, good surrounds. They look like new to say the least.

[Nesster]

Yes, a vintage Snell is on my list, once I sell those JBL's. Wonderful speaks.

[Eruditass]

I'm the frugal kind of audiophile: headphone audiophile. I went to a meet a couple months ago:

DC Meet impressions - Head-Fi: Covering Headphones, Earphones and Portable Audio

Got to listen to some very nice and expensive equipment. I currently listen to a EMU-0404 -> SOHA II -> DT880, and for portable I use AL IM716 (modified crappy pod, said to be equivalent to Ety ER-4).