This is an excerpt of a review of Audio Metallurgy Audio Cables in stereotimes.com.

I wonder if any ST members are believers in high-end (and expensive) cables?

i know from my own experience that different cables do sound different. i cobbled together several IC's of copper and silver. to me the silver was cleaner and more refined to a degree that was obvious on first listen. a notable difference was also easily discerned from these and more standard fare Kimber PBJ's.

also i have found an almost nil difference in digital cables, whether they be rca or toslink optical.

as for higher end cables, i dont know. though i have heard some while listening to other systems i did not evaluate those cables.

I'm skeptical about expensive cables but at the same time, I also respect those who are enthusiastic so I am curious.

I'm skeptical because I've opened up enough amps, receivers, and speakers to see how thin the internal wiring is. In some very well respected speakers, the wiring is shockingly thin (open up an ADS speaker for example). Amps as well, most wiring to the speaker block is usually thinner than the speaker wire. If you are using ordinary 14 gage stranded copper wire, the bottleneck is not the speaker wire but the internal wiring. The logical solution is to re-wire the internal wiring with the new cabling.

Thoughts?

when i built speakers i used goertz 12 ga. for my internal. did it make a difference? yes
the more watts the bigger cables i run. if you go by the rational that size doesn't matter. don't waste your money. 22 ga zip cable is cheap.

I'm quite skeptical about the majority of them, but i have some good experiences with Kimber, Van den Hull and Nordost.
About the wires inside amps, cds or speakers imo and because all the components are very near to each other i think it's a waste of time and money to change them for better ones. I have done that a few times and i didn't notice any improvement whatsoever, except in my Super T Amp... Ferrite rings imo are better than new wires.

Once you have done your room acoustics, done proper power supply and isolation and purchased the expensive gear (or used equivilant , then yes expensive cables can be used to tune your system, until then please stick to moderately priced cables or make your own.

As speakerman said, inside a speaker is a different thing as the wiring can be used to tweek the sound of the drivers.

One thing that amuses me to death is the claims of more dynamics or more (whatever). A cable cannot add anything to the sound, it can only take away, if you listen that way, you can save some bucks, what is this cable taking away that makes me like it !!!

I have these damn ears that can hear things and identify frequencies (which is why beer etc,. goes well with just sitting back and listening), plus I have music that I have recorded myself. A very famous and popular 'dealer' cable we discvovered seems to be taking away at three typical crossover points, which makes it an easy sell as it softens around crossover problems inherent in most mid-fi speakers.

We did a lot of A/Bing not knowing what cable (RCA interconnects) was what and sure enough dicovered that our $99 cable had more dynamics than anything else we tried, up to about $1200, including some others of ours. Didn't soundstage quite as well, but make us wonder what was happening with the other more expenive cables that didn't have the dynamics, but gave a wider and deeper soundstage.

btw, it wasn't until i got into the 'audiophile' world with GF, that I had even heard the idea of soundstage past the speakers horizontally, I was taught to mix inside and of course we used reverb/eq tricks to create whatever depth of soundstage we wanted.

Anyways always get a home audtition or trial for at least a week with cabling, it is human nature to think different is better, after some time pretend the cable you had before is your new purchase and swap it back in, again you might save some bucks

Ian

Tuning with cables is an interesting concept. I wonder in a true blind -*test*-('"), can you tell the difference between lamp cord and $100 per meter cable?

The cable reviewer in my OP states "While some folks believe that there are no audible differences among cables (mainly because this hasn’t been proven with double blind -*test*-('")ing) decades of my own hands-on experience has taught me otherwise."

This caught my attention. I bet if I spent $100 per meter for wire, I'd darn well tell you there is a difference.

i've done a blind -*test*-('") between three different cables it's posted in here somewhere

I guess having poor hearing is like having money in the bank.

Ditto..I'm a hardcore skeptic. If I can't measure it with lab -*test*-('") equipment..

Hi Larry, long time no say hi:), It is, but from the other side of the coin, it could be like leaving money on the table if you have a great system and acoustics and haven't -*test*-('")ed different cabling to see if there is room for improvement. Our ears don't work the same from day to day as we age and get them polluted from industrial noise or airborne contaminants, our brains adjust our hearing curve to compensate frequencies to a good degree (unless your ears are damaged).

We will soon be releasing 5 or 6 C cotton 'audiophile' swabs as the ultimate system tweak, with a coupon for a real ear cleaning

With a Vintage or average SS system, you'd probably agree that the B-283 is at least a noticable difference/improvement to your system over any cabling at any cost.

Hi Avionic, I'd have to day that the best lab -*test*-('") equipment for music is installed in all the amazing recording studios all around the world, which to date are incapable of recording or sampling a single note middle 'C' from the piano, mainly due to the microphone. Add to that that there is no speaker that can accurately reproduce middle 'C" as well and you end up with out a way to -*test*-('") the results of a cable swap on music except for the ear, which is of course judgemental.

How's that for a theory ?

My final conclusion on interconnects and speaker cables is that I end up with lots of singles, form losing things, Want to buy just one cable for say the left channel cheap? I've never seen anyone who has different left and right cables, even amongst the biggest skeptics, which I was one of a while back.

Ian

Maybe this could help:

http://www.rdrop.com/users/twest/audio/#Top

No, I'm serious.

I have a hole in my left eardrum since a little kid that has slowly but surely eroded my hearing. My hearing is marginal at best.

Hey, Ian: I've left 4 or 5 messages in your PM box.............

Cables do indeed make a difference - sometimes quite dramatic - but the stratospheric price tags on some strain credibility. In addition, some lesser expensive cables, at least in my system, significantly outperformed those wth a much higher price tag.

My "experimenting" with cables began when I first replaced 12 guage zip cord with basic Monster Cable and found the difference remarkable. Then, I replaced that cable with a very expensive solid copper core cable from Audioquest that cost a fortune. The result: much louder, butr conisderably harsher and more unpleasant sound. Replacing the Audioquest cable with a less expensive Monster Z-Series speaker cable made all the difference.

I also used an $80 1/2 meter cable (also from Monster) from my former Adcom CD player's digital output into the Adcom DAC which again outperformed a much costlier cable considered by many as "the best" out there (D-60 Illuminati).

The cables I've used, and had both good and bad results with were all priced reasonably, in the hundreds but not thousands of dollars. I can't possibly accept the $3,900 price tag I've seen on a pair of 1 meter interconnects, nor $17,000 for two 10' speaker cables.

Sorry about that Larry. I grew up with Mono and in many ways it is what audiophiles are listening for, imaging, tonalityand dead centre vocals. I'd rather be blind than lose my hearing. Bonus being all the trouble my eyes get me in

No PM's from you since May 2nd. I have lots of contact options on my site, including toll free. Give me a call late next week when I return from my current road trip in and around Toronto.

Ian