For decades, audiophiles still talking about equipment? Aren't you getting a little tired by now? I'm. The day of new gear is behind me now. I'm delving into cables some downplay cable significance. Just another conductor. No, it is not. Probably, you haven't play around with cables enough to comprehend the magic of cables. A definite detriment if you're not careful with them. Any cable manufacturer claims that its cables are straight wire, listen with a pinch of salt. You make your call, the financial risk is on you.
What's your cable order of importance, interconnect, speaker cable and power cable I once asked. A poll of polarized answers, not something unexpected. On closer examination, some cables couldn't impose their "signature", it's your unrevealing equipment at fault, most of the time. Not my kind of equipment, I want a revealing system that I could cook my desired sound at my will. Crafting the desired sound is the essence of this passion, let's not disregard individualism, it's a big deal. If you think fancy equipment and voila, they get you audio nirvana. Particularly the coolest piece of equipment, isn't it like the emperor's new cloth? Wishful thinking. Look, everybody has his brand of sound like it or not, I can live with the differences but with all due respect, on the conditions that the sound must be realistic and not far deviating from the reality, that's the bottom line. The worst-case scenario is a delusional sound created from one's mind. Think the syrupy sound of a tube-based system. Let face it, audio is very much perceptional, audiophiles care very much how their peers think of their sound.
Given my system, power cable ranks the most influential cable follows by interconnect and speaker cable. I need to stress again, the caveat is my system. Your mileage may vary. Oh, there are some think cable is nonessential. I don't know what to say. The reason being the influence collected at the upstream will then passes down to the following equipment, the leveraging effect. Fact number two is you couldn't recover the signal loss at the upstream no matter what correction you make thereafter. What's lost is forever lost. So, place the most revealing cable at the upstream and the most powerful cable at the amplification, you wouldn't be very wrong. All in all, I don't think the cable is the last straw that breaks the camel's back but suffices to say, it makes a system exceptional from the mediocre lot. Intuitively, you know it.
Some cables are a seasoning to the sound. Some audiophiles undermine the cable effects. A high priced system that hooked up with cheapo cables, what say you? A race car on RON95, you will not get very much performance from your car. In my limited knowledge, there are only a handful of cable companies that measure their cables, the majority suggests you take a listen. This is a multimillion-dollar industry that didn't produce measurements, some cables can cost up to insane USD20-30k. You could get a car with that amount of money. True colours unveiled only upon a cable comparison, tone-deaf need not apply here for anything goes for them. You can test your combative audiophiles out to see if their words commensurate with their listening ability. Do it quietly, please. You don't want to lose a friendship.
Sound isn't about fancy equipment, neither a tastefully decorated room nor exquisite lighting, these are the icing on the cake. The sound becomes the centre stage once you hit the play button. The real deal is the individual that making the right choice of equipment and voicing the system as in a total package. Save the propaganda, the scientific talk and the rhetoric, your sound tells more.
Describe good sound if I may ask, I'll have a good chance of knowing where you come from. When talking about good sound, how can you not think about fuller midrange? How can you not think about tell adequate midbass and how can you not think about tell lifelikeness? I wouldn't be surprised some brilliant minded audiophiles present their sound in measurement.
Whatever the system, get the midrange right, a fuller midrange is traded for transparency is absolute nonsense. This is a typical comment the guy doesn't know what he's saying, he must have picked it up from a review. Transparency is about implementation, quality parts, grounding, power and cabling to get to a state of see-through. Fuller midrange and transparency can coexist. If your brand of transparency is lean sound, you're dead wrong. Take for an example of the vulnerable LS35a, the new ones offer unprecedented transparency, despite limited bandwidth. It's still very much a enjoy listening through a pair of LS35a. On LS35a alone, it's only doing well on specific music genres. Poor fella can only move that much air.
Our greed wants our sound has more highs and lows. I don't know about you, a big majority of "audiophile" speakers, now I'm blaming the speakers not producing enough midbass to rock'n'roll. They sounded too polite, I can't vouch if this is audiophile brand of sound. They're overly poised for my taste. Hence, a system that can rock and exhibit finesse at the same time is hard to come by. By the way, Goldmund Prologos and full FM Acoustic system are exceptional in this regard I must say. We must ask why is our system picky about playing materials?
This led me to think that the voicing of the speaker and the box construction. I'm sold on the aluminium box for the cleanliness of sound and minimum energy storage. The bass is so powerful. I can't say anything about speaker box made of natural slate like the offering from Fischer and Fischer or OMA. I think they equally exceptional as well. Midbass is where most audiophile speakers come short. Flat frequency response has been the creed, I don't mind a bump at the lower treble and midbass to add excitements to listening pleasure. A smooth transition across the frequency spectrum is the key.
Last but not least, lifelikeness is the tallest order of sound and the feathery lightness of tones are to be had. Close your eyes, prepare yourself for a wonderful ride of sound. Power, rawness, the brash, the swing, these elements define liveliness. True music has the power and the jump factor to excite, it moves emotions. The opposing lethargic sound, I can't put my finger on it, I can't stand the drag, I can't stand the wait, just like a musician playing catch up to his fellow's beat.
Dubious? I have been invited to system tuning in many places. System tuning is a skill that people don't get paid for. Anyway, this will be a different Christmas, a Covid plagued Christmas. For now, I'm celebrating my early Christmas. This Christmas 2020 is special mainly my system is at its fullest strength with the best configuration, tranquillized acoustics and the synergized cabling. For the first time, I feel that the next improvement will be so difficult. I've fought a good acoustic war as far as I concern should I die tomorrow, no regret. Now, will you excuse me, I want to enjoy the amazing vocal harmonization of Boyz II Men.
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