Cables and your rig....could this be a good analogy or not?

treitz3

__________^^^ Without any upgrades ^^^ __________________ ^^^ With upgrades ^^^__________

Hello Club Polk members and good afternoon to you. I would like to hear your thoughts about whether or not this picture is akin to going from the standard Rat Shack cables that come with the gear you purchase compared to an upgraded set (any). This can include but is not limited to power source upgrades, SC's, IC's or whatever connection your rig has. There is no right or wrong answer and while some of the long term members may have empirical evidence to suggest one thing, I was wondering what your own personal thoughts were. New members as well as established members are all welcome to reply.

This is the year 2014 and we have established a great forum here. It used to be that cable threads were "known" to have debate ad nausium. In recent times, this doesn't seem to be the case.

What say you....good analogy or am I off my rockers?

Tom

thsmith

Perfect Tom. The only thing I could add is varying degrees of clarity based upon all the componets including cables.

Hermitism

Well, I can say with 100% certainty that there are entirely too many fish for that small amount of water. Those fish will be stunted and will never grow much bigger than they already are, no matter how much food they are given. Sort of like a large voltage being bottle-necked by a small cable. Good analogy?

hochpt21

I agree with thsmith...

Depends on the quality of the pond...and the fish swimming in it.

F1nut

Stirring the pond, eh Tom?

treitz3

Little ol' me? No way man. Not me.... *smiles*

Nobody saw it, can't prove it. Nobody saw a thing!

In all seriousness, I have noticed a trend here at Club Polk over the years. It used to be that ANY thread about cables would generate a 56 page thread within a day or two that the mods couldn't even keep up with if they tried. This doesn't seem to be the case anymore. There seems to have been a shift with folks experiencing one thing or another. So, with that said, I felt I would go ahead and gauge what the current consensuses is with regards to cables and how it affects peoples system's in the year 2014 as opposed to 1995.

Tom

treitz3

Hell, if nothing else....it got your a$$ to post and during the day nonetheless. THAT in and of itself is a feat!

Hehe...

Tom

Speedskater

Tell me again, how do you get from "A" to "B" ?
With "A" being polarized light filters
and "B" being exactly what?

Notice that "A" is an in-band filter.

polkfarmboy

Cables are a big waste of money and I would never invest in them!!

BlueFox

I think it was Audioquest who used to run ads using the analogy of dirty panes of glass obscuring what was under the glass. In the ad it was a sheet of music that became clearer as each dirty pane was removed. The analogy was their cables were removing the 'dirty panes' that are obscuring the sound of the music. Add a cable, remove a pane. I always liked that analogy even though I do not have any of their cables.

seabeerob213

I have founnd some improvements with cabling, although im not into this hooby like many here. i started with some cheapo sony bookshelf speakers, with the tiny gauge zip-cord that came in the box, wasnt happy at all. So i bought a spool of monster 14x2 and heard a bit of diference, but had no clue why, how, or what, other than the basics of current transfer(better quality conductors, heavier gauge conductors, and shorter cable runs, = better current transfer). i played around with the sony's and the lowest end yamaha avr(i think rx-v371) and was happy for quite a while, till i wanted bass. bought a Polk PSW 110 and the warranty registration is what brought me to you glorious gathering of great and/or god-awful gurus. I played with some freebie rca cables from some electronic device that has been lost to my memory, and was really unhappy about the buzz/hum i always got. So i ordered a cheap but seemingly decent cable from amazon(i think a mediabridge) and for the 11.59 i spent on it, its a great cable, just not write home to mom great. I then began to feel my speakers were too lacking for the sub they were paired with, and went on an online adventure to find the best speakers i could for the money(under 200 at the time) and ended up ordering a pair of RTi-4's for around 125 plus around 40 for shipping. once i got them the difference from the sony's was huge, and the HTIB speakers which had been used to fill out the missing three speakers in my 5.1 now really paled in comparison to the rest of the system. With the better speakers, i decided I should get cables of a better quality, so that they were able to make the most out of the 80W X2 from the yammy, although im sure it probably wasnt even that much. I ended up with some Canare Starquads with nakamichi plugs, and with that AVR, i didnt really notice much difference, as far as what i did or didnt hear, it did seem to roll off clearer and smoother.I then stopped buying anything for quite a while, content with what I had, well, content enough to wait for holiday sales to roll around. When they did, i ordered a CSi3 to match the fronts, found it for 99 brnd new, but the FPO shipping was 68 bucks. Ended up buying a new avr while waiting, a yammy rxv 765, much better unit, 90x2(idk what it is for 5 or 7) and hooked it up to the 4's, first with the monster cable, they sounded the same, then with the canare. Wow, it was the first time my rag-tag bargain bought system made me think, hey, there is a lot more sound to hear than I am hearing. Well my center finally showed up, after many phone calls, and a second being sent, which resulted in 2 new in box csi-3's for about 170. i hooked them up bare wire with the monster 14x2, and it kinda seemed less present than the fronts when i used the surround sound. so i did what anyone with 30 feet of 14x2 wire would do, i made my own 14x4 cables. i went to the exchange and bought some monster nanners(only ones available out here) and bought some tech flex locally, but no shrink tube big enough , and began the tedious process of wrapping the 2 cables together with getting any twist in the wires. The shrink tube i found works to seal the ends of the flex, and each channe into 2 14x2 into one nanner. but wont fit over the nanners. once it was hooked up, it sounded more, there, a little louder, clearer, but not on par with the others. I know i still have a long way to go, as far as gear, cables and plugs, etc, but I'm coming along, and who knows, maybe one day i'll have a system on par with yous guys, my 2 channel is getting close to some of y'll, now i just need cables and speakers... And a room.

headrott

Speedskater wrote: »

Tell me again, how do you get from "A" to "B" ?
With "A" being polarized light filters
and "B" being exactly what?

Notice that "A" is an in-band filter.

Unless I am mistaken, "A" represents "A$$-whining" and "B" stands for "Bi*ching". They both represent some peoples' constant need to "explain" a subjective experience using scientific data. Also, unless you can "prove" your case (according to these people) using a scientific method, it is simply your delusional viewpoint and thought processes that give these people (people able to hear differences in cables) the conclusion they come to.

OH CRAP! NOW I'VE DONE IT!

steveinaz

What fun would any hobby be, if we were just practical in our approach? Can I get an amen?

F1nut

headrott wrote: »

Unless I am mistaken, "A" represents "A$$-whining" and "B" stands for "Bi*ching". They both represent some peoples' constant need to "explain" a subjective experience using scientific data. Also, unless you can "prove" your case (according to these people) using a scientific method, it is simply your delusional viewpoint and thought processes that give these people (people able to hear differences in cables) the conclusion they come to.

OH CRAP! NOW I'VE DONE IT!

Clever, witty and smack dead on point.




Steve, Amen!

thsmith

Amen Steve !