I preach this 95% of the time. I won't ever tell you that you should buy nice cable. I even say this right now: If you have money to spend on speakers, amplifiers, CD players, record players, ANYTHING else in your system, DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH CABLE. Don't even think about it.
Based on CNET's articles on cheap cables and the ubiquitous posts saying lamp cord is equal sound-wise to speaker cable, I logged onto Monoprice and bought myself a spool of speaker wire when I got a non-Nuforce-Icon amp. (The Icon has proprietary cables). It did the job. I thought it was good enough. I left it.
I'm the guy who's never satisfied, though. I decided, after a stretch of months, that bare wire splayed out under my posts is too inconvenient, that at the very least I want something with bananas on the end. I started investigating, and wound up with a set of Audioquest Type 4.
It came quicker than expected, and is a thick braided blue cable that reminded me of cables I'd handled in studios. It felt serious. The silver terminations were NOT bananas, though. They looked like weapons an orc might handle, or something from the middle eastern nations. They fit, though. Also, they came with a polishing cloth that tells you that these cables don't need polishing to keep working. Great.
I was skeptical, but I went ahead and hooked it up quickly, leaving the old cable wired in for an A/B comparison. I let half a CD play on the old cable, paused, plugged in the new cable and unhooked the old, and hit play.
WOW. My music came out with a little more impact, a little more focus. It engaged me. I couldn't believe it. I wasn't going to take those cables out. I let them rest.
I later noted that the difference is not as drastic as my amp, or my CD player, or my DAC, or even between 16 and 24 bit. It's minor. But it's significant enough to make my jaw drop.
But that's not all.
A few days later, long before the Audioquest cable landed in my lap, I stumbled upon a review comparing it to Flexygy 6 from River Cable. (I also stumbled upon numerous statements along the lines of "Audioquest type 4 costs" half the price I paid "which makes it a great budget cable" statements. The review above even mentions that the cable is less expensive and thus inferior. I didn't experience that. The River Cable pair costs the same as my Audioquest pair.
Flexygy 6 also has a very tight 30 day return policy. I think I have a showdown coming, folks.
So I flew in a pair with bananas. These were beautiful cables, but flat. Flat? I guess that's OK, but it goes against my sense for hi-def audio. They feel nice, they come with "certificates" and arbitrary-looking printouts from a Tektronix Scope that both look about the same, but are actually a little different. Not an obvious picture, nor is it obvious what they are measuring, but the website helps.
I wasted little time running the flat cable through my "custom" rig and weaving it down the same path as the Type 4. I did the same thing: I ran three tracks through the Type 4, then switched cables and ran 3 tracks through the Flexygy 6.
...nope. I thought I heard an improvement when I got to the Flexygy 6, but it was just sharper than the other. Harsher. More digital. The type of sound that, like Pepsi, seems great at the first taste but starts to hurt and make you smack as you finish. I also thought I heard some noise that wasn't there before. Yes, noise. I thought maybe it was a drum nuance I'd missed.
I eventually got fed up after two back-and-forths and hooked both cables up, letting the amp's A/B switch do the work. That confirmed it: it wasn't a drum nuance. The drums were less focused. The sound grew warmer, easier to listen to, clearer with the Type 4, just like it had when I put it in the first time. The Flexygy 6 diffused my sound and make it a little too bright, considering the digital sources I use regularly.
Here's my bottom line on these: Don't buy new cables. OK, if you're going to, please try it in your system before committing. I think the AudioQuest Type 4 cable is worth the money, and I don't think I'm going to pull it out of my speakers anytime soon. They knock imaging out of the park. But, as evidenced by reviews of the Flexygy 6, this isn't always the case.
And here is my bottom line overall: SPEAKER CABLES MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I don't care what the other blogs say. I've heard it. It's real. Don't doubt.
Now, what about interconnects? Hmmmm...
I'm the guy who's never satisfied, though. I decided, after a stretch of months, that bare wire splayed out under my posts is too inconvenient, that at the very least I want something with bananas on the end. I started investigating, and wound up with a set of Audioquest Type 4.
I was skeptical, but I went ahead and hooked it up quickly, leaving the old cable wired in for an A/B comparison. I let half a CD play on the old cable, paused, plugged in the new cable and unhooked the old, and hit play.
WOW. My music came out with a little more impact, a little more focus. It engaged me. I couldn't believe it. I wasn't going to take those cables out. I let them rest.
I later noted that the difference is not as drastic as my amp, or my CD player, or my DAC, or even between 16 and 24 bit. It's minor. But it's significant enough to make my jaw drop.
But that's not all.
A few days later, long before the Audioquest cable landed in my lap, I stumbled upon a review comparing it to Flexygy 6 from River Cable. (I also stumbled upon numerous statements along the lines of "Audioquest type 4 costs" half the price I paid "which makes it a great budget cable" statements. The review above even mentions that the cable is less expensive and thus inferior. I didn't experience that. The River Cable pair costs the same as my Audioquest pair.
Flexygy 6 also has a very tight 30 day return policy. I think I have a showdown coming, folks.
So I flew in a pair with bananas. These were beautiful cables, but flat. Flat? I guess that's OK, but it goes against my sense for hi-def audio. They feel nice, they come with "certificates" and arbitrary-looking printouts from a Tektronix Scope that both look about the same, but are actually a little different. Not an obvious picture, nor is it obvious what they are measuring, but the website helps.
I wasted little time running the flat cable through my "custom" rig and weaving it down the same path as the Type 4. I did the same thing: I ran three tracks through the Type 4, then switched cables and ran 3 tracks through the Flexygy 6.
...nope. I thought I heard an improvement when I got to the Flexygy 6, but it was just sharper than the other. Harsher. More digital. The type of sound that, like Pepsi, seems great at the first taste but starts to hurt and make you smack as you finish. I also thought I heard some noise that wasn't there before. Yes, noise. I thought maybe it was a drum nuance I'd missed.
I eventually got fed up after two back-and-forths and hooked both cables up, letting the amp's A/B switch do the work. That confirmed it: it wasn't a drum nuance. The drums were less focused. The sound grew warmer, easier to listen to, clearer with the Type 4, just like it had when I put it in the first time. The Flexygy 6 diffused my sound and make it a little too bright, considering the digital sources I use regularly.
Here's my bottom line on these: Don't buy new cables. OK, if you're going to, please try it in your system before committing. I think the AudioQuest Type 4 cable is worth the money, and I don't think I'm going to pull it out of my speakers anytime soon. They knock imaging out of the park. But, as evidenced by reviews of the Flexygy 6, this isn't always the case.
And here is my bottom line overall: SPEAKER CABLES MAKE A DIFFERENCE. I don't care what the other blogs say. I've heard it. It's real. Don't doubt.
Now, what about interconnects? Hmmmm...
