The *NOT BORING!* Hi-Fi faff chat and sales

Perhaps you may find me more credible if i explain my testing/comparing methods.


I select CD's that have extremes in them, ie hiss from older music , over sharp recorded music, dull or over bassy recordings.......lets face it we're in the hands of the recording studio that the music was recorded/mixed in, and a lot of recordings vary wildly in their quality. I compare what different cables do to the extremes in the sound...the more noticable audio bits, instead of guessing on the stuff that already sound good. Then I compare good recordings to see if the cables have any negative traits on a good recording, like muting part of the sound that may have been a help on a poor recording. Then I listen again through headphones and dedicated amp, so the music isclose to my ears and not affected by room acoustics ans distractions. I usually only use 1 track each from 3-4 cd's.

I then decide which took the best middle ground. My conclusion is that silver plated copper in a coax style of cable gives the best overall sound for a range of recordings. Lots ofcables out there areactually coax configerations, but the makers don't always specify this. Pure silver appears too sharp in some sytems.

So I aim for a cable that ' appears' to tame shrillness but is still open enough not to be wooly. Yes the differences are slight/subtle, but if it means you can bare to listen to those CD'S at the back of the box again, i think small differences makes it worthwhile if you can listen and enjoy ALL your recordings. No, no system or cable is going to make all music sound as if it were all recorded in the same studio and nicely balanced levels, but if it can make them ALL listenable to then that's good in my book.

There is kit out there as i'm sure you'll know that highlghts poor recordings.......WHY ? what's the point........if it means all it's going to do is make youchange your musical tastes due to sound quality, then the point of listening to music is lost.

If your very lucky you can find combinations of kit that will give a good rendition of ALL your music collection (within reason)

I just see (some)interconnects as the fine point of a pencil allowing you to draw a finer line on things.
 
Cooker wire makes good speaker cables.

On another similar point, it really annoys me when hdmi cables are sold as being better than others, they either work or don't, there is no inbetween.
 
Indeed people have used solid core mains cable as speaker wire :D i tried it once, it ok.....better than £3.00 a metre wire at the time....think it was 50p a metre or even 35p back then....
 
Apart from wanting to change my room dynamics,Im at a point where I'm happy,well at least for the time being.All built from Second hand gear too.But the biggest Improvement I have made is going from"in the box"interconnects to my Thor cables.I was amazed how much music I had missed out on,instruments more pronounced/better definition.
I would never in month of Sunday's have thought a cable could make such a difference.

I recently tried my good old Technics amp instead of my Rotel which Ive been using for about 5 years,but although the Technics had the punch I was looking for,it just didnt have the same detail.

Somethings are hard to explain,but there's no mistaking the sound when you get it right. :D
 
electronicaeric":2y1fl4qt said:
Apart from wanting to change my room dynamics,Im at a point where I'm happy,well at least for the time being.All built from Second hand gear too.

Agree. Same with me. need carpet & extra 2 feet room size. The only parts i've bought new are cables/interconnets.
Wish people would remember to pack the power leads :roll:

One thing i'm thinking of buying is a mians filter or similar as the mains in the flats is rubbish. Blown 3 fuses in the power supply for the headphones and lost count on the number of times protection for the amps have been tripped .
 
Here's a good test tintin...

Listen to the hifi at usual volume in usual sort of surroundings with lights on kettle on the boil may be even washing machine on.
Then go round the house and tun off as many things as you can and see if you can notice a difference,especially on vinyl.If you can then a filter may just be the thing.But before buying one,check your earthing around the home.Check you have all the earth bonding on taps/pipes etc.This could be an easy fix for a less eggs and bacon sort of time.Some say its best to leave equipment on all the time as the equipment takes time to settle down,but I cant get my head around the fire risk(small as it maybe).
Maybe good shielded power leads might make a difference.I tried these but highlighted other problems with the system.So I went back to "in the box" power cables until I ever get the urge to spend some real money.
One thing I did think improved things are them half round bits of rubber stuff for feet.There are some that say wood feet are better because they dont keep energy stored in them as the rubber ones do,but I had good results with them,even on CDs.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8x-SORBOTHANE ... 288wt_1163

Sorry if you are aware of all this,but there may be others reading who havent come across dirty mains before or realise why their cds sound great at low volume but at proper listening volume they sound poor :D
 
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I'm needing to hook up some rear home cinema speakers, because I need 20m I was erring on the cheap side. Am I cheating myself by going with the long cheap lengths from ebay? It would only be for the rears, I've enough other stuff for the other speakers.
 
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