I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'.
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@fesshole fond memories of spending a weekend setting up 5.1 surround speakers for my PC
several months later, discovered where in the Windows settings you configure if you have stereo speakers or 5.1 or some other thing
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@fesshole Can't be much of an "audiophile", can ya?
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@LevelUp @fesshole Obviously with test tracks that clearly indicate the channels you'll easily notice. With actual music, even when there is a clear difference between the channels, you typically have no way of knowing which way it was meant to be. It won't sound wrong with the channels flipped unless you know what to expect.
@mansr @fesshole usually an "audiophile" use test tracks whether it's tracks specifically made for testing or tracks they have listened to inside out. It's not uncommon for them to have a handful of tracks for testing tbh.
7 years is a long time so I guess it doesn't truly matter to listening enjoyment if he doesn't know any better. I just found it amusing because I have an audiophile on my family who info dumps audiophile stuff several times a day and the opening post reminds me of them. Is that okay that I found it amusing?
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@mansr @fesshole usually an "audiophile" use test tracks whether it's tracks specifically made for testing or tracks they have listened to inside out. It's not uncommon for them to have a handful of tracks for testing tbh.
7 years is a long time so I guess it doesn't truly matter to listening enjoyment if he doesn't know any better. I just found it amusing because I have an audiophile on my family who info dumps audiophile stuff several times a day and the opening post reminds me of them. Is that okay that I found it amusing?
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@fesshole
When I worked in engineering at the Beeb the research department wanted to discover if the “golden ears” (mix engineers, sound supervisors etc - people who are trained to hear audio problems in recordings) could tell the difference between expensive OFC speaker cable and 10A mains cable. Turns out when tested blind they can’t.
It’s the same for most audio-fool products; when they don’t *know* what they’re listening to they can’t tell.One audio engineer I know made a small fortune selling cable bought for £5 per reel, cut to custom lengths of "Studio-grade" cable, that he sold at £20 per foot.
Those hifi-heads paid off his mortgage.

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One audio engineer I know made a small fortune selling cable bought for £5 per reel, cut to custom lengths of "Studio-grade" cable, that he sold at £20 per foot.
Those hifi-heads paid off his mortgage.

@BillySmith @fesshole
I’ve often been tempted to knock-up some cat8 cables with nylon sock and ferrite beads at each end and sell them on eBay as “audiophile data cables” - I could even include the Fluke DSX test sheet with them - I’m sure none of them would know what “return loss” means… -
I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'. Turns out I've had my left/right speakers the wrong way round. For 7 years.
@fesshole I know what that feels like… periodically I have had my phono cables switched around R/L instead of L/R for a couple of months. Never years, though!

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@BillySmith @fesshole
I’ve often been tempted to knock-up some cat8 cables with nylon sock and ferrite beads at each end and sell them on eBay as “audiophile data cables” - I could even include the Fluke DSX test sheet with them - I’m sure none of them would know what “return loss” means…They were just offcuts from the same reels that he was installing in recording studio's...

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I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'. Turns out I've had my left/right speakers the wrong way round. For 7 years.
@fesshole just turn around mate
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@pheedbackPhil @fesshole
I built an edit facility in the late 90s and the head of audio chose TB1s for all the edit suites and it was the first time I’d heard speakers that sounded as neutral as Roger’s LS3/5s (I trained and worked at the Beeb late eighties/early-nineties) - heaven save us from Yamaha NS10s!@IsItBroke Had a set of NS10s as my home speakers for years, reasoning that a lot of the music I liked was probably mixed on them, so it would somehow be "closer" to what the mixer heard. God I was a twit.
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I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'. Turns out I've had my left/right speakers the wrong way round. For 7 years.
@fesshole Are there any audiophiles, literally any at all, who actually like music?
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@fesshole Are there any audiophiles, literally any at all, who actually like music?
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@KormaChameleon Hah! Yes.
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@pheedbackPhil @fesshole
I built an edit facility in the late 90s and the head of audio chose TB1s for all the edit suites and it was the first time I’d heard speakers that sounded as neutral as Roger’s LS3/5s (I trained and worked at the Beeb late eighties/early-nineties) - heaven save us from Yamaha NS10s!@IsItBroke Ah you were there same time as me - 1987 onwards working with Rupert B and the like! Agree re TB1s they have superb stereo imaging especially on speech!
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@CppGuy @IsItBroke @fesshole A good sound engineer will have the skills to identify many problems in a recording that an untrained person might not notice. Differences between speaker cables is not one of these. All that matters there is that the resistance is low enough, and any moderately fat cable will do the job.
@mansr @CppGuy @IsItBroke @fesshole
Exactly. Speaker placement, room furnishings and acoustics, and many other things are far more important for overall sound quality. -
I'm one of those audiophiles who go on about speaker settings and placement, cables and DACs to play all my vinyl and high bitrate music, and force people listen to 'my incredible setup'. Turns out I've had my left/right speakers the wrong way round. For 7 years.
I'm guessing that he doesn't mean that he had the left and right speakers reversed. I'm thinking more he had the polarities reversed on his speakers. Which is even funnier.
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@fesshole
When I worked in engineering at the Beeb the research department wanted to discover if the “golden ears” (mix engineers, sound supervisors etc - people who are trained to hear audio problems in recordings) could tell the difference between expensive OFC speaker cable and 10A mains cable. Turns out when tested blind they can’t.
It’s the same for most audio-fool products; when they don’t *know* what they’re listening to they can’t tell.@IsItBroke
Can I ask a question? What do audio engineers do about age-related hearing drop-out? Almost everyone starts losing high frequencies in their early thirties. What happens then? Does it matter at all? -
I'm guessing that he doesn't mean that he had the left and right speakers reversed. I'm thinking more he had the polarities reversed on his speakers. Which is even funnier.
@angiebaby @fesshole I presumed they meant they had the left audio channel going to the speaker on their right, and the right audio channel going to the speaker on their left.
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@angiebaby @fesshole I presumed they meant they had the left audio channel going to the speaker on their right, and the right audio channel going to the speaker on their left.
Calling himself an "audiophile", I suspect he probably owns a stereo-test-and-demonstration CD and he would have caught it right away if it was a matter of the speakers being wired right-to-left. Reversing the (- +) polarity on the pairs of wires for each speaker would cause phasing problems at best, and possible long-term speaker damage at worst.
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Yeah. Some things make a real difference, but, with speaker cable, IMHO, good enough is good enough.
Oh but you need the little stands to keep the cable off the floor. /S