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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Yeah. Some things make a real difference, but, with speaker cable, IMHO, good enough is good enough.
@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.
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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.
Exactly.
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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@IsItBroke @fesshole to be fair, power flex cable is actually good for audio... I've used it for decades
@mossman @IsItBroke @fesshole yeah it's copper cable and pretty good diameter, probably perfect for audio
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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 @fesshole I remember some experiment where "audiophiles" failed to differentiate between super expensive speaker cables and a coat hanger in a double-blind test.
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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.
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@IsItBroke @mansr @CppGuy @fesshole Not just speaker cables – there are special audiophile power cords, and then there's this guy: https://mk.absturztau.be/notes/amm9boo4bie601ea
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And so would I.
I've spoken before about the pimply-faced youth who tried to sell me audio-grade Sata cables and felt superior when I told him it wouldn't make any difference, because, between a hard drive and a motherboard, either the data gets through perfectly or it doesn't get through at all. "Well, Sir," he said, smugly, "maybe you can't hear the difference…"
The placebo effect is real.
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@IsItBroke @CppGuy @fesshole Oh, I know the sort.
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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
So, you like to listen to an orchestra from backstage.
Good choice. -
@IsItBroke @mansr @CppGuy @fesshole Not just speaker cables – there are special audiophile power cords, and then there's this guy: https://mk.absturztau.be/notes/amm9boo4bie601ea
@jernej__s @IsItBroke @mansr @fesshole
My word! I hope it makes him happy.
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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 @fesshole yeah Pete Thomas of PMC speakers fame used to demo his speakers using bell wire and Quad 405 amps at trade shows just to wind up the audiophile brigade!!
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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 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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@IsItBroke @fesshole yeah Pete Thomas of PMC speakers fame used to demo his speakers using bell wire and Quad 405 amps at trade shows just to wind up the audiophile brigade!!
@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! -
And so would I.
I've spoken before about the pimply-faced youth who tried to sell me audio-grade Sata cables and felt superior when I told him it wouldn't make any difference, because, between a hard drive and a motherboard, either the data gets through perfectly or it doesn't get through at all. "Well, Sir," he said, smugly, "maybe you can't hear the difference…"
The placebo effect is real.
@CppGuy @IsItBroke @fesshole I'll grant that maybe it's possible to make a SATA cable so poor that reads need to be retried so often that the transfer rate drops enough to make audio playback choppy.
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@CppGuy @IsItBroke @fesshole I'll grant that maybe it's possible to make a SATA cable so poor that reads need to be retried so often that the transfer rate drops enough to make audio playback choppy.
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@mansr @fesshole you can isolate left and right for testing. Some tracks play some instrumentation on the left and some on the right. It's but always balanced and you can also play spacial (awareness) tests.
For specific songs in stereo unless you listen to certain tracks through headphones you might not be able to tell.
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@mansr @fesshole you can isolate left and right for testing. Some tracks play some instrumentation on the left and some on the right. It's but always balanced and you can also play spacial (awareness) tests.
For specific songs in stereo unless you listen to certain tracks through headphones you might not be able to tell.
@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.
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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?
