Do cables make a difference to your listening experience.

[Macca]

Maybe they've just never bothered experimenting with cables. Just hooked the stuff together and left well alone, saving themselves £££s and a lot of grief in the process.

I only bought my first 'proper' interconnect cables because I had read about them in magazines and because I was not happy with my system and thought they might be a solution. Ditto with speaker cables. If there had no been a problem I would not have bothered as money was tight way back then.

I think they were the Tandy 'gold' interconnects which were inexpensive but a flavour of the month at the time (1991-ish).

They did improve the sound but were not a fix for the problem which later turned out to be that the kit I was using was crap.

Still, you live and learn. The point was the Tandy leads did indeed sound both different and, to me, better than the freebie leads they replaced.

[Blueflash]

I must admit that I have put down never for the poll.

Because I run true balanced cables driven by ATC SCA2, I can use almost anything. There are slight differences between cables if you keep them in long enough to get to know their "flavour". I tried AudioNote ANVX silver cable instead of my usual Klotz/Mogami/VanDamm cable and I could not notice anything different that would make one better than the other.

[Macca]

You can't vote never and then admit there is a 'flavour'

Or maybe you can, the poll is a bit ambiguous I suppose.

[Blueflash]

You can't vote never and then admit there is a 'flavour'

Or maybe you can, the poll is a bit ambiguous I suppose.

As the poster was asking if different cables make a difference to the listening experience, I put down No because I do not worry what cables are there as I have the system sorted and enjoy it as it is.

[Macca]

Do you reckon that you could put freebie leads back in and it not be any issue? I tried that and it was.

Could be other factors I suppose, it wasn't night and day but they didn't stay in. Don't get me wrong I'd rather there was not a difference or at least not a discernible one, doesn't really matter to me if it did all turn out to be psychological: If I hear it, repeatedly and reversibly then its reality for me regardless of theory.

[Barry]

I need a "rarely" or "occasionally, but the change is not worth bothering about" 'box' for me to vote as I find.

[Marco]

If I hear it, repeatedly and reversibly then its reality for me regardless of theory.

+1. It's called being a free-thinker, and thus having the gumption *ultimately* to apply your own judgement criteria to matters, regardless of what 'science says' is right.

Marco.

[Pharos]

Blueflash, how do you find the SCA2, and do you think it is overpriced?
Have you by any chance compared it with an AVI S2000MP?

I use Van Damme BTW. If you are using the SPA2 do you find that speaker cables make a significant difference?

[Barry]

+1. It's called being a free-thinker, and thus having the gumption *ultimately* to apply your own judgement criteria to matters, regardless of what 'science says' is right.

Marco.

+2 (to Martin's comment, you highlighted). I may be AoS's resident cable sceptic, but I have heard differences which I could identify (but would find hard to decribe) that were distinct, unique and repeatable. The differences were however small, and questionable as to if it constituted an improvement or not (to my ears) and the cables in question cost a fortune.

And no, I can't explain the differences I heard, but simply because I can't provide any explanation, it would be hypocritical of me to say I didn't hear what I did.

I can't explain water divining either, but I saw a diviner successfully finding a buried water pipe (I knew the route of the pipe). So should I say what I saw didn't happen, because I can't explain the phenomenon scientifically? I think not.

[walpurgis]

In my system, I readily hear differences between speaker cables, analogue interconnects and even digital interconnects. I have demonstrated these changes in sound to others and they are plain to hear. Naturally, I use those cables that have the least detrimental effect on the sound (all cables are detrimental, but some are more benign to the reproduced sound than others in their effects).

I don't suffer from 'expectation bias' (a term that is often thrown in as a subtle slur by the way, just to deride other points of view). I rely on my ears and judgement, which is very good when it comes to sound quality.