View Poll Results: Do cables make a difference to your listening experience.

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  • Nearly Always

    51 63.75%
  • Sometimes

    20 25.00%
  • Never

    9 11.25%
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Thread: Do cables make a difference to your listening experience.

  1. #61
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Staffordshire, England

    Posts: 37,779
    I'm Martin.

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    Quote Originally Posted by walpurgis View Post
    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.
    Expectation bias is real but I think there are ways around it. if we live with the same system day after day you can get to a point where you can't hear the wood for the trees, to coin a phrase. if I am trying to get a handle on it I like to imagine that it is someone else's system:

    Say you went with a friend to the house of a friend of his where you have never been before, he has what looks like a pretty decent system. They go off out to get food and booze and leave you alone to play whatever music you want on the system. It isn't your system and you don't even know the owner so there is no bias, you play stuff and make a judgement on it, if you don't have a dog in the race it is much easier to be objective in your assessment.

    One thing I have found doing this exercise is that your system immediately does not sound as good as you thought it did. That is quite unsettling.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

  2. #62
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Macca View Post
    One thing I have found doing this exercise is that your system immediately does not sound as good as you thought it did. That is quite unsettling.
    Strange. I have the opposite. My system always sounds as good as I thought it did.
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  3. #63
    Join Date: Aug 2009

    Location: Staffordshire, England

    Posts: 37,779
    I'm Martin.

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    Try the experiment I suggested. Hey, it may be you have cracked it and it still sounds awesome. All I am saying is that we disregard the impact of our human psychology at our peril.
    Current Lash Up:

    TEAC VRDS 701T > Sony TAE1000ESD > Krell KSA50S > JM Labs Focal Electra 926.

  4. #64
    Join Date: Mar 2014

    Location: Herefordshire

    Posts: 104
    I'm Alex.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pharos View Post
    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?
    I have found the SCA2 to be one of the most transparent preamps available after it was running for about a month ... before that I had some 40`s driven by a Chord CPA3000 into a Chord 1200 amp.
    I found a pair of 50A`s available and used them instead of the 40`s driven by the 1200.

    I bought the SCA2 and found it awful, with painful vocals and guitars that would remove fillings. I honestly could not believe how bad it sounded. I ended up leaving it switched on permanently for a week or two and ignored it.
    What a difference that made. It was like getting a new preamp. Smooth silky vocals, guitars reproduced in all their fuzzed up glory and percussion if recorded properly was explosive.
    The 50A`s and SCA2 will be keepers now. I have not come across anything that I find lacking in my system bar the bass roll off that will happen with the size of woofer used.
    So I would say the preamp is not overpriced, it is one heck of a good bit of kit, but it must be left on. If you get a chance to listen to one, make sure you do so in your own system and don`t be too much of a rush to send it back if it is a bit screechy at first, it will settle down.
    I only need worry about interconnects to and from the preamp as I am active so I have no worries about speaker cables. I would go for Van Damme, Mogami or any pro cable manufactures to give you a baseline quality setting. After a few listening sessions you may want to try some different cables but you will have a very good starting point.

  5. #65
    Join Date: Apr 2011

    Location: Surrey

    Posts: 4,162
    I'm Mike.

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    I'm still surprised I'm surprised when I try out a new one.
    Sounds great before I swap in the new one - then it sounds better
    TAD CD / DAC / Pre, Technics 1210, MCRU PSU, Mike New Bearing & Platter, Stillpoints LP1 weight, Speedy Steve Ebony armboard, Fidelity Research FR64FX arm, Ortofon SPU. Aurorasound VIDA Phono Pre Amp, TAD Power Amp, TAD E1 speakers. Coherent RTZ 3 Grounding box, Coherent grounding cables, Creaktiv racks. Coherent Mains Cables. SR Blue Fuse. Interconnects : Coherent and Yannis 223.5 Connect Litz. Coherent speaker cable. Audio Magic Transcendence Conditioner. Coherent mains socket. Mains Filters : , PS Audio Harvesters, Russ Andrews Purifiers, Tacima, Vertex. Black Ravioli and RDC supports. Electric Beach S1NX platforms for TAD CD and Technics. Ferrite chokes everywhere except the above. Ears, brain

    Mike

  6. #66
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Seaford UK

    Posts: 1,861
    I'm Dennis.

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    Blueflash, I already have one I bought from Audio Images as ex display, and with an SPA2, which I traded an SIA2 for.

    I am pondering whether or not it is better than the AVI S200MP which I also have and used previously with the SIA2, and I also have actives, ADAM Gammas. I'm tending to think it's a keeper, though inside is a comparative rat's nest.

  7. #67
    Join Date: Apr 2012

    Location: N E Kent

    Posts: 51,624
    I'm Geoff.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Pharos View Post
    I am pondering whether or not it is better than the AVI S200MP which I also have
    Do you like the AVI Dennis?

    I had one for a while, but was not particularly struck with it. I felt the same about the Meridian 502 pre-amp I had about the same time too. I found both somewhat bland. The Michell Argo was more transparent than either, but a bit lacking in body. I didn't keep these very long

    None was as good as the old Rappaport Pre-2 I also owned. It was a long time before I found something to surpass its abilties. And that was a Forte Model 2 from Nelson Pass. That too has since moved on.
    It is impossible for anything digital to sound analogue, because it isn't analogue!

  8. #68
    Join Date: Dec 2008

    Location: East Riding of Yorkshire these days

    Posts: 4,779
    I'm Shaun.

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    I actually use my interconnects as a stealth 'tone' control using their characteristics to tailor the digital and analogue sides of the system. That is why I use Atlas Hyper cables on the digital side and QED Reference on the analogue. The only one shared is between the pre and power.

  9. #69
    Join Date: Mar 2017

    Location: Seaford UK

    Posts: 1,861
    I'm Dennis.

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    Geoff, I quite like the AVI in a theory, 'objectivist' way, brilliant specs, good value etc., but it does sound a bit edgy, harsh maybe. Big price difference £900, to £5k for the SPA2.

    I vacillate between objectivist (right wing, none of this nonsense, 'pull yourself together man') to subjectivist, (left wing sensitive plaintif; 'but I can hear something different maybe better') standpoints.

    I have found one valuable thing which I think applies to all evaluations. When we are consciously intensely evaluating, we in some ways sabotage our attempts with tension and lack of ability to feel. This applies in job interviews, and maybe on first dates when we are aware of the implications of the scenario.

    So with the Hi-Fi, I find that often the real breakthroughs in hearing can be when not paying attention in this way, but hearing in a relaxed way whilst doing something else, like washing up. On several occasions I have in this state, baulked at hearing something never heard before, then I go back and replay it with the intense analytical mind-frame to confirm or refute it.

  10. #70
    Join Date: Apr 2016

    Location: Bishops Stortford

    Posts: 1,250
    I'm Chris.

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    Where is the option for always

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