Quote Originally Posted by Marco View Post
Hi Malek,

Neil hits the nail on the head here:



That's it in a nutshell. All systems have 'bottlenecks' of some description, which limit their true sonic potential. Think of your system as a tap that previously was only (say) half or three-quarters open, therefore restricting the 'signal flow' to your speakers....

The removal of the bottleneck caused by your previous cables has opened the tap more, therefore the signal which had previously been to a degree 'held in check' is now 'flowing' more freely, so your speakers in turn are receiving a source signal of greater integrity (more of the signal to 'chew on', as it were), and are thus reproducing information from the source recording (in terms of low frequency detail and otherwise) with more accuracy and faithfulness.

And yet some people say that cables make no difference!!

Basically, cables are the arteries which control the flow of the source (music) signal throughout a system, and so any deficiencies in the electrical properties of the wire used in interconnects and speaker cables, or deficiencies in their overall construction as a result of the sonic effect imparted by their component parts (plugs, etc), which impede the integrity of that signal, in turn hampers the ability of your loudspeakers to fully reproduce the (music) signal derived from your source components.

This explains why by upgrading your cables (i.e. to ones which in your system reproduce the source signal more accurately), you're now hearing deeper and better bass than you were before without having changed any actual equipment.

As for quality vs. quantity of bass, anyone who's genuinely into high-end audio will always prioritise the former over the latter, especially since most of the music is in the midrange, and so reproducing information there as accurately as possible by choosing components, cables and speakers which optimise that area of the frequency range (along with the accurate reproduction of upper frequencies) is, with most types of music, of much more importance than gaining out-and-out bass extension.

However, in terms of reproducing bass, once the above has been achieved, it is nice to have both genuine low-end extension, scale and also tunefulness, but such luxury does not come cheap - and even then is only realised by huge, high-quality, loudspeakers and the judicious selecting of equipment, cables, equipment supports and ancillaries, together with the knowledge and experience of how to make everything work together synergistically as a system.

Regardless of ultimate bass extension, system synergy is the key to achieving the musical communication which allows us to suspend disbelief and feel that what we are listening to is not merely just sound, but a convincing musical performance and 'snapshot' of the real thing. Only then can we fully 'connect' emotionally with our favourite music and thus derive from it the satisfaction we seek.......

Building such systems, and the methodology needed to arrive there, is what we champion and promote on AOS

Marco.
Thanks Marco

I knew I was joining the right forum when I read the AoS Ethos

I'm thankful that there's an ongoing endeavour to maintain a measure of "Integrity" within the forum in order to temper, if not prevent, condescending self-righteous posts which cosset the indulgent egos of the Superiority Complex-afflicted and assuage the self-esteem of the defensive "over-compensating" Inferiority Complex-afflicted

To be fair, virtually all of us, to some degree, may fall into any one of the aforementioned complexes; I may even be an Inferiority Complex masquerading as a Superiority Complex!

However, Life is about finding one's Balance/Centre, avoid getting stuck at the byways; never truly arriving at "Self-Realisation"

Regards,

Malek