Bass quantity, or quality?

[PRYML]

I've been swapping interconnects around for the past couple of weeks and found that a pair of solid silver interconnects (either twixt pre and power amp or twixt CD player and pre) gave much less level in the mid-bass and no deep bass at all. Swapped to Audioquest Turqouise (silver plated copper I think)- Bass returned immediately. Not a subtle difference at all.

As I understand it, not all "pure" silver conductors are made equal. And as Neil noted earlier, the MAD cable was more transparent than the cable I used prior, allowing more of the bass from the source through. Furthermore, it's not unheard of of people using cables to add "positive" colouration to enhance their musical experience. My van den Hul Thunderline interconnect in an earlier system did just that; evening out the tonal balance by "enhancing" the undernourished bass when I was using the lean sounding EPOS M15...

The reason the bottleneck theory didn't occur to me earlier was because I was still mired in amazement that such a low powered hybrid amp could "produce" such bass output after the cable change :-)

Regards,

Malek

[Macca]

As I understand it, not all "pure" silver conductors are made equal. And as Neil noted earlier, the MAD cable was more transparent than the cable I used prior, allowing more of the bass from the source through. Furthermore, it's not unheard of of people using cables to add "positive" colouration to enhance their musical experience.

I should probably have mentioned the silver interconnects I was using were £30 new off of e-bay (although very well made for the money) - the MAD cables are much more expensive and out of my league - I bought them as an experiment only but it's interesting that you had a similar effect with the cheaper MAD silvers - I'll try the £30 jobbies on a totally different system and see if the same effect is noticable. I've no problem with cable 'colouration' - as long as I like what I hear I don't care if it's 'accurate'.

[PRYML]

I should probably have mentioned the silver interconnects I was using were £30 new off of e-bay (although very well made for the money) - the MAD cables are much more expensive and out of my league - I bought them as an experiment only but it's interesting that you had a similar effect with the cheaper MAD silvers - I'll try the £30 jobbies on a totally different system and see if the same effect is noticable. I've no problem with cable 'colouration' - as long as I like what I hear I don't care if it's 'accurate'.

I've no problems with tweaks that enhance my musical experience as well

However, since I'm making a substantial investment in trying to upgrade my entire system, I'd rather attain that musical satisfaction through musical transparency as opposed to "musical-tailoring"

I think you should give your new cables a significant period of burning-in as well; I've personally found that significant gains can be had by doing so

A thread by a fellow forum member led me to the following URL for some interesting
reading...

http://www.whitezombieaudio.com/faq.html

Regards,

Malek

[Spectral Morn]

I've no problems with tweaks that enhance my musical experience as well

However, since I'm making a substantial investment in trying to upgrade my entire system, I'd rather attain that musical satisfaction through musical transparency as opposed to "musical-tailoring"

I think you should give your new cables a significant period of burning-in as well; I've personally found that significant gains can be had by doing so

A thread by a fellow forum member led me to the following URL for some interesting
reading...

http://www.whitezombieaudio.com/faq.html

Regards,

Malek

Vital with cables of all types and components as well. Too many I fear, drop an addition to their system way too soon; not liking the sound for some reason or feeling it is not much of an improvement, when in reality they have not allowed it enough run in time.

The changes in tonal balance as well as the hifi things like soundstaging etc can be quite dramatic switching from good to bad (in the context of your system, but perhaps not in another one) or bad to good. I have heard this happen quite a lot and it is always best to err to the side of caution and give the item as much run in as you can; just to be safe. At the end of the day you could be both wasting money and missing out on that key component that breaks your system bottleneck if you abandon it too soon.




Regards D S D L

[DSJR]

Not sure about cables running in, but you may need a few days to get used to the sonic difference that odd "audiophool" wires introduce. As said above, if you like the results, then fine.

I rather liked and promoted the theory that a better wire should "sound" similar to a basic cheap one, just clearer all through the range. that's what I find the MG HD cables do in my system, developing the basic qualities of my home-made and bought-in "cheap" wires.

[Spectral Morn]

Not sure about cables running in, but you may need a few days to get used to the sonic difference that odd "audiophool" wires introduce. As said above, if you like the results, then fine.

I rather liked and promoted the theory that a better wire should "sound" similar to a basic cheap one, just clearer all through the range. that's what I find the MG HD cables do in my system, developing the basic qualities of my home-made and bought-in "cheap" wires.

Once again Dave we will have to agree to differ. This has nothing to do with getting used to anything, it is about fundamental changes in sound performance between a brand new item and one that has had the correct amount of use to bring it to its final performance level. This includes cables and electronics.

Your second paragraph I find disturbing as the difference between cheap throw away cables and better cables is in my experience always there to be heard and quite often the difference is massive, not subtle. The cheaper cables (usually dearer cables are better but not always. System synergy is always a factor but in the case of what you are saying you are suggesting this is a rule not the exception. I disagree with that totally) being a major blockage on a systems performance.

If you want to state that there is a basic level of performance required and better cables build on that then fair enough but very cheap cables in my experience don't meet this standard (for me) but again without more info its hard to know exactly where you are coming from on this. Things are a bit too vague imho.

Anyway if you can't hear these things then that's fine. I know what I can hear and have been hearing for many, many years and this has happened even today.

I also find the term "audiophool" quite offensive, negative, closed minded and derisive, as I also do the word "odd" in this context. I think you need to lay out what this refers to as without any context it makes it hard to see anything other than the tired old objectavist mind set in the use of these words imho. This is perhaps not what you intended but that's how it comes across to my mind anyway.

I don't want to fall out with you but this is what I think.


Regards D S D L

[PRYML]

"audiophool"<-- I agree with Neil; it's fine to have an opinion, but to be judgmental as such?

Like saying "your music is crap and my selection is the ONLY genre worthy of musical appreciation"...

[The Grand Wazoo]

The 'just your brain is getting used to them' theory, is surely the easiest thing in the world to verify or disprove.
Plug in a new pair. Have a listen. Unplug them & put them away. Compare them to another new set. Leave them running and walk away & don't come back for a fortnight.
Do you still hear what you remember?
Verify against the other set.

[PRYML]

So on my return to the UK, I met up with Tim at his home (cum listening room) in the afternoon, where he auditioned some equipment for me to listen to; including the ATC SCM 19 and naturally, his recommendation i.e. the standard versions of MyClapton standmounts which sadly, weren't even broken in yet as he literally put them together that very morning! He said that he didn't have a broken-in pair on hand as they've all been sold off to customers (business must be brisk ). Even so, the MyClapton standmounts did exhibit some superlative qualities in spite of some shortcomings in other areas due to what I assume were their non-broken-in status

Just to be fair to Tim, amongst the superlative qualities exhibited by the standard version of MyClapton speakers that left me with a strong lasting impression (in spite of it's non-broken-in status) was that, unlike the ATC, I was still able to enjoy the music at low listening levels and not miss a single thing; such was the degree of exceptional sonic resolution!

I can only imagine what MyClapton Grand MM (the premium version of MyClapton, above the standard version and the SE) would sound like after it's been broken-in; I was told that MyQueen cables are used in the internal wiring instead of the "standard/regular" internal wiring in the standard/SE versions

Regards,

Malek

p.s. Looking forward to the Hi-Fi World review of MyClapton; if I recall correctly, the MM Grand version

[Ali Tait]

I should probably have mentioned the silver interconnects I was using were £30 new off of e-bay (although very well made for the money) - the MAD cables are much more expensive and out of my league - I bought them as an experiment only but it's interesting that you had a similar effect with the cheaper MAD silvers - I'll try the £30 jobbies on a totally different system and see if the same effect is noticable. I've no problem with cable 'colouration' - as long as I like what I hear I don't care if it's 'accurate'.

Hi Martin,
If you like silver cables,try these-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Solid-Silver-P...#ht_2272wt_960

Great cable IMO.