They're havin' a laff.

[skankdelvar]

Thing I like about about solid silver cables is they permit you to hear the true 'copperiness' of the wiring through which the sound was originally recorded.

For myself I use only early Georgian silver, preferably melted down spoons from the original Great Windmill St workshop of M. Paul De Lamerie. The post-1738 Gerrard St spoons just don't sound right.
[color=#ffffff].[/color]

Edited May 4, 2014 by skankdelvar

[winterfire666]

i have tried a russ andrews power cable in an a/b situation while working for a large music shop, i was very sceptical however there was a definite difference, subtle yes, better no, but different none the less, certainly not enough to warrant buying one or even considering it for that matter, especially considering the quality of the power outlets/supplys at a lot of venues where any upgrade would be pointless anyway.
i can undersand a hi-fi pureist using one a home with the perfect set up and an acoustically treated room but not for a gigging player.

Edited May 4, 2014 by winterfire666

[discreet]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1399225530' post='2442213']
For myself I use only early Georgian silver, preferably melted down spoons from the Great Windmill St workshop of M. Paul De Lamerie. The post-1738 Gerrard St spoons just don't sound right.[color=#ffffff].[/color][/quote]

I see where you're coming from Skank, but I have to say I prefer silver from the neoclassical stylings of Paul Storr - particularly during his partnership with John Mortimer. Had some truly excellent cables made up when I acquired and melted down the cup he made for Lord Nelson to mark his victory in the Battle of the Nile.

Edited May 4, 2014 by discreet

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1399225886' post='2442219']
I see where you're coming from Skank, but I have to say I prefer silver from the neoclassical stylings of Paul Storr - particularly during his partnership with John Mortimer. Had some truly excellent cables made up when I acquired and melted down the cup he made for Lord Nelson to mark his victory in the Battle of the Nile.
[/quote]

I liked those cables when you demo'd them for me. That said, they rendered the OST from Emmanuelle a little toppy for my taste.

It appals me when people say 'I've got silver cables' yet are patently oblivious to the metal's extraction date. Use anything brought to light after 05:30 on July 16 1945 and one might as well stuff Camembert in one's ears.

[HowieBass]

My hearing's somewhat buggered anyway; I needed myringoplasty operations for both ears after repeated infections (from my earlier years) gave me perforated eardrums and I have tinnitus in the right ear. I haven't a clue what the highest frequency is I'm able to reliably perceive but I suspect it's maybe only up to around 12 KHz these days (additionally, it's already well known that men lose more high frequencies than women as they age). So, I benefit from now having a tweeter in my bass combo but swapping the standard mains lead for one costing hundreds of pounds is very likely going to be wasted on me (and on many other listeners with senses dulled by age or by drink/drugs).

[discreet]

[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif][quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1399226859' post='2442228']
Use anything brought to light after 05:30 on July 16 1945 and one might as well stuff Camembert in one's ears.
[/quote][/font][/size]
[size=4][font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Quite. But it has to be from Normandy of course and preferably Camembert Le Ch[color=#000000]â[/color]telain.[/font][/size]

Edited May 4, 2014 by discreet

[Dad3353]

[quote name='skankdelvar' timestamp='1399226859' post='2442228']...one might as well stuff Camembert in one's ears.[/quote]

Ah..! So that's where I'm going wrong..!

[skankdelvar]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1399227241' post='2442237']
[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Quite. But it has to be from Normandy of course and preferably Camembert Le Ch[color=#000000]â[/color]telain.[/font]
[/quote]

Using milk [i]only[/i] from those cows that graze the spot behind the dairy where dear Benoit has his midday piss. Only the hobbyist fromageophile would settle for anything less. [sub][/sub]

[KingBollock]

Every time I think I have the perfect tone from my rig, I go back the next day and hate it and have to start again. If I thought I could actually hear 0.001mhz difference, I'd probably hate it the next time I heard it.

The brain is a fickle thing.

If all that really mattered was that you believed that you hear a difference that you like, then they wouldn't have to invent so much pseudoscience and bullshit to sell it, surely?

And I'd still like to know the cost of the components. How much mark up do they make from just making up words? Perhaps that's it? Perhaps what you're paying for isn't a mains cable, but poetry? That would actually make more sense.

[Roger2611]

Is it not about the subtlest degrees of improvement? [u]If[/u] this mains cable makes a tiny difference when compared to a std kettle lead then combined with a decent speaker cable again making a subtle difference then finally the connecting cable again giving a further subtle improvement do you not end up with something that sounds that bit more special?

I am skeptical about the claims for this mains cable but those who can afford to buy one can probably afford to invest that money into their passion and won't lose sleep over it if they don't see a marked difference, I was tipped off about some RCA connecting cables a few years back, I had a decent quality (Black Rhodium) set in place and someone I trusted said "try some of these they are a fair bit cheaper than what you have got but they sound fantastic" I was skeptical but took the plunge and tried them...they are still in place...why, because they do open up the sound more......sorry but I can't remember who made them but they are special.

I used to work for a Rolls Royce dealership many years back and spent time swanning round in £250.000 Bentley's, that was 100 times more than my car was worth at the time, was the Bentley 100 times better, quite simply no but to the people that owned them spending £250.000 on a car was like me spending £10.00 on a car, they could afford what they perceived as the best so they brought what they perceived as the best.

I can understand that

[BassTractor]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1399213976' post='2442126']
[rant]
... and my tuppence-worth, at the expense of appearing to be a 'jealous guy', is that this kind of money, however rich a person is, is a criminal waste in the world, whatever the so-called audio benefit. Some folks spend 10 times as much on a watch chain, or ear-rings. I think that that, too, is criminal. Sorry, but I'll never accept, even from my privileged position as one of the 1% or whatever myself, that this is 'just fine', and 'normal'. Selfish deluded greed, that's what it is, however it's dressed up.
[/rant]
[/quote]

Fully agreed, and I'm ashamed to say I too am a criminal in that way (maybe slightly less criminal than those you mention) - even though I'm one who tries to get seriously away from it all.
This stuff of course has nothing to do with jealousy.


As to the true or not true bit about sound differences, I've relayed before how we, when I worked in a Hi-Fi shop, would organise a find-out-once-and-for-all meeting in a local concert hall and compare gear behind a thin type of net that was lighted from the audience side so no-one could see what gear was on the dark stage behind it.

100 different people would hear 100 different - often opposite - things.

[discreet]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1399213976' post='2442126']
[rant]
... and my tuppence-worth, at the expense of appearing to be a 'jealous guy', is that this kind of money, however rich a person is, is a criminal waste in the world, whatever the so-called audio benefit. Some folks spend 10 times as much on a watch chain, or ear-rings. I think that that, too, is criminal. Sorry, but I'll never accept, even from my privileged position as one of the 1% or whatever myself, that this is 'just fine', and 'normal'. Selfish deluded greed, that's what it is, however it's dressed up.
[/rant]
[/quote]

I broadly agree with you Doug, conspicuous consumption is obscene. But then I probably look like a conspicuous consumer to someone from a third-world country. And it all pales into insignificance compared to, say, a £50bn rail system or a £50bn submarine that no-one even wants.

[Dad3353]

Bling is bling, be it in a first, second, third or fourth world country. Shameful even that is exists, let alone that there are those that buy it (... and think it's somehow 'good'...).

... and submarines? We don't need no stinkin' submarines!

[attachment=161986:Stin_Badg.jpg]

[discreet]

[quote name='Dad3353' timestamp='1399241301' post='2442434']
...submarines? We don't need no stinkin' submarines!
[/quote]

Si! An' we don' need no stinkin' privatised rail network, either - er... amigo. But she is for another thread.

[Ziphoblat]

People listen with their eyes, not their ears. Very rarely, if ever, is there any good science shown to support the claims these snake oil salesmen make. When they can show me a blind-test experiment in which a hundred ordinary people (or one better, a hundred "audiophiles") A/B'd these cables against an ordinary Chinese bargain-bin cable and a significant number were able to identify the expensive cable as sounding better, or even distinguish a difference at all, then I'll take them a bit more seriously. There's little to no science to support the claims they make about how their cables work, and there's no science to suggest that anybody can actually hear a difference. The reason for that is quite clear - there's a lack of confidence in their product on their part, because (at best) they believe the difference is slight, or (at worst) they know it's complete gobbledegook. If anybody did happen upon such a cable that could be demonstrably proved to generate a superior sound, they would publish their findings and triple their sales. There's no benefit to be had from leaving your claims unsubstantiated unless no evidence for them can possibly exist.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Ziphoblat

[Diablo]

[quote]Si! An' we don' need no stinkin' privatised rail network, either - er... amigo. But she is for another thread. [/quote]
We don't need HS2 either, but we are going to get it! As "North" is considered to be B'ham, and it is important to Westminster to support the poor people in the north, we are going to get stuffed with this white elephant.

I digress - if you spend £250 on a kettle lead, and plug it into a £3 B&Q twin wall socket, and building cable at £0.25/meter, well you know the answer.

The only true way to sort out sound and harmonics in power generation is to rectify then truly invert it without harmonics to get a pure sine wave at stable voltage and frequency, which amps will typically invert back to DC anyway. So the power supply makes no difference. But as was said many posts earlier, don't let the laws of physics get in the way of a good argument.

Edited May 4, 2014 by Diablo

[Big_Stu]

[quote name='Dingus' timestamp='1399213420' post='2442117']
Just unplugging all the interconnect and speaker cable connections on you hifi and then plugging them back in again a couple of times every once in a while is usually enough to remove any build up of oxidization and subtly improve the sound.
[/quote]

Now I don't beleieve you want to be doing that.......
Gold plated plugs and sockets is what you should be having! ey? ey?

Edited May 4, 2014 by Big_Stu

[uncle psychosis]

There's a reason that high end scientific equipment - top of the range oscilloscopes, money no object microscopes, supercomputers, etc - doesn't come with these fancy conditioned power cables or thermally treated cables or whatever the latest audiophile craze is.

It's all BS. The only people naiive enough to fall for it are audiophiles and gullible musicians. Still, if people are rich enough that they can afford to spend thousands on enjoying the placebo effect then that's their problem, not mine.

[xgsjx]

[quote name='HowieBass' timestamp='1399227200' post='2442235']
My hearing's somewhat buggered anyway; I needed myringoplasty operations for both ears after repeated infections (from my earlier years) gave me perforated eardrums and I have tinnitus in the right ear. I haven't a clue what the highest frequency is I'm able to reliably perceive but I suspect it's maybe only up to around 12 KHz these days (additionally, it's already well known that men lose more high frequencies than women as they age).
[/quote]

Trust someone to mention tinnitus & all I now hear in my left ear is "weeeeeeeeee"!
My top end must be about 1khz in there.

[quote]additionally, it's already well known that men lose more high frequencies than women as they age[/quote]

That would be due to women increasing their high frequencies with age.

[discreet]

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1399292721' post='2442770']
That would be due to women increasing their high frequencies with age.
[/quote]

Oh dear. Their gain seems to increase too. And less headroom...

Edited May 5, 2014 by discreet

[xgsjx]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1399295417' post='2442795']
Oh dear. Their gain seems to increase too. And less headroom...
[/quote]
Less headroom!
As someone said to me... "Getting lucky at my age means remembering what you went into the fridge for".

[discreet]

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1399296109' post='2442812']
As someone said to me... "Getting lucky at my age means remembering what you went into the fridge for".
[/quote]

It's a cliche really, but only this morning I found myself in a bedroom absently staring out of the window with a carton of milk in one hand. No idea why, or how I got there, or anything. The current mrs discreet lost her car keys last week - we eventually found them in the shed. She never goes in the shed, so..?

Edited May 5, 2014 by discreet

[Dad3353]

[quote name='discreet' timestamp='1399296337' post='2442814']...The current mrs discreet lost her car keys last week - we eventually found them in the shed. She never goes in the shed, so..?
[/quote]

Borrowers..! ([i]Taps side of nose, knowingly[/i]...)

[xgsjx]

Has anyone successfully put the kettle in the fridge yet?
You know, you get up in the morning, make a cuppa & get the milk out the fridge whilst you wait on the kettle boiling. Pour the water in the cup & walk to the fridge to put the milk back.
I haven't as yet, but I've looked at the fridge door a couple of times with kettle in hand.

[Bassman Sam]

[quote name='xgsjx' timestamp='1399299776' post='2442856']
Has anyone successfully put the kettle in the fridge yet?
You know, you get up in the morning, make a cuppa & get the milk out the fridge whilst you wait on the kettle boiling. Pour the water in the cup & walk to the fridge to put the milk back.
I haven't as yet, but I've looked at the fridge door a couple of times with kettle in hand.
[/quote]

No but I have tried to put the butter into the dish washer. [size=4] [/size]