OllyK

For all those that think you simply must have £50 per m cabling and power pre-conditioners etc etc, you may find this an interesting read

Matrix HiFi --> Blind testing high end full equipments

TelBoy

Nothing new in that sort of comparison test of course. BUT!! It's often the cheaper systems which come out on top, ironically because they have a less refined sound and generally therefore make more of an initial impact. Over the long haul, a more expensive system, if put together properly, should be more satisfactory. Hi-fi is a great hobby, but not when straining to hear the last nuance of difference takes precedence over the music itself.

Bubba po

TelBoy

LOL, shut up

You might not want to believe it Geoff, but they DO make it sound different!!

SWRTWannabe

Bet you'd be gutted when that fuse blew

TelBoy

Surge protectors anyone?

OllyK

Sure, shame they don't make it sound better

TelBoy

I'm still straining to hear the nuances of difference they make

corradoboy

I used to be into hi-fi, but being a Yorkshireman I have a finely tuned bull$h!t-meter and never fell for all that tripe. Nothing wrong with finding quality components, cabling etc, but intelligence imposes certain financial limits, along with not wanting to be a victim of the law of diminishing returns. Prefer to have reasonable quality in everything and more interests than specify a single hobby these days.

Once did a blind test at my local dealer where the salesman was kept blind whilst I changed the cables. Winner on the day was a Tandy Gold Audio Patch Chord for £6, over the Audioquest Quartz Hyperlitz Triple Balanced, a Chord Company hand made jobby and another I can't remember, all between £40 and £130.

I also tried solid core mains cable for speaker wire and it was horrible, worse than bell-wire. So too was the 420V 3-phase cabling I tried. Settled for £7.50/m Mission solid-core, and still running it 20 years later along with the amp, CD player and speakers from that initial purchase. Seemed expensive when I bought it all and my Mum huffed and tutted, but everyone else I ever knew who bought cheap hi-fi has (I'm sure) spent much more than me over the last 2 decades with their endless replacings.

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

A mate of mine was into all that, we all were to a certain extent, will never forget him demonstrating his new interconnects and speaker cable using Huey Lewis and the News.

You can buy anything, but not taste.

paulr

In the test both used the same speakers. IMO speakers make by far the biggest difference in hi-fi and i'd always recommend listening to them before purchase. Sound is in the end air movement and its the speakers that move the air. Also bass relies on a large volume of air,which small speakers can never produce.
If they had had cheap speakers for one and the ATC's for the other they'd have noticed the difference. I know most hi-fi shops and mags will say spend most on the source as information lost at the start can never be recovered. IMO thats rubbish. Spend the most (or spend the most time auditioning) on the speakers.

AudiLover

audiophiles are like car detailers. Need I say more?

paulr

Yes.

TopBanana

Not for me, my Naim preamp was powered by batteries.



But I'm better now.

corradoboy

I'm with you on that. As long as the source and amp are of a reasonable quality, I'd always apportion more to the speakers. My 20yo audiophile stuff initially balanced out at £300 CD (old JVC I kept on for time being), £300 TT (Linn Basik), £350 amp (Cyrus II) and £450 (Mission 764i) speakers. The amp had a bit added for a further £300 later (Cyrus PSX) and the CD was upgraded to a Cyrus DAD7 (£900) and there it ended, and all but the Linn TT (motor blew twice until the arm/cart were transplanted to a mates Mitchell) is still in use.

Moved into AV now, and haven't got the overspending bug on that. A £250 Pioneer receiver gives me DD-EX and DTS-ES 7.1 feeding Mission surrounds £50/pr at Richers) and my old 764i's, along with a £300 multiregion DVD/DVD-A/SACD/MP3 etc etc player by Pioneer (565A) feeding a 50" Panasonic plasma. I do however want to upgrade the DVD player for a Sony 860 DVD recorder/HDD/Freeview but I might get the Pioneer version just 'cos it isn't Sony

Bubba po

I'd like to see some of these so-called "audiophiles" get the frequency response of their hearing assessed.

Most of them would get a terrible shock, I reckon.

rik1471

I recently saw an extension socket that claimed to "clean" the electricity.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

I thought both the systems tested were poor quality rubbish so what's the point being made

paulr

Its bolIocks stuff like that. Good speakers and you're half way there.

Daz34

Good articles here

If this isn't just a £30 kettle lead, I'll eat my hat | Science | Guardian Unlimited

Sounding out the hi-fi 'kettle leads' | Science | Guardian Unlimited

Shark Man

Talking of over valued/priced Hifi...Speakers, most bookshelfers are just slabs of laminated chipboard/MDF using a crude resonated farting port to produce any form of bass tone. It amazes me with the many mags and 'viles waxing lyrical over the sound some produce, somehow ignoring the peaky none-established bass with sharp drop off at low frequencies and boomy mid tones an-all. Not withstanding their inflexibility to the listening environment they have to be situated in to at least sound half decent.

But people still buy them and plonk them on £££ isolation stands, with ££ interconnects, ££ kettle lead into a dedicated spur (and if given a chance; using 22K gold plated circuit breaker fed from a dedicated phase straight from the local substation ). Makes me wonder if any of these have actually heard the qualities of a TQWT or even a TL cabinet that would actually produce more realistic tones and be less fussy on room acoustics. Mind, would they actually know what the souce they are listining to "should" sound like? Oh no probably not, anyway, they are too big and you can't put them on a fancy stand.

Better still, one could have built a pair of TQWT or TL for less than what some people spend on interconnects. And of which a daringly tight budget unit of a £200 would surpass alot of off-the-shelf sub £1500 reflex/bandpass units, afterall its only slabs of wood matched to a chosen drive unit. Once the maths relating to the physical and electrical characteristics of the chosen driver (say, a modestly priced SEAS unit) have been calculated and factored in to attain the correct design volume and dimensions, its really is not that hard.

But hey what would I know......My reference amplifier uses bog standard transistors, no valves or FETs, oh dear what a travesty

hades

90% of the general public are also non petrol heads and in a double blind test would probably prefer riding in a bog standard Daewoo than in a hard riding, loud, modified Impreza as it's more comfortable if not as quick. Does that prove the Impreza isn't worth the money?

It's easy to say how any hobby / enthusiasm you're not interested in is clearly a waste of money / time / just plain rubbish. True enthusiasts in most things will know it's not the case - they just have a rather different "point of diminishing returns" on spending their cash than most other people. There's a lot of things where I'd never contemplate spending the sort of money enthusiasts do, but I don't think that makes them wrong or stupid, just that they have different interests to me.

Personally I've spent what some people would consider to be silly money (although others would consider it to be very moderate amounts) on various hi-fi things where I've heard the difference and liked the sound, albeit usually after "single blind" trials. I enjoy good music on a car system or my bedside DAB, but I enjoy it more when you can hear what the musician is trying to play etc on my "proper" system. I don't believe I've wasted money, am completely happy with what I have and won't change it unless it breaks.

Suresh

TelBoy

I've just emailed Ben Goldacre at The Guardian asking him if he'd like a personal demonstration of the differences a Yello power cord can make. For anyone else on here happy to scoff, i'd also offer £100 that you CAN hear a difference. Some of this stuff is certainly marginal, such is the quality of consumer electronics these days, but there are nevertheless real benefits to be gained from some of this stuff, if you can be bothered to experiment.

TelBoy

Geoff i know you love all this really

Sure, we've all got different hearing, and beyond a certain age it all becomes a bit meaningless, but most people CAN hear differences. You'd have a shock yourself if you heard my system, i guarantee it, so i could argue it's a bit silly to pass such judgments when you haven't experienced what the hi-fi world can actually offer.

TelBoy

Mains conditioners are big business these days. For a reason. They work. Shock horror! Have a look at the Isotek Mini Sub-Station. They sell loads of these things. Sceptics have been converted by this type of gear. I'm not going to attempt to explain WHY it works, but trust me, it's not ALL smoke and mirrors.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

You want smoke & mirrors? P.W.B. Electronics Home Page

TopBanana

Is that a real business or an elaborate joke?

paulr

Electricity is generated at a power station and travels X number of miles over loads of different cables,passing X number of junction boxes and sub-stations yet a "Yello power cable" that transfers the electricity the last metre of a 100 km journey is going to transform the sound of your hi-fi.

.....

jjones

seen the kings new clothes??