But over marketed. Because power comes from the utility, thru a breaker, then via ROMEX (in some cases, THHN in conduit) with little thought in how/where it is routed to that wall outlet. Upgrading the cord does get you a better shielded, noodley interconnect that might reduce interference with nearby signals. IMHO to have an effect, the WHOLE power distribution needs to be low reactive, so that it can deliver instantaneous current. As many will find: You fix a weakness only to expose the next (lesser) one. 🤐
This is, sort of, rather a: Given! Have the P 20, Power Regenerator. This comes with a, `wimpy,' "starter cable." Paul recommends a better one, & so purchased the best audioquest power cable for this, cost $950 several years ago, a little over $1,000, today. Is it worth it? Supposed to be! In regard to: Instantaneous current, the P20 is heavy, has a number of large capacitors, to supply this, as necessary. In fact, some feel that this is better than, straight from the wall, as utility current is more limited in regard to providing greater power for brief, instantaneous peaks.
As an electronics engineer, here are the FACTS: Speaker cable: A speaker is an electric motor, it's fed by an electric current which drives the speaker. As long as the cable feeding it can supply the current going through the cable, that is a good speaker cable. Simple copper cable of the correct gauge, the thicker, the better within practical reason, with PVC insulation will be as good as ANY cable, no matter what it's made of or claims made about its ''sound quality.'' These things can be verified with test equipment. Coaxial audio cable: 100% screened copper cable, as short as possible. If you want to be fancy, you can measure the capacitance of the cable or connect it up to a signal generator, oscilloscope and multimeter and measure its characteristics. I've just measured a standard BNC to BNC cable on my bench and put a 1 Volt sine wave through it from 1Hz to 1 MHz. The sine wave stayed EXACTLY the same throughout. That's a good audio cable. Digital cables: As long as the equipment works with the cable you use, that is a good digital cable. What the cable is made of makes no difference to ''sound quality'' whatsoever. Your Internet gets to you through a twisted pair of wires of either copper or aluminium, the sound and picture quality of things I watch and listen to is good. I've used several different cables over the years and the quality has been EXACTLY the same with all of them.
"The big challenge for power cords are extreme current peaks. They are caused by the connected devices themselves through the conversion from alternating to direct current. These extreme current peaks cause a whole series of unwanted effects. " inakustik
Actually, high-end cable does make a difference. If you pay hundreds or thousands of pounds / dollars for a cable, then I GUARANTEE that the buyer WILL hear a difference in sound quality. If I were to analyse that cable in my electronics lab, then I will get very similar or exactly the same results from a standard, reasonably priced cable. @@montynorth3009
The answer is EQ. There I said it! Now banned from all internet Audiophile sites :( People trying to tweak their sound with cables should just use EQ. A much cheaper solution. EQ is audible, tell that to the mixing engineers who made your favorite music.
Thank you, Paul. The answer about the preamp-amp interconnect was unexpected but very interesting! Also about the speakers with more or less stable impedance. Very cool.
When I changed the interconnect between my extensively upgraded quad 44 and two Quad 405's from a cheap cable to (expensive for me) £45 cable, the difference was very noticeable in terms of hum reduced to inaudible and the resolution improved considerably . Thanks Paul
the more they cost, the more you're obliged to hear a difference. There is not a person in this world that will convince me a standard shielded cat6 cable sounds different to an audiophile ethernet cable. Even over the UTP protocol that doen not handshake or ACK. RCA interconnects, yes, but the law of diminishing returns apply.
I think the best place to start is to buy some great quality $30 interconnects, like Mogami, then any extra money you considered spending past that, instead spend first on room treatments. Once the treatments are done, try Dirac or other high end filter algorithms, to see if it is for you. After that, if you think your main speakers are sticking around awhile, go to the next cost tier of cables. Doing expensive cables first, before room treatments or main speaker upgrades seems backwards to me...
Agree. Room treatment first. Not necessary to have expensive panels all over. Common sense things. Carpet. wood, not glass or mirrors. When doing serious listening, I cover my TV with a blanket. The couple of pictures I have, I took the glass out. The less reflective the better. You can have your $100,000 setup in a lousy room and my very modest setup will sound much better.
No it's the other way around, cables is one of the first step, and the first cables you buy at a random cheap electronic stores will probably be more than good enough. Just make sure the speaker cables are a bit thicker for those times when you want to play really loud and then absolute most important of all; make sure the cables are long enough so you can place the stuff exactly where you want them!
Whew.... great question!!! Your response was perfect, as they mostly are. You're doing a great job on your site and you are the GO TO guy for audio questions. I trust your opinion more than most I've seen on RUclips. Keep up the great work, maybe one day I'll fet the opportunity to view your shop. Cheers 🍻
I want to see statements like "Speaker cables can be critical" backed up with a full test series on the same system, with different cables. Pick the cable choices that make the largest differences. Let's see the difference in test results so they can be compared. This is simply a request for an honest and transparent analytical evaluation I want to see the same tests made with POWER cables, too.
When I’m not listening to my system, I disconnect the speaker cables and store them in my freezer. This enhances high end response, and also, produces more dynamic vocals.
Paul is rambling weird stuff again. When it comes to cable almost anything you get at a random electronic store will do the job just fine when it comes to audio quality. RCA cables for 10 euro will cover all your needs, a cheap plastic toslink carries all your bits perfectly, a normal gauged power cable gives as clean power as you'll ever need, and those speaker cables just need a bit of thickness so it can deliver the power you need for those times when you want to play really loud, but a normal power cord for a lamp will do that just fine. Balanced stuff you can probably do without though, they're actually built for professional environments where they have really long runs where they actually can get some interference and they also needs to be able to take a beat which is why they are sturdier built, which I really hope you won't need at home. But whatever you do, it's REALLY important that the cables you buy are long enough so they can go all the way from point A to point B ;)
So many people in the audiophile world who have tried cheap generic cable against audiophile cable would disagree with you, so of course your perspective is not fact. So much in the audiophile world/sound pursuit comes down to small differences and unexpected factors (such as RF interference effects, etc). Most, though, would agree that audiophile cables fairly overpriced for the smaller difference they tend to make compared with other gear in the system.
@@maxhirsch7035 So many people in the audiophile world doesn't hear any technical differences, instead what they "hear" is biases and placebo. If they'd just study electronics, digital sampling theory, human psychology etc instead of just throwing money on stuff hoping for the best we would hopefully one day get rid of all these myths.
@@johnholmes912 Yes, the marketing crap sprouted by some of these companies which has no engineering basis is a major issue It is disturbing just how often these people are willing to depart from good engineering principles. Paul's formula is that he reads a question and usually opens with a charming anecdote or two, especially when it comes to other manufacturers and how they know them with a blend of some engineering stuff but largely subjective anecdotes in what is really just a sales pitch, Paul has *some* decent engineering stuff but it is often amongst a bunch of irrelevant anecdotes that tend to charm older generations into making it sound relevant to engineering, when a lot of it just isn't. Some of the videos on DACs were absolutely littered with stuff like that. It's disappointing and far from the worst in the audiophile industry but it still is not a good look. Claiming transports effect the sound on a fully buffered DAC or that streaming the exact same 1s and 0s sounds different.... come on. That's crazy talk.
Yes when I took someone's suggestion to swap out the Ubars connecting my Bryston amp and preamp and insert some Xlo cables it made an immense improvement in detail.
I’d put speaker cables as lowest priority, as Paul said that however is dependent upon speakers. Many years ago I had Quad ESL57’s, then some ML CLS, then some Apogee’s and finally 2 different versions of Wilson Watt-Puppy’s. Driven by Manley, Sonic Frontiers, CJ and Audio Research gear over the years, every different cable from Monster, Goertz, Kimber and Audioquest offered dramatic changes, some good and some bad. All of those speakers however had wildly unstable loads. When I invested in my first set of horn loaded speakers that are not only easy 8 ohm nominal loads, they literally never are above 9.2 and never below 7.6, speaker cables are nearly undetectable. Such an easy and stable load that cables all are largely the same. For me, I believe you start at smallest signal and go from there. Even rewiring my tonearm with a 5N annealed silver was a VERY noticeable difference. Wire from my turntable RCA’s to my phono preamp input too is very noticeable. I will add that while my Ampex ATR102 tape head output is balanced XLR’s, that cable from player to my Manley tape head preamp made very little change. My line stage preamp only has RCA jacks, input and out. Swapping the RCA outs to my amps, which are biamped fwiw, was noticeable but not as much as tonearm wire, RCA’s from tt to phono pre, RCA’s from phono pre to line stage or the tape preamp to linestage.
I'm not fully sure about all the points made. I can fully agree on cable between pre and power, or speaker cable, but where I have a bit of a problem of understanding, is when say 'very big differences in digital cables' Something is not right there.. I've tested quite a few of those high end Audioquest ?Dragons, along with Nordost ,Van den Hul, even Gutwire. What I would agree on is that some of them are built to withstand any form of interference in the signal through RFI or similar... but, a digital cable would need to be very poorly made to influence the output.
In my experience ALL different cable types are different. Some sound better, some sound worse but ALL sound different. In fact everything i try makes a sonic difference. Still trying to rationalize how different types of turntable mat sound different, but they do.
Not a lot to do with my comment, I am running the 3.7i's and although I've had various types of speakers in and out of my system, I freely admit that I'm primarily a maggie listener and have been since the 80's, which by happenstance is when I personally discovered that speaker cables sound different and so on down the line with interconnect etc. No "You Tube" back then trying to tell me I'm hypnotized. Anyway, my own personal experience with cables, and I'm assuming one is starting out with decent cabling to begin with, varies from Paul's experience - - most assuredly speaker cables come 1st, power cables 2nd, and as controversial as it might be, interconnect is last (again, assuming one is already beyond the 3 dollar variety and into the 300 to 1000 dollar range), but, imo, none of that is to say that all cables are not important - - I've played a lot with digital cables, I still find it odd that they do sound different to me, but, I can live with a lesser digital cable rather than a lower end or zip cord variety of speaker cable. Just sayin' all that as I'm still stunned that cables are a dividing issue - imo, if you're not hearing any differences then you've gone far enough - in my own experience, I've never found that I couldn't hear any differences either good, bad or otherwise, and no, I'm not doing the 10 times blind test stuff but I have no beef with that approach either - I just think that if differences aren't that obvious, then, again, just my opinion, the same applies, you've gone far enough - it's just not controversial.
For an interconnect I find that wet string separated with matchsticks, like an antenna ladder line, improves the sound enormously especially if watered daily......
@@Laz_Arus Best is to buy a cobra and put it through a blender, then squeeze out the liquid and soak the cable in it for at least one week. The cable will keep a shiny surface from the oil in the snake that allows better sealing of the audio waves. It will open up the sound stage tremendously and help re-create every tiny detail of your most audiophile music tracks.
If it is true, as some say, that the wires that handle the smallest signals, the most miniscule signals, are the most important, then the wires connected to the pins of your phono cartridge are the most important, or the tiny wires from the laser in your cd player, and following that same train of thought, the speaker wires would be the least important. I have no real opinion on this, as it would be pretty hard to determine what is the most important signal carrier.
I'd say the wire from the earliest analogue source. So yeah the wires from the phono pickup, but I'd be looking at all the analogue connections before I'd think about digital code carriers. and look at what's feeding into the pre-amp before I looked at what was coming out of it.
The smaller the signal, the greater the chance for degradation due to the cable, most likely. After years of single variant testing I found the analog interconnects from DAC to preamp had the greatest impact.
Cable debates have become the triers vs the deniers. I’ve noticed the maturity of the triers in answering cable questions has gained a lot within the past two years.
I have noticed there being zero proof of just about anything the so called "Triers" talk about. Anecdotal stories, full of expectation bias is not how one makes a determination. Fear of a blind test also points to a huge flaw in the so called "Triers" anecdotes. If one can only hear a huge or moderate change when they are aware of what is being used, that points to "other" issues creating the change in their mind.
Many years ago I switched out Monster interconnects (pre amp to power amp and to Cd) with mid priced Audioquest. The difference in quality was very good (tighter base and much better defined texture). A few years ago I switched out the same cables with ultra expensive ($1500) Audioquest cables. Minimal if any discernible sound improvement. (ML Quest, Krell amp, PS preamp Cambridge streamer and CD)
I found the same to be true going from the 1000 range AudioQuest, don't recall exactly which model, still have them kicking around the house somewhere, to 6K (roughly) Valhalla II interconnect (Nordost) - it really does seem that the diminishing return thing is more prevalent with interconnect than other cables in the system, at least in my own experience and yeah, it's a more or less recent discovery for me, never would I expect that to be the case, so for once I don't really agree with Paul (love the guy, a deserved industry mentor) - - but oh yeah, the usual thing, if I were asked, no, I wouldn't go back because the Nordost stuff is definitely better - but 6X better? (actually I love the stuff and have gone full loom with it) But anyway, that's what makes the cable thing a debate - if I couldn't afford the 6K to begin with then I'd still be running the Audioquest and not feeling like I was missing anything but neither would I be calling out the guy that did move up to the more expensive stuff which is the part that I don't get with the cable debaters - live and let live. Sorry I rambled on your dime aaKar, happy listening.
Hi, an alert to Paul on the geography/nomenclature front - the country is no longer typically referred to as 'the Ukraine, but now just 'Ukraine.' Generally, Ukrainians find 'the Ukraine' derogatory because the name more or less derives from the term 'outskirts' or 'borderlands,' and so 'the borderlands' implies that it's still part of Russia (which long controlled Ukraine). Just a helpful note!
I use all XLR connections because the makers of my gear emphasize its general superiority in terms of noise rejection, etc., but that being said, I've read discussions by those who correctly maintain that the degree of difference is equipment/design dependent, & that some high-end manufacturers believe that single-ended (RCA) is superior for their purposes, & thus deliberately eschew balanced connections. Like so much in this field, it seems both system-dependent, & controversial!
I use 14 gauge pure 999 silver wire and an 8 gauge teflon jacket. Keep it simple but fully effective. Get the beauty of silver, plus audible spacing and air. No metal materials mixing by terminating ends with connectors.
It's really hard for me to believe that someone has trouble telling the difference between the sound of audio cables. Each one sounds different and has their own unique personality and unique frequency response. And that is with cheap equipment as well as with high priced equip. The ones that don't hear differences, don't confuse them with astute listeners.They listen with their mind, not their ears, they wouldn't even know what to listen for, and their comparing (if they even do any) is anything but scientific. It's a joke really. Sound is invisible. Do they expect sound to visually materialize with different cables? It's still invisible, but what's going on within that invisibility is something very noticeable, tangible and obvious.
Everything matters. Sure, it's way down the list but worth attention. Every cable between, powering and inside components contributes to the sound. They can all be made at home for pennies on the dollar. They can be made for purpose as short as possible and avoiding each other. Cable lifters don't need to come in a fancy package to keep cables off the carpet. I take no issue with people using disposable funds on boutique cables. Others can DIY.
@@user-od9iz9cv1w It also depends on the type of cable. If you like the sound of a particular cable, do you copy the cable geometry, cable material formulation, maybe the cable braid? some cables have a mix of different wire gauges. It can get complicated really fast. If you are wanting a simple one gauge cable then diy is a way to save money. If you don’t believe cable makes much difference even cheaper to build your own.
@@flargosa IME there were a bunch of 'recipes' online for various cables. I tried a few approaches. VH Cables had really good power cables. Use decent connectors. I prefer packing case tape using silver wire for interconnects with KLEI RCA connector better than anything commercial. Braided speaker cables using the twisted pair found in cat5 cables are very good. I suspect GR Research braided kit is about the best.
Although I recently made a set of speaker cables and noticed a definite difference, it has made me think what about the speaker wire inside your speaker cabinets?
@@endrizoso true!🤔🤫😎 People worry about the wires the can see, but would 🤯 with the wires the can't see. Its like pumping water through a 50 inch diameter pipe that leads to a 5 inch diameter pipe. Seems logical?🤔🧐🙄
@@andrew1977au People are sure sheep. I guess these are the same people that don't have eyes when they believe what the current administration of the USA is telling them regarding the southern boarder is closed.🤔🤪🤯
Obviously a £2 cable will hum and hiss when you've paused your music, so I just buy a bit more expensive cables until you can't hear the humming or hissing sound anymore, anything more expense has got to be a joke.
Then biamp and avoid the supposedly deleterious effects that the speaker cables are imposing on the signal. It’s a more accurate way to reproduce sound and there’s no technical reason to avoid it. Unless you just want to stroke your ego by spending big bucks on some sexy looking (but, useless) audiophile cables.
Definitely the in reconnect between preamp and power-amp (depending on the resistance matching) - shittiest cable with least insulation sounds best in my case. Second one for me is weirdly enough the usb cable from the DAC to the PC. I tried one with ferittes and it squishes dynamics. That all being said you need to get to a point to hear differences, meaning to have a revealing system and listen to specific passages in specific tracks.
If the digital output of a USB cable is not bit-perfect to the source, it is a defective cable and will corrupt file transfers if used for that purpose. What you are describing is an exceedingly unlikely scenario: a (presumed broken) digital cable modifying data in a subtle way that does not break the format or connection entirely. Brains are really good at rationalizing subtle changes. Slight volume increases almost always sound better, so it's really important to do any testing blind and with an instant A/B switch to change between the cables/devices/etc. Almost certainly, when you changed the cable, something else about your ear position or the pressure in the room was different as well.
Less is more!! Eliminate as many cables as possible. My DAC also functions as a Preamplifier. I have Powered Speakers on order - Balanced cables direct from DAC to Speakers👍 Headphones plug directly into DAC. Computer with 500+ albums in PCM, DSD, and MQA connects to USB Filter, which connects to DAC. All Power is connected to decent quality Power Conditioner, not to the wall.
I think every cable in the system, selected properly can make major positive differences to the sonic quality of the music you hear in your listening chair.
Hi Paul, long time viewer & I find your vids so informative and entertaining. But can I help you on one matter from this video? For the past 30 years we call the country "Ukraine". And specifically not "the Ukraine". This became widely accepted and adopted sone 7+ years back in media and in geographic and political discussions etc. It's an important point for Ukrainians because the definate article "the", while not existing in easter European languages like Ukrainian or Russian, the English usage can be extremely insulting and a bone of contention. Because "the" denotes it is part of a larger system. This was true 30+ years ago when Ukraine was part of the soviet republic, but Ukraine has been independent for over 30 years. Saying the implies it is not independent and still belongs to another system. Given the current war, and Ukraine's fight for its survival, this becomes very important. The only English speakers using "the Ukraine" have a political agenda to support russia's domination of Ukraine, or are unaware of the difference. Old language habits, correct back then, are hard to break. I blame The Beatles song which cemented: "the Ukraine girls really knock me out" into our vocabulary consciousness. Thanks for reading my clarification and I hope you'll remember in the future!
You should tell this to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Zelensky who both used „the Ukraine“ during a speech he gave to a joint meeting of Congress. You can find the definite article „the“ in other languages, e.g. in German (die Ukraine) and in those cases the use of it is correct and not considered to be an insult to Ukrainians. You are right, old habits of any kind are hard to break especially when people are not aware of a country‘s name change.
Quite right overall, but to be fair to Paul McCartney, the way it's used in the Beatles song is less problematic than in everyday speech, as one might say, "the California girls" as the vernacular in a song; and the 'Ukrainian girls' - which would be proper/best usage- doesn't flow off the tongue as well metrically in pop song lyrics, especially in a song like this. Context is crucial!
More importantly you need to think about the color of the cable. Silver cables sound brighter. Clear cables sound clearer. Red cables sound hotter. Dark cables sound darker. Rainbow cables sound more gay.
Just buy the cheapest, as long as it connects it is good enough. They do not affect sound. STOP Spouting bullsh*t about LS cables...unless your cable run is 200 yards or more ANY cable will do. It's physics, a subject that paul doesn't understand.
WiFi to your streamer is perfectly fine. Best is USB to DAC as it allows much more optimized data flow. And if the DAC has a quality volume control, a pre-amp is just causing signal degradation. So, nowadays you can reach highest audio fidelity with WiFi-->Streamer-->DAC-->Power amp-->Speakers. But nowadays you can even avoid interconnect wires completely, e.g. I have a pair of KEF LS60 where I can stream to the speaker directly via WIFI lossless 192kHz 24 bits high quality PCM from a service like Amazon Music.
I beg to differ about the USB cable. If you can connect using an ethernet cable instead going into your DAC that is where you should hear a major improvement.
@@stimpy1226 A pure DAC doesn’t connect directly to the Internet. I guess you mean a streamer with DAC in it and yes Ethernet is potentially more reliable than WiFi if your streamer is far away from your wireless router. But WiFi can be perfectly fine also in most residential environments. Between a streamer and a DAC, USB is best.
@pt265 I2S is a serial bus standard designed by Philips Semiconductors for communicating digital audio between integrated circuits from the early 80s. I've designed multiple audio and video devices utilizing I2S BTW. As an interconnect bus for digital audio it's rather primitive as it provides no two-way protocol for capability management, error management, security and so on. If you have a CD transport where the sample clock is mastered within the transport itself, I2S can help reduce jitter. For any other setup, USB is much better allowing the DAC to play the role as clock master with zero concern of jitter as data is pulled asynchronously and buffered in the DAC. There is no extra cost and no need for any extra devices in ensuring that the DAC gets the exact PCM samples from the source file. If you use a PC or Mac as streaming device, you need to run it in exclusive mode to avoid any sample rate conversion or level attenuation. Any decent streamer can output bit-perfect samples via USB and any decent DAC has zero issue with jitter when running the stream asynchronously to the DAC and using the DAC's own clock. You are wasting your money on snake oil. THERE IS NO EXTRA COST OR COMPLEXITY IN ACHIEVING BIT-PERFECT SAMPLES TO THE DAC AND PRECISE CLOCK IN THE DAC (NO JITTER). AND THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO IT ON THE DIGITAL SIDE FOR ACHIEVING BEST POSSIBLE AUDIO!!!
'Ole Audiophile to Paul: This has been building for a while. Since when did audiophilia become so extremely expensive? When stories circulate about how a single cable will recreate my system, well, that's why it's dubbed as snake oil. I'd have to say the most important cable to me is the one that unplugs your bottom from an endless bank account. When you start to employ other audiophiles on your channel that have albums stacked to the ceiling, struggling around a mear half million dollar turntable, never mind the extreme cost of moving coil phono gear in a room he can barely negotiate for all the excess stuff piled everywhere, I have problems with that. I appreciate what I can not afford on a fixed income, doesn't mean I like having my face rubbed into it. Your best idea of affordable is a set of headphones? Yeah, that pissed me right off. That most of us can barely afford $500 each for speakers doesn't seem to enter the mind with your idea & my idea of acceptable as far, far apart. Thanx. Love the gear, love your career, love the companies you've been associated with, hate the fact our hobby is overstuffed with extremely wealthy dicks.
Dont have too be so expencive, id never buy ps products, its to expencive for me. What you need is gear that work together, dont think expencive is better in every solution. Thats why some of us have so much gear, we need to lissen, dont judge without trying.
Completely agree!! Too much elitism in this hobby! And very little of it is presented humbly. I've spent 30-40-50,000 and more!! Blah, blah, blah...at that point, you are listening to money, not music. Yes, I hear the arguments about people that drive a Ferrari instead of a Chevy, and I hear that argument. I do. But the degree that some of these people go to get infinitesimal improvements in their sound just seems strange ridiculous to me. Maybe if we're had an inexhaustible supply of money, that would change, but I doubt it. I enjoy listening to music!! That's it. While I have spent more than I should have, as a retired man on a fixed income, I just try to enjoy what I have.
@@stephenstevens6573 So true. And atleast the older Ferrari's were great looking but basicly sucked otherwise. And that's compared to the same year Chevy's. One would think maybe a car that puts 20,000 miles or more a year like a Chevy might have some problems vs a Ferrari that puts on 1,500 miles in a year if even used that much. And the Ferrari still has more issues usually.🤔🤫😉🤯
none of them and all of them lol it just depends on if they can do the intended job or not .. way too much importance can be placed on overextending the quality of a cable ..has to be good enough, but beyond that, it's a waste of financial resources.
@pt265 how expensive of the system do you have that you have to spend hundreds of dollars on cables ? it's not always the person's ears or the components in the system, it's a matter of doing what makes sense all the way around for the situation at hand.. you'll just automatically go out and spend $1000 on cables for any system?! I think not. In every hobby, there are always some ass clowns that like to undermine the hobby for everybody else ..
@pt265 get a switchbox and test your own ears, have someone go back forth and see if you can spot your favorite cable among 3 or 4 with your eyes closed, repeat the test many times and see how consistent you are.
You are a great sales man Paul. You answered nothing because there was no legitimate answer. Speaker cables need to be different for a Maggie vs your speaker? B.S.. The gauge and length of the wire is what matters in a speaker cable. You know that, and you're a liar if you say otherwise.
You are not hearing a difference between different balanced cables, oy vey. Neutrik, Switchcraft, standards of the industry...all else is just glitter nnsense
True, and that notion can be applied to anything. Either your car runs, or it does not. Either your speakers make sound, or they do not. Either your great grandmother is alive, or she is not.
It is hard to understand, for me of course, how an Ukrainian is worried about such silly things in actual times? Is it real or invented this stuff of letters to Paul?
I'm not suprised. All the holiday areas are full with them and our highways (Hungary) with UA license plate luxurious cars. What a strange war is this.
Russia only in the Eastern and South Eastern part of Ukraine. Kiev and other parts of Ukraine are business as usual. There’s a Ukrainian headphone audiophile channel which I follow is still running.
I'd say the power cord is the most important. No power, no sound!😅
But over marketed. Because power comes from the utility, thru a breaker, then via ROMEX (in some cases, THHN in conduit) with little thought in how/where it is routed to that wall outlet. Upgrading the cord does get you a better shielded, noodley interconnect that might reduce interference with nearby signals. IMHO to have an effect, the WHOLE power distribution needs to be low reactive, so that it can deliver instantaneous current.
As many will find: You fix a weakness only to expose the next (lesser) one. 🤐
This is, sort of, rather a: Given! Have the P 20, Power Regenerator. This comes with a, `wimpy,' "starter cable." Paul recommends a better one, & so purchased the best audioquest power cable for this, cost $950 several years ago, a little over $1,000, today. Is it worth it? Supposed to be! In regard to: Instantaneous current, the P20 is heavy, has a number of large capacitors, to supply this, as necessary. In fact, some feel that this is better than, straight from the wall, as utility current is more limited in regard to providing greater power for brief, instantaneous peaks.
As an electronics engineer, here are the FACTS:
Speaker cable: A speaker is an electric motor, it's fed by an electric current which drives the speaker. As long as the cable feeding it can supply the current going through the cable, that is a good speaker cable. Simple copper cable of the correct gauge, the thicker, the better within practical reason, with PVC insulation will be as good as ANY cable, no matter what it's made of or claims made about its ''sound quality.'' These things can be verified with test equipment.
Coaxial audio cable: 100% screened copper cable, as short as possible. If you want to be fancy, you can measure the capacitance of the cable or connect it up to a signal generator, oscilloscope and multimeter and measure its characteristics. I've just measured a standard BNC to BNC cable on my bench and put a 1 Volt sine wave through it from 1Hz to 1 MHz. The sine wave stayed EXACTLY the same throughout. That's a good audio cable.
Digital cables: As long as the equipment works with the cable you use, that is a good digital cable. What the cable is made of makes no difference to ''sound quality'' whatsoever.
Your Internet gets to you through a twisted pair of wires of either copper or aluminium, the sound and picture quality of things I watch and listen to is good. I've used several different cables over the years and the quality has been EXACTLY the same with all of them.
Thank you! Be prepared to be banned from all audiophile websites!
I has a 80 year old guy tell him how good his power cord sounded! I gave up caring what the cable nuts said after that😂
"The big challenge for power cords are extreme current peaks. They are caused by the connected devices themselves through the conversion from alternating to direct current. These extreme current peaks cause a whole series of unwanted effects. " inakustik
Of course you are right, but sadly, the snake oil market is big and lucrative, and videos like this one keep it going.
Actually, high-end cable does make a difference.
If you pay hundreds or thousands of pounds / dollars for a cable, then I GUARANTEE that the buyer WILL hear a difference in sound quality.
If I were to analyse that cable in my electronics lab, then I will get very similar or exactly the same results from a standard, reasonably priced cable. @@montynorth3009
The answer is EQ. There I said it! Now banned from all internet Audiophile sites :(
People trying to tweak their sound with cables should just use EQ. A much cheaper solution. EQ is audible, tell that to the mixing engineers who made your favorite music.
Agree with you to some extent. Cables are top quality non-adjustable eq's.
Thank you, Paul. The answer about the preamp-amp interconnect was unexpected but very interesting! Also about the speakers with more or less stable impedance. Very cool.
That's why the cable craze started with interconnects and power cables (costing more than the amplifier they power) came last.
When I changed the interconnect between my extensively upgraded quad 44 and two Quad 405's from a cheap cable to (expensive for me) £45 cable, the difference was very noticeable in terms of hum reduced to inaudible and the resolution improved considerably . Thanks Paul
Dear Paul I love how you use different places in your shop as a backdrop. It's fun to see stuff you wouldn't normally see
As a rule of thumb, the more you pay for a cable the better you think it sounds.
the more they cost, the more you're obliged to hear a difference.
There is not a person in this world that will convince me a standard shielded cat6 cable sounds different to an audiophile ethernet cable. Even over the UTP protocol that doen not handshake or ACK.
RCA interconnects, yes, but the law of diminishing returns apply.
You've never heard fine copper from Ohio.
I think the best place to start is to buy some great quality $30 interconnects, like Mogami, then any extra money you considered spending past that, instead spend first on room treatments. Once the treatments are done, try Dirac or other high end filter algorithms, to see if it is for you. After that, if you think your main speakers are sticking around awhile, go to the next cost tier of cables. Doing expensive cables first, before room treatments or main speaker upgrades seems backwards to me...
Agree. Room treatment first. Not necessary to have expensive panels all over. Common sense things. Carpet. wood, not glass or mirrors. When doing serious listening, I cover my TV with a blanket. The couple of pictures I have, I took the glass out. The less reflective the better. You can have your $100,000 setup in a lousy room and my very modest setup will sound much better.
Cable is the last step one has to climb in the audiophile journey.
See above, as to the importance of a good grounded system. It all boils down to lowering the noise floor and grounding will do that
No it's the other way around, cables is one of the first step, and the first cables you buy at a random cheap electronic stores will probably be more than good enough. Just make sure the speaker cables are a bit thicker for those times when you want to play really loud and then absolute most important of all; make sure the cables are long enough so you can place the stuff exactly where you want them!
All of them, because if one is missing you don't get sound.
🤣🎯💯
Yep, magic cables for magic electrons.
For me, most important cable is from source to amp/preAmp. First objective is to get all the music/information I can off the source
The most important cable in any hi-fi system is the power cable because without it you won't get any sound. Unless your system is solar powered.
Whew.... great question!!! Your response was perfect, as they mostly are. You're doing a great job on your site and you are the GO TO guy for audio questions. I trust your opinion more than most I've seen on RUclips. Keep up the great work, maybe one day I'll fet the opportunity to view your shop. Cheers 🍻
Any RCA cable carrying a small signal can introduce hum unless properly made , shielded .Especially from turntable to phono amplifier .
I want to see statements like "Speaker cables can be critical" backed up with a full test series on the same system, with different cables. Pick the cable choices that make the largest differences. Let's see the difference in test results so they can be compared. This is simply a request for an honest and transparent analytical evaluation I want to see the same tests made with POWER cables, too.
When I’m not listening to my system, I disconnect the speaker cables and store them in my freezer. This enhances high end response, and also, produces more dynamic vocals.
😂😂👍
If you dip them in oil you get the best of both worlds. If you SUSPEND them in oil... Oh boy the results will never be the same.
I'm confused that he said the digital cable is the most important in his setup. Digital is ones and zeroes, how can a cable influence that?
Paul is rambling weird stuff again.
When it comes to cable almost anything you get at a random electronic store will do the job just fine when it comes to audio quality.
RCA cables for 10 euro will cover all your needs, a cheap plastic toslink carries all your bits perfectly, a normal gauged power cable gives as clean power as you'll ever need, and those speaker cables just need a bit of thickness so it can deliver the power you need for those times when you want to play really loud, but a normal power cord for a lamp will do that just fine.
Balanced stuff you can probably do without though, they're actually built for professional environments where they have really long runs where they actually can get some interference and they also needs to be able to take a beat which is why they are sturdier built, which I really hope you won't need at home.
But whatever you do, it's REALLY important that the cables you buy are long enough so they can go all the way from point A to point B ;)
So many people in the audiophile world who have tried cheap generic cable against audiophile cable would disagree with you, so of course your perspective is not fact. So much in the audiophile world/sound pursuit comes down to small differences and unexpected factors (such as RF interference effects, etc). Most, though, would agree that audiophile cables fairly overpriced for the smaller difference they tend to make compared with other gear in the system.
@@maxhirsch7035 So many people in the audiophile world doesn't hear any technical differences, instead what they "hear" is biases and placebo.
If they'd just study electronics, digital sampling theory, human psychology etc instead of just throwing money on stuff hoping for the best we would hopefully one day get rid of all these myths.
exactly ! who has 200 foot cable runs at home. Paul spouts utter bull at times
@@johnholmes912 Yes, the marketing crap sprouted by some of these companies which has no engineering basis is a major issue It is disturbing just how often these people are willing to depart from good engineering principles.
Paul's formula is that he reads a question and usually opens with a charming anecdote or two, especially when it comes to other manufacturers and how they know them with a blend of some engineering stuff but largely subjective anecdotes in what is really just a sales pitch,
Paul has *some* decent engineering stuff but it is often amongst a bunch of irrelevant anecdotes that tend to charm older generations into making it sound relevant to engineering, when a lot of it just isn't. Some of the videos on DACs were absolutely littered with stuff like that.
It's disappointing and far from the worst in the audiophile industry but it still is not a good look. Claiming transports effect the sound on a fully buffered DAC or that streaming the exact same 1s and 0s sounds different.... come on. That's crazy talk.
Yes when I took someone's suggestion to swap out the Ubars connecting my Bryston amp and preamp and insert some Xlo cables it made an immense improvement in detail.
That’s true. Second speaker cables
I’d put speaker cables as lowest priority, as Paul said that however is dependent upon speakers. Many years ago I had Quad ESL57’s, then some ML CLS, then some Apogee’s and finally 2 different versions of Wilson Watt-Puppy’s. Driven by Manley, Sonic Frontiers, CJ and Audio Research gear over the years, every different cable from Monster, Goertz, Kimber and Audioquest offered dramatic changes, some good and some bad. All of those speakers however had wildly unstable loads. When I invested in my first set of horn loaded speakers that are not only easy 8 ohm nominal loads, they literally never are above 9.2 and never below 7.6, speaker cables are nearly undetectable. Such an easy and stable load that cables all are largely the same.
For me, I believe you start at smallest signal and go from there. Even rewiring my tonearm with a 5N annealed silver was a VERY noticeable difference. Wire from my turntable RCA’s to my phono preamp input too is very noticeable. I will add that while my Ampex ATR102 tape head output is balanced XLR’s, that cable from player to my Manley tape head preamp made very little change. My line stage preamp only has RCA jacks, input and out. Swapping the RCA outs to my amps, which are biamped fwiw, was noticeable but not as much as tonearm wire, RCA’s from tt to phono pre, RCA’s from phono pre to line stage or the tape preamp to linestage.
I’ve used some very low quality cables before from Meijer, etc. A basic model from a respected audio brand was much better… 😊
I'm not fully sure about all the points made. I can fully agree on cable between pre and power, or speaker cable, but where I have a bit of a problem of understanding, is when say 'very big differences in digital cables'
Something is not right there.. I've tested quite a few of those high end Audioquest ?Dragons, along with Nordost ,Van den Hul, even Gutwire. What I would agree on is that some of them are built to withstand any form of interference in the signal through RFI or similar... but, a digital cable would need to be very poorly made to influence the output.
In my experience ALL different cable types are different. Some sound better, some sound worse but ALL sound different. In fact everything i try makes a sonic difference. Still trying to rationalize how different types of turntable mat sound different, but they do.
Maybe you could start listening to music instead of your system.😊
Not a lot to do with my comment, I am running the 3.7i's and although I've had various types of speakers in and out of my system, I freely admit that I'm primarily a maggie listener and have been since the 80's, which by happenstance is when I personally discovered that speaker cables sound different and so on down the line with interconnect etc. No "You Tube" back then trying to tell me I'm hypnotized. Anyway, my own personal experience with cables, and I'm assuming one is starting out with decent cabling to begin with, varies from Paul's experience - - most assuredly speaker cables come 1st, power cables 2nd, and as controversial as it might be, interconnect is last (again, assuming one is already beyond the 3 dollar variety and into the 300 to 1000 dollar range), but, imo, none of that is to say that all cables are not important - - I've played a lot with digital cables, I still find it odd that they do sound different to me, but, I can live with a lesser digital cable rather than a lower end or zip cord variety of speaker cable. Just sayin' all that as I'm still stunned that cables are a dividing issue - imo, if you're not hearing any differences then you've gone far enough - in my own experience, I've never found that I couldn't hear any differences either good, bad or otherwise, and no, I'm not doing the 10 times blind test stuff but I have no beef with that approach either - I just think that if differences aren't that obvious, then, again, just my opinion, the same applies, you've gone far enough - it's just not controversial.
For an interconnect I find that wet string separated with matchsticks, like an antenna ladder line, improves the sound enormously especially if watered daily......
Good idea in principle, but I find adding fertiliser to the water helps grow the dynamic response. 😉
@@Laz_Arus Best is to buy a cobra and put it through a blender, then squeeze out the liquid and soak the cable in it for at least one week. The cable will keep a shiny surface from the oil in the snake that allows better sealing of the audio waves. It will open up the sound stage tremendously and help re-create every tiny detail of your most audiophile music tracks.
Mogami 2749 and Blue Jeans LC1 with vintage 90s Monster speaker cables heavy heavy gauge
I have a similair experience. Second most important cable: the speakerscable.
The ground cable! A dedicated outside ground ran to your system can be just as important as a dedicated circuit to your system.
If it is true, as some say, that the wires that handle the smallest signals, the most miniscule signals, are the most important, then the wires connected to the pins of your phono cartridge are the most important, or the tiny wires from the laser in your cd player, and following that same train of thought, the speaker wires would be the least important. I have no real opinion on this, as it would be pretty hard to determine what is the most important signal carrier.
I'd say the wire from the earliest analogue source. So yeah the wires from the phono pickup, but I'd be looking at all the analogue connections before I'd think about digital code carriers. and look at what's feeding into the pre-amp before I looked at what was coming out of it.
The smaller the signal, the greater the chance for degradation due to the cable, most likely. After years of single variant testing I found the analog interconnects from DAC to preamp had the greatest impact.
You should see the shitty cables they use inside high end speaker cabinets
I've found a little teflon spray lube works wonders with my Toslink cables. The photons just slip right through.
Cable debates have become the triers vs the deniers.
I’ve noticed the maturity of the triers in answering cable questions has gained a lot within the past two years.
I have noticed there being zero proof of just about anything the so called "Triers" talk about. Anecdotal stories, full of expectation bias is not how one makes a determination. Fear of a blind test also points to a huge flaw in the so called "Triers" anecdotes. If one can only hear a huge or moderate change when they are aware of what is being used, that points to "other" issues creating the change in their mind.
It is high school physics.
Always by the best of any commodity that you can afford
Paul, you forgot about the power cord!
Many years ago I switched out Monster interconnects (pre amp to power amp and to Cd) with mid priced Audioquest. The difference in quality was very good (tighter base and much better defined texture). A few years ago I switched out the same cables with ultra expensive ($1500) Audioquest cables. Minimal if any discernible sound improvement. (ML Quest, Krell amp, PS preamp Cambridge streamer and CD)
I found the same to be true going from the 1000 range AudioQuest, don't recall exactly which model, still have them kicking around the house somewhere, to 6K (roughly) Valhalla II interconnect (Nordost) - it really does seem that the diminishing return thing is more prevalent with interconnect than other cables in the system, at least in my own experience and yeah, it's a more or less recent discovery for me, never would I expect that to be the case, so for once I don't really agree with Paul (love the guy, a deserved industry mentor) - - but oh yeah, the usual thing, if I were asked, no, I wouldn't go back because the Nordost stuff is definitely better - but 6X better? (actually I love the stuff and have gone full loom with it) But anyway, that's what makes the cable thing a debate - if I couldn't afford the 6K to begin with then I'd still be running the Audioquest and not feeling like I was missing anything but neither would I be calling out the guy that did move up to the more expensive stuff which is the part that I don't get with the cable debaters - live and let live. Sorry I rambled on your dime aaKar, happy listening.
@@skip1835 Diminishing return, for sure. Audio is a very addictive drug, the better my system sounds, the more I want to improve it
The one that gives it power. The End.
None, no difference unless they’re broken.
All cables are equally important. Try removing one at a time and hear what happens.
A steaming pre amp into active speakers gets rid of a lot of cables.
As long as the steaming pre amp is not a steaming pile of pooh. :D
Hi, an alert to Paul on the geography/nomenclature front - the country is no longer typically referred to as 'the Ukraine, but now just 'Ukraine.' Generally, Ukrainians find 'the Ukraine' derogatory because the name more or less derives from the term 'outskirts' or 'borderlands,' and so 'the borderlands' implies that it's still part of Russia (which long controlled Ukraine). Just a helpful note!
Slava Ukraini!
Why no mention of power cables?
Over the years I've always had the best results from power chords changes.
There you have it. Another good reason to get Maggie's
It would be nice if all HiFi manufacturers would use XLR cable connections. RCA is so bad.
I use all XLR connections because the makers of my gear emphasize its general superiority in terms of noise rejection, etc., but that being said, I've read discussions by those who correctly maintain that the degree of difference is equipment/design dependent, & that some high-end manufacturers believe that single-ended (RCA) is superior for their purposes, & thus deliberately eschew balanced connections. Like so much in this field, it seems both system-dependent, & controversial!
NAIM use those poxy DIN sockets
Brilliant question!!
Speaker cables trump all IMHO!!
the ground cable
On my Mac + Salon 2s, I upgraded my Belden cables to Kimber 12TC. For only $900 more the Kimber's look better.
The power cable from wall to power distributor is my need for the strongest cable.
Use a Tripp Lite Isobar wall plug in unit at the wall. It will protect and clean your system.
I use 14 gauge pure 999 silver wire and an 8 gauge teflon jacket.
Keep it simple but fully effective. Get the beauty of silver, plus audible spacing and air.
No metal materials mixing by terminating ends with connectors.
I can attest to this. I upgraded the cables connecting my preamp to my amp - and the difference was remarkable.
And your wife of 40 years is prettier than when you first met her.
@@Roof_PizzaI just farted
@@Roof_Pizza nope. I replaced and upgraded her too. The difference was also remarkable
It's really hard for me to believe that someone has trouble telling the difference between the sound of audio cables. Each one sounds different and has their own unique personality and unique frequency response. And that is with cheap equipment as well as with high priced equip. The ones that don't hear differences, don't confuse them with astute listeners.They listen with their mind, not their ears, they wouldn't even know what to listen for, and their comparing (if they even do any) is anything but scientific. It's a joke really. Sound is invisible. Do they expect sound to visually materialize with different cables? It's still invisible, but what's going on within that invisibility is something very noticeable, tangible and obvious.
@@Roof_Pizza
😂
That's like asking the most important player on a football team. They all play a part.
Power.
Everything matters. Sure, it's way down the list but worth attention. Every cable between, powering and inside components contributes to the sound.
They can all be made at home for pennies on the dollar. They can be made for purpose as short as possible and avoiding each other. Cable lifters don't need to come in a fancy package to keep cables off the carpet.
I take no issue with people using disposable funds on boutique cables. Others can DIY.
Knowing how to solder correctly is the tricky part of DIY cables.
@@flargosa Agreed, but a skill perfected in a few hours.
@@user-od9iz9cv1w It also depends on the type of cable. If you like the sound of a particular cable, do you copy the cable geometry, cable material formulation, maybe the cable braid? some cables have a mix of different wire gauges. It can get complicated really fast. If you are wanting a simple one gauge cable then diy is a way to save money. If you don’t believe cable makes much difference even cheaper to build your own.
@@flargosa IME there were a bunch of 'recipes' online for various cables. I tried a few approaches.
VH Cables had really good power cables. Use decent connectors.
I prefer packing case tape using silver wire for interconnects with KLEI RCA connector better than anything commercial.
Braided speaker cables using the twisted pair found in cat5 cables are very good. I suspect GR Research braided kit is about the best.
All equipment cables are important….go for Mogami
Although I recently made a set of speaker cables and noticed a definite difference, it has made me think what about the speaker wire inside your speaker cabinets?
its the cheapest they can put... just peek inside any speaker and laugh... or cry
cables make all the difference... in the sellers bank account haaaa
@@endrizoso true!🤔🤫😎 People worry about the wires the can see, but would 🤯 with the wires the can't see. Its like pumping water through a 50 inch diameter pipe that leads to a 5 inch diameter pipe. Seems logical?🤔🧐🙄
@@bigjay1970 exactly what I was thinking, I've looked, and laughed at what I've seen inside speakers and amps for that matter
especially the wire size in the crossover coil(s)
@@andrew1977au
People are sure sheep. I guess these are the same people that don't have eyes when they believe what the current administration of the USA is telling them regarding the southern boarder is closed.🤔🤪🤯
the most important cable is the power cable I would think🙃😉😉
Obviously a £2 cable will hum and hiss when you've paused your music, so I just buy a bit more expensive cables until you can't hear the humming or hissing sound anymore, anything more expense has got to be a joke.
Then biamp and avoid the supposedly deleterious effects that the speaker cables are imposing on the signal. It’s a more accurate way to reproduce sound and there’s no technical reason to avoid it. Unless you just want to stroke your ego by spending big bucks on some sexy looking (but, useless) audiophile cables.
power cables
Definitely the in reconnect between preamp and power-amp (depending on the resistance matching) - shittiest cable with least insulation sounds best in my case. Second one for me is weirdly enough the usb cable from the DAC to the PC. I tried one with ferittes and it squishes dynamics. That all being said you need to get to a point to hear differences, meaning to have a revealing system and listen to specific passages in specific tracks.
If the digital output of a USB cable is not bit-perfect to the source, it is a defective cable and will corrupt file transfers if used for that purpose.
What you are describing is an exceedingly unlikely scenario: a (presumed broken) digital cable modifying data in a subtle way that does not break the format or connection entirely.
Brains are really good at rationalizing subtle changes. Slight volume increases almost always sound better, so it's really important to do any testing blind and with an instant A/B switch to change between the cables/devices/etc. Almost certainly, when you changed the cable, something else about your ear position or the pressure in the room was different as well.
Less is more!! Eliminate as many cables as possible. My DAC also functions as a Preamplifier. I have Powered Speakers on order - Balanced cables direct from DAC to Speakers👍 Headphones plug directly into DAC. Computer with 500+ albums in PCM, DSD, and MQA connects to USB Filter, which connects to DAC. All Power is connected to decent quality Power Conditioner, not to the wall.
I think every cable in the system, selected properly can make major positive differences to the sonic quality of the music you hear in your listening chair.
The pretty one.
In my opinion, the most important cable in a HiFi system is no cable.
Just reading through the comments are great
The OP forgot power cables......
The digital cable.
aaah i thought ypu were going to say oooh Ukraine nice place to visit...
Thats wy i build my own cable. Store cables are over price and poor quality
Hi Paul, long time viewer & I find your vids so informative and entertaining.
But can I help you on one matter from this video?
For the past 30 years we call the country "Ukraine". And specifically not "the Ukraine". This became widely accepted and adopted sone 7+ years back in media and in geographic and political discussions etc.
It's an important point for Ukrainians because the definate article "the", while not existing in easter European languages like Ukrainian or Russian, the English usage can be extremely insulting and a bone of contention.
Because "the" denotes it is part of a larger system. This was true 30+ years ago when Ukraine was part of the soviet republic, but Ukraine has been independent for over 30 years. Saying the implies it is not independent and still belongs to another system. Given the current war, and Ukraine's fight for its survival, this becomes very important.
The only English speakers using "the Ukraine" have a political agenda to support russia's domination of Ukraine, or are unaware of the difference.
Old language habits, correct back then, are hard to break. I blame The Beatles song which cemented: "the Ukraine girls really knock me out" into our vocabulary consciousness.
Thanks for reading my clarification and I hope you'll remember in the future!
You should tell this to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and President Zelensky who both used „the Ukraine“ during a speech he gave to a joint meeting of Congress. You can find the definite article „the“ in other languages, e.g. in German (die Ukraine) and in those cases the use of it is correct and not considered to be an insult to Ukrainians. You are right, old habits of any kind are hard to break especially when people are not aware of a country‘s name change.
Quite right overall, but to be fair to Paul McCartney, the way it's used in the Beatles song is less problematic than in everyday speech, as one might say, "the California girls" as the vernacular in a song; and the 'Ukrainian girls' - which would be proper/best usage- doesn't flow off the tongue as well metrically in pop song lyrics, especially in a song like this. Context is crucial!
Preamp to power amp. Source to preamp, especially for DAC/Turntable/phono amp to preamp.
cool dude - nice VID
More importantly you need to think about the color of the cable.
Silver cables sound brighter. Clear cables sound clearer.
Red cables sound hotter. Dark cables sound darker. Rainbow cables sound more gay.
No way! Rainbow cables sound more lively! 😄
🤣🤣🤣🎯
Powercord??
Whatever happens in an interconnect gets Amplified ( ( ( (
Just buy the cheapest, as long as it connects it is good enough. They do not affect sound. STOP Spouting bullsh*t about LS cables...unless your cable run is 200 yards or more ANY cable will do. It's physics, a subject that paul doesn't understand.
…but they’re literally in series…?
WiFi to your streamer is perfectly fine. Best is USB to DAC as it allows much more optimized data flow. And if the DAC has a quality volume control, a pre-amp is just causing signal degradation. So, nowadays you can reach highest audio fidelity with WiFi-->Streamer-->DAC-->Power amp-->Speakers. But nowadays you can even avoid interconnect wires completely, e.g. I have a pair of KEF LS60 where I can stream to the speaker directly via WIFI lossless 192kHz 24 bits high quality PCM from a service like Amazon Music.
I beg to differ about the USB cable. If you can connect using an ethernet cable instead going into your DAC that is where you should hear a major improvement.
@@stimpy1226 A pure DAC doesn’t connect directly to the Internet. I guess you mean a streamer with DAC in it and yes Ethernet is potentially more reliable than WiFi if your streamer is far away from your wireless router. But WiFi can be perfectly fine also in most residential environments. Between a streamer and a DAC, USB is best.
@pt265 I2S is a serial bus standard designed by Philips Semiconductors for communicating digital audio between integrated circuits from the early 80s. I've designed multiple audio and video devices utilizing I2S BTW. As an interconnect bus for digital audio it's rather primitive as it provides no two-way protocol for capability management, error management, security and so on. If you have a CD transport where the sample clock is mastered within the transport itself, I2S can help reduce jitter. For any other setup, USB is much better allowing the DAC to play the role as clock master with zero concern of jitter as data is pulled asynchronously and buffered in the DAC. There is no extra cost and no need for any extra devices in ensuring that the DAC gets the exact PCM samples from the source file. If you use a PC or Mac as streaming device, you need to run it in exclusive mode to avoid any sample rate conversion or level attenuation. Any decent streamer can output bit-perfect samples via USB and any decent DAC has zero issue with jitter when running the stream asynchronously to the DAC and using the DAC's own clock. You are wasting your money on snake oil. THERE IS NO EXTRA COST OR COMPLEXITY IN ACHIEVING BIT-PERFECT SAMPLES TO THE DAC AND PRECISE CLOCK IN THE DAC (NO JITTER). AND THERE IS NOTHING ELSE TO IT ON THE DIGITAL SIDE FOR ACHIEVING BEST POSSIBLE AUDIO!!!
Unless you want to connect a tube preamp to a ss power amp ;)
Romex❤😂!
Cables actually do make a difference. I don't really like the grave digger corpse headphone cable. It sounds a bit dead.
NICE. Did the cost dig you a grave as well?
I swear religious cults are less zealots than audiophiles.
'Ole Audiophile to Paul: This has been building for a while. Since when did audiophilia become so extremely expensive? When stories circulate about how a single cable will recreate my system, well, that's why it's dubbed as snake oil. I'd have to say the most important cable to me is the one that unplugs your bottom from an endless bank account. When you start to employ other audiophiles on your channel that have albums stacked to the ceiling, struggling around a mear half million dollar turntable, never mind the extreme cost of moving coil phono gear in a room he can barely negotiate for all the excess stuff piled everywhere, I have problems with that. I appreciate what I can not afford on a fixed income, doesn't mean I like having my face rubbed into it. Your best idea of affordable is a set of headphones? Yeah, that pissed me right off. That most of us can barely afford $500 each for speakers doesn't seem to enter the mind with your idea & my idea of acceptable as far, far apart. Thanx. Love the gear, love your career, love the companies you've been associated with, hate the fact our hobby is overstuffed with extremely wealthy dicks.
Dont have too be so expencive, id never buy ps products, its to expencive for me. What you need is gear that work together, dont think expencive is better in every solution. Thats why some of us have so much gear, we need to lissen, dont judge without trying.
I'll wear headphones again when I'm commited to a nursing home, not until.
My car engine is made out of gold so it's better than your aluminum engine.🤔🤫🙄😬 This is just as silly as this wire discussion for the most part.
Completely agree!! Too much elitism in this hobby! And very little of it is presented humbly. I've spent 30-40-50,000 and more!! Blah, blah, blah...at that point, you are listening to money, not music. Yes, I hear the arguments about people that drive a Ferrari instead of a Chevy, and I hear that argument. I do. But the degree that some of these people go to get infinitesimal improvements in their sound just seems strange ridiculous to me. Maybe if we're had an inexhaustible supply of money, that would change, but I doubt it. I enjoy listening to music!! That's it. While I have spent more than I should have, as a retired man on a fixed income, I just try to enjoy what I have.
@@stephenstevens6573
So true. And atleast the older Ferrari's were great looking but basicly sucked otherwise. And that's compared to the same year Chevy's. One would think maybe a car that puts 20,000 miles or more a year like a Chevy might have some problems vs a Ferrari that puts on 1,500 miles in a year if even used that much. And the Ferrari still has more issues usually.🤔🤫😉🤯
The Power-cables makes the biggest difference for me.
Yes, but it’s the most likely being laughed at.
dont spend crazy stupid money on cables... treat your room
Plot Twist: None of them.
none of them and all of them lol
it just depends on if they can do the intended job or not .. way too much importance can be placed on overextending the quality of a cable ..has to be good enough, but beyond that, it's a waste of financial resources.
@pt265 how expensive of the system do you have that you have to spend hundreds of dollars on cables ? it's not always the person's ears or the components in the system, it's a matter of doing what makes sense all the way around for the situation at hand.. you'll just automatically go out and spend $1000 on cables for any system?!
I think not. In every hobby, there are always some ass clowns that like to undermine the hobby for everybody else ..
@pt265 get a switchbox and test your own ears, have someone go back forth and see if you can spot your favorite cable among 3 or 4 with your eyes closed, repeat the test many times and see how consistent you are.
Golden ears can't be tested 🤣
@@harackmw bc there is no such thing.😵💫
none of it makes any audible difference
@pt265 you keep buying snake oil. More money than sense!
@pt265 oh dear, you're a bit gullible eh!
The plug cable to the wall 🔌 🙃
Different but not better.
its called a chain.. so...
You are a great sales man Paul. You answered nothing because there was no legitimate answer. Speaker cables need to be different for a Maggie vs your speaker? B.S.. The gauge and length of the wire is what matters in a speaker cable. You know that, and you're a liar if you say otherwise.
You are not hearing a difference between different balanced cables, oy vey. Neutrik, Switchcraft, standards of the industry...all else is just glitter nnsense
Digital cables either work or they don't. Most of them work.
True, and that notion can be applied to anything.
Either your car runs, or it does not.
Either your speakers make sound, or they do not.
Either your great grandmother is alive, or she is not.
@@NoEgg4u wrong. All digital cables sound the same if they work. Not all speakers sound the same.
@@dangerzone007 "wrong. All digital cables sound the same if they work. Not all speakers sound the same."
Your assertion that I am wrong, is wrong.
@@NoEgg4u wrong
Power cables are key cause It don’t matter how much you pay or not pay for ALL other cables - without power cables you get nothing. Full stop 😂
Wow, Ukraine... time for stereo,the need for US tax dollars must be over then 👍
Yes because military and private citizens are the exact same thing..
@@filip.herman US taxpayers paying for pensions???? What are the Ukrainians paying for??? End US war support
It is Ukraine, not "the Ukraine"
Don’t be so hard on yourself Paul. The guy missed the most important cable, the tone arm cable !
It is hard to understand, for me of course, how an Ukrainian is worried about such silly things in actual times? Is it real or invented this stuff of letters to Paul?
I'm not suprised. All the holiday areas are full with them and our highways (Hungary) with UA license plate luxurious cars. What a strange war is this.
@@GBatya thanks!
Ukraine is a big country, and I suppose even there the restless audiophile syndrome is also a nice distraction from reality.
The Russians gained net just 50km2 in all of 2023. Our Ukrainian friend probably figures he's got at least a few decades of peace left.
Russia only in the Eastern and South Eastern part of Ukraine. Kiev and other parts of Ukraine are business as usual. There’s a Ukrainian headphone audiophile channel which I follow is still running.
Lmao 🤣. Good luck guys with that