Is Synergy in Audio Cables Real or Snake Oil?
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- Опубликовано: 11 май 2020
- Check any audiophile facebook group or forum and you will find dozens of enthusiasts asking "what are the best cables to use with my audio components?" There are never shortages of recommendations from fellow enthusiasts and sometimes even industry experts have their own recommendations too. PS Audio recently announced a partnership with Audioquest citing that their products have a real "synergy" together. Is there any merit to this claim or is it pure marketing BS?
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#audiophile #cables #science 
Наука
Gene, you make too much sense to be popular with most audiophiles. 🤣
You just summed up why @Audioholics is so darn amazing. Keep being awesome Gene!
I used to watch videos from PS Audio..... But then my wife complained that she could hear the BS from the kitchen!
Elderly salesmen...
@@Bob.martenswhat’s the alternative to being elderly? Being dead. Sounds like you don’t want to become elderly.
I stopped watching that fraud after he says power cables make A difference.
Think about it…listening to copper, nothing else, listening to copper! Either dumb or crazy!
I love how hard you crush people's hopes and dreams, no remorse. Some of this fantasy stuff is fun to believe and audio jewelry is beautiful, but it's so important to have someone like you bringing everyone back to reality. Let's make real improvements rather than spending so much time and resources on nonsense. Keep up the great work!
I learned my most important lesson about placebo effect when I adjusted a tone control on a console several times until it sounded perfect only to realize that I had it bypassed.
Dan That’s happened to the best of us, usually after too much listening.
Ouch!
The synergy here is a business contract to align the two companies marketing machines together to promote snake oil products.
Stumbled on your channel researching cables after reading up the science behind the resistivity of different metals before I made a purchase and in your video you confirmed exactly what the figures I was reading seemed to suggest.
Now I'm hooked on your other videos! Can't deny the science that is there👍
The simple answer is: The Audioquest CEO is the PS Audio CEO’s friend. He has said so.
And audio quest is a huge rip off.... lol
I'm really glad you called Paul out on his bs. Lying about your product is a fast way to sink your company. I watched Paul's videos until he made the one about Audioquest cables and how they made his system soooo much better. The problem was that he was talking about power cables going into his own Power Stream power conditioners that cost $10,000 each! Shouldn't a $10k power conditioner already have amazing power cables on it? And if the $7k cables fix everything then why do I need a $10k power conditioner? I was really interested in his products until he lied. I'll be looking elsewhere for my new DAC when I buy it!
i mean. kinda silly to think he's *lying* about it, when his own company makes a competing product. wrong, sure, but if he was lying surely it'd be in the other direction.
wober777 At least Paul has a company making great sounding audio gear, I think he knows what he is talking about. Go read the article Gene posted. Maybe you guys should go on a road trip to Colorado to meet and listen and then make a judgment.
I really enjoyed Paul's videos, and had considered buying PS Audio products until I got the email announcing the PS Audio line of cables made by AudioQuest. It was really disappointing and I lost a lot of respect for him and the company.
I agree . If the PS audio functioned as advertised you should not need a fancy cable .
I remember a review of the Technics Reference Series System where the reviewer thought the system was not sounding great until he switched the Ethernet cables that send a digital signal from the preamp to the amp to some fancy cable ethernet cables. This reviewer "discovered" how these magic cables changed the data stream from the digital signal and made it sound like magic. I stop reading that magazine that day. It was The Absolute Sound BTW
If anyone isn't fully convinced why data cables (and hard drives) can't change the sound, imagine you're transferring a file instead. If there were differences, the file would be full of errors. Executables simply wouldn't run. Websites wouldn't load. It would be useless.
It can happen but not because some esotherical reasons : I had troubles with a server farm which were showing intermitency. The reason: cable quality (the wires weren't holding in place after patched) and the technical aid (student) didn't patch correctly the cables. It was around 20 yr ago.
@@Yu-Fei-Hung yeah absolutely. But if the cable is well made and in good condition….
@@irisfailsafe there are cable comparisons made by musicians to check how these can modify the sound. Check this RUclips video (Spanish):
ruclips.net/video/mw6Ja1o0mzE/видео.html
No, I don't get tired of these sorts of videos on what works, and what does a bit of difference, and benefit; and what factors don't do anything. Thumbs up easily. You tell it as it is in the real world.
I love this channel and Paul's as well - and, I think that Paul might even secretly agree with you to an extent. But he's a manufacture that has to "play nice" with other manufactures in the space. As long as cable manufactures spend huge money advertising in stereo related print and internet ads, I doubt manufacturers and even many reviewers, will call them out for being snake oil. It's one of many issues in the industry on a whole.
PS Audio now sells audioquest cables so of course Paul is going to talk them up in hopes of increased sales when someone buys an amp they can sell expensive power cords ,interconnects and speaker wire all at the same time. One thing I find particularly amusing is they now sell and use Audioquest Dragon power cords on the INPUT and output of their Power Plant regenerators ,now since the Power plant makes it's own clean power regardless of input why use expensive inputs.
I've always found the PS Audio videos to have very dubious and sometimes incorrect claims, with poor explanations of engineering.
@@rarelycomments You're alrignt. I apreciate Paul as a person, but his channel is based mostly on non-sense claims and audiophile BS...
@Mr Do I agree for 192Khz... but if you can't see the difference between 4K and 1080P contents, you need to change your glasses.
PS: there's no 16b/44Khz-only DACs anymore....
@@vintageflanker7096
Cd's are 16 bit 44.1 khz so 24 bit etc DACs is meaningless and 4k is stupid! If you have at minimum a 55 inch screen and sit 3 feet from it you will notice a diff, otherwise you won't. I couldn't give 2 craps about 4k.
Gene is one of the few people that review products and various claims made by the sales side of the audio business with an eye towards the consumers best interest so God bless him for that. In this case I'd love to see if Gene could get the owners at Blue Jean Cables to weigh in on this, not to bash their competition, but just to offer their opinions on various types of cables and how they manufacture and sell very reasonably priced interconnects.
Totally agree with this one. I have had this discussion at my hifi dealer several times. I tell them that in the circuit the goal should be that the cables do not contribute to the circuit for resistance or capacitance - in other words disappear in a thevenin equivalent circuit so that they do not influence the sound. As soon as the speaker cables begin to be a contributing part of the circuit you are now listening to something other than the way your speakers are designed to sound. I hate being told that there are some things we can hear but can't measure. We have been characterizing and measuring audio for longer than almost anything else. We know how to do it, and our instruments are much more sensitive, accurate, and repeatable than the human ear.
I've seen a ton of videos about speaker cables and I think Mr. Gene Dellasala knows what he is saying.
I bought recently audio cable KnuKonceptz 10 Gauge with Nakamichi screw lock banana plugs and I am quite happy with the sound.
I hope I won't regret it after few years.
Thank you Mr. Gene for sharing your knowlege.
Henry Ott's book has been one of my favorite reference books since decades! Thank you for keep sharing rationality and truth.
I hear you get the best synergy when you put a Spock cutout in a Ferrari , it lifts a veil on the exhaust note!
Oh look it's my favorite cigar channel commenting on my favorite audiophile channel. Nice.
@@youngmrjazz That's synergy for you. :D
Gene, have been listening to you for years. Thanks for all you do, but I wanted to make a comment. I LOVED your mention of Hitchens Razor!!! RIP Christopher.
Glad to see you healthy and back!
I am myself an electrical engineer by profession...and the audiophil for some 40+ Years...
Great observation...and the previous one about speaker cables as well.
Congretulation!
As someone who seeks the best from both Home and Car audio, I must agree with you Gene! Car audio has its own unique obstacles to overcome. Years ago when I first started, I learned early on about cable quality in cars. I've been using RG6 as interconnects and ALL the noise is gone. A dear friend of mine loves his AudioQuest junk. I swapped in a pair to test with just for shits and giggles in my last build and all the issues of using cheap Walmart interconnects came back, alternator whine, spark noise, etc. Now I only use RG6 in my house as well. If it's good enough for automotive use, it's good enough for my home!
I once solved a problem I created with cheap EQ/Amplifiers. I had the Alternator whining noise. I tried filters and nothing worked.
Finally I learned the importance of a great close common ground. I took the ground wires of the head and EQ amps grounds to a common thick wire with as little distance between them. I grounded those to chassis. It made a world of difference. The power wire was RG59U coming straight from the battery and switched on by a relay.
Thanks Gene, you certainly tell it how it is, which is always appreciated.
The owner of Audioquest lives in a 5 million dollar condo IN a Newport Beach shopping center. Lots of markup in Chinese-made cables.
What's wrong with Chinese made cables?? Raw material and literally everything is made in that place. Also alot of aq cables are made in USA high end ones.
Stanny1 Shows he’s a successful businessman, no different than restaurant owners that serve $500 entrees or someone selling $200 jeans with rips in the knees. No one HAS to buy their goods, yet people do.
Stanny1 should he live in the hood to make you feel better? Where would you live if you were in the same situation?
He could go shopping every day 🎁
When I sold Audioquest us salesmen got 75% off retail. We also got points for all the Audioquest we sold. I have AQ cables everywhere in my house. I would never in a million years buy those cables at retail.
Also met Bill Lowe of AQ once. He was an interesting guy.
Hi Gene
Love your videos! I can`t se the problem in recommending cables. For the audiofiles that "believe" in cables strongly, Paul is making their life easier. When he says that the synergy is good with their produkts, that is what they will think, and relax, not having to chase for a "better" solution :)
For people that don`t care about very expensive cables will not run buying those cables.
My personal experience and belief is that cables are important. As I started building my hifi system I have had many different cables. It is very hard to say why and what changes in the sound, and I need to "listen to" a cable for a longer time in order to say if I like it or not.
Quite early in my quest for a great hifi system I "upgraded" to some Van Den Hule cables. I was proud of my new cables!!! But after a few months I realized that I listened less and less to music. Then one night I changed back to the old 50NOK (5USD) cables and the joy and energy in the music came back:) But it was easy then to hear that those cables lacked control, and had bad phase control. The stereo perspective was "messy"
So then I started looking for "good cables" that had It all. Good copper, seems to be the sound I like, and they don`t need to be very expensive. I don`t know why, but I have not had any cables with other metals for very long. Silver, gold and rhodium just not my cup of tea, and I can`t tell why......
Never get tired of the truth. Excellent job, as always, Gene. Love your channel.
You are the Boss! Love your down to earth videos. Be happy, be safe
Glad you’re calling them out, you’re the only one to do so.
Thank you so much for explaining this crystal clear. I've been watching a few videos and reading forums lately, as I want to buy some audio equipment.... and I felt like this hole industry is full of myths and marketing BS. But it seems like the consumers defend the BS, and are proud buyers, instead of searching for the truth.
Thank god I found your videos!! Great job!!
I've done a/b blind testing with expensive and cheap cables and really nobody could consistently tell a difference. Even had spliced together speaker wire at times. Cables and wire are the biggest crock of b/s in the consumer market.
@Mr Do not sure what point you are trying to make here.
Keep the great information coming Gene
Great vid. I eagerly await the day when you can measure these cables and come back with results(test).
Gene you're awesome, and I'm stoked to have stumbled on your channel. The answer to the question you proposed is..............Engineering grade cables may sound good to engineers, but since they don't look very cool they lose sound quality when they enter a consumer's home.
Paul must be referring to the synergy with his bank account.
Haha... So true
Would that be his wife and the bank account more likely
😭😭😭
@@kevonmanuel 99% True to be precise :D
LOL!
Very useful information here. Agree cable specs/ measurements should be available for consumers to consider and evaluate.
“Just when I thought I was out…they pull me back in.”
Thanks for the video. They were talking business synergy and how both companies can make more money. Please do a video on conditioners (types), regenerators and if they matter and measurements.
Gene, you're so passionate and knowledgeable about this. That begs the question, have you ever considered creating, marketing and selling Audioholics brand cables? I think many people would be interested in buying something that you'd be willing to put your name on.
I've had many offers from 3rd party cable companies to do just that. It may be something I consider in the future as I have an idea for an inexpensive easy method to make a cable that measures very well.
Love these informative videos, I can't comment on power cables for now but I definitely can contest that my experiences with audio interconnects (both rca and xlr) has been a mixed bag. Also the headphone replacement cable market has grown beyond belief thanks to rise in higher performance higher costing audiophile headphones. One slick move that most audiophile headphones manufacturers pull is to use proprietary connectors on their higher costing lines to keep d.i.yers from making adequate enough quality cables for pennies on the dollar. Cables for the Abyss 1266TC and Focal Utopia can cost over two thousand dollars but both still can use 3-4 wires total.
Thank you for making this up peoples need to get refreshed about this Snake Oil cables markets! I was tricked with sale man swear by the Audioquest im glad i found your post on this years ago, but i see allot of people still get tricked and buy thoses 1k$ speaker cables non sense,
Absolutely true Gene . Paul also claims that we can't measure everything we hear in cables. As you said cables should not act as a tone control.
So how else do you tone control if the amp has no tone controls. You have to use cables to do it.
@@aussie8114 nice one 😂
havent seen you for so long....always like your video...hits hard on snake man. i believe everyone will appreciate and send you donation if you actually take the cable and do details test on it, then publish it. save ppl tonnes of money.
Your take on PS audio re: magical cable synergy with that brand of cables was an interesting one. Many moons ago I decided to compare my "WirePlanet" speakers cables with a 6 foot pair of "Monstrous" 12 gauge zip cable and BINGO, the whole sound stage collapsed, pin point imaging became a muddled mess of instruments and the speaker coherency (Thiels) disappeared.
At the same time, my other set of cables - "Bardas" - had a sweeter treble and a wee bit fuller lower mid-range than the "WirePlanet" cable (tone control), but both were very coherent.
There is something going on that yet cannot be measured. Similarly measuring power-amps can sound very different in tone, staging, imaging, slam, clean top end or grainy, etc. Things that to this day cannot be empirically measured.
On the other hand, mega thousand dollar cables are pure foolishness.
Best and cheers!
great video Gene!!!! I agree!
I use Mogami and Canare cables nothing fancy just great quality cables with good shielding and no fancy crap, reasonable price and studio grade performance!
same cables used at the studio I had labs in at college haha go figure
haha cant believe what people believe
Have you gone down that path and done a video on Speaker cable and interconnect impedence characteristics? Great video by the way. Awesome channel!
I think I talked about that topic in several videos but may do a dedicated one on it. thanks.
I've been buying cables for years from mit and audio quest and I'm happy thanks gene,I respect your opinion.
Your not an engineer, what do you know!
Sup Godfather of Home Theater, Gene Corleone aka Don Dellasala. I think you were fair in this one. Constructive in your criticism. Tough to argue with science.
I could sell a $#!∆ ton of high end cables just by saying they look awesome, they feel awesome, they're expensive and therefore exclusive. No unproven claims there. And throw a hot chick in for good measure. $$$$!
Joe N Tell well said brother. He really is GENE Corleone. I Hope you have a great day Brother.
:)) Cheers to the Audioholics Mafia
Joe N Tell
Hey, Joe. Wanna start a cable business? I know a couple of very attractive females. 😜
In this stoneage good looking guys might work too lol
The "hot chick" is ongoing expense.
Hi Gene, which Mogami cable would you recommend for XLR interconnects (between pre/pro and amp) 2549, 2534, 2791, or other? Thanks in advance.
I think mogami 2549 is ok.
The 2534 is quad conductors cable，you dont need to use it because of short distance.
mogmai 2571 I dont recommand，because this cable made for special purpose (high flexibility)
A sane man in an insane world of audiophiles with more money then sense
AudioQuest does make some nice looking cables! I can't say that I would spend the money on them, but they are pretty!
It seems every few years Gene has to discuss the snake oil market of the audio industry.
been minutes lately
Thanks for this video !!
having started in this wonderful hobby in the fifies, loved reading about exotica.then with techcnical education came vast amounts of skepticism and later disdain of all things snake oil.my safe place was with julian hirsch and later john atkinson. thank you gene, for calling bs in a calm civilised logical manner.this will never go away because to quote a wannabee politician,its all about the benjamins ,baby.
Don't stop doing these videos please Gene, I keep an open mind and an eye on my wallet
Thanks
I agree, my A-S801 tone controls have never been anything other than flat, pure direct and using Blue Jeans Cable 10AWG.
I hope AudioQuest is watching this too. Definitely keep trying to measure them!
Thank you. Excellent content!
before you did this vid i already owned the audioquest " water" cable.ive now removed the batteries from the 2 sets i have in my system. i think the word " synergy " is the wrong word to use in hifi. i agree with you ,i dont look at purchasing cables to have " synergy " personally for me its to make it look good and not to pick up interference etc. it would be great Gene if you would please measure the bhk appliances just to see exactly what ive purchased according to your side of the this past time.. also in cables from a hifi angle,i dont think it really matters how they measure ,its all to do with how they sound. if i had the worst cable in the world according to measurements but sounded the best cable ever ,then id buy it. i wouldnt buy a cable just because it measures well. it comes down to the fact that theres 2 ways of looking at all of this. no side is wrong. you guys are all correct in your arguments.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Great video.
What analog XLR interconnect balanced cables do you recommend? I don't see Mogami offering these, unless you are using their microphone cables. Is that what you use and show in this video?
Not sure if you've touched on this, but recently I saw a PS Audio video about a braided power cable making a night and day difference. Building amps myself, I understand how twisted pairs can be a benefit in certain parts of an amp, but I'm not sure the last few feet of power cable before you plug into an amp will matter? The cable running from your breaker box to all of your lights, receptacles, and so on are parallel conductors; not twisted. Thoughts?
thanks, Paul! keep up the good work!
I say keep it up!! All this Money spent on Snake Oil Cables could be spent on better Speakers or Amps. Keep up the good work!!!
I too use high end cables mainly for aesthetic reasons, but also because they're decent quality cable relative to the free ones that come with the equipment .. my brand of choice is Gutwire from Canada, and for about $500-$1000 you get a VERY top notch cable, but I don't trust when PS Audio says they're seeing a synergy, its just marketing which is something Paul is very good at I've learned.
Great video, been a Bluejeans fan for years. I do have some Audioquest interconnects in my system but I like being able to order the exact size and color I want from Bluejeans. I marvel at some of the prices of these premium cables, and find myself laughing out loud at times, who buys his shit.
Great video. 2 different speakers can measure the same in most ways, but sound completely different. Even though we have the measurements to verify it that still doesn't tell what they actually sound like. Many amplifiers can measure the same but sound completely different. I am not excusing the cable industry for not supplying specs. I am just pointing out why measurements can't tell the whole story. I am not sure we know the "whys" of everything yet. I think not long ago Gene didn't like turntables until someone set it up correctly:) Anyway, Thanks for all you do to educate us.
Gene said the cable is acting like a tone control. Does different mean better? Maybe, but probably not. Is the "difference" worth thousands of dollars? Absolutely not. The predatory business tactics exhibited by these cable companies is inexcusable. If they want to have fancy cables costing a few hundred fine, but thousands is predatory.
Assuming the subjective perception is subject to bias, how can you confirm that they sound different? Have you done it in at least blind test using statistically sufficinet amonut of retries? If so, then we can proceed from that point on
Brilliant review. Being an engineer, I would say this is is reasonable review, based on reality.
Gene, you are my kind of engineer. Thank you.
Great video, I agree 100 percent with your reasoning. Now can you do an expose on Mpingo wood Shunmook discs? I hear the finest audio systems employ these devices....
I agree with you about the “filter effect” cables have on gear. I’ve seen audiophiles claim that they liked a $2k cable better than a particular $10k cable. And I can’t explain that. The placebo effect would naturally push the $10k cable to the top of the list. I asked you a question on your “power cable debunking” video about if we know what to test for when it comes to things like cables. It was a really good question I won’t repeat the whole question here (it was eloquently written) . I hope you read that question and give it some thought. But you own that kimber cable and it measures better than your 10g. Can you actually hear any difference between the two? It seems silly that such a small difference would be audible. Just curious if you can hear a difference?
Heh, I have been putting the money I didn't spend on snake oil cables back into components and speakers for years! I can certainly say my system does not suffer from loss even though I only use 10gage braided copper wires. I do believe that braided speaker cables help keep stray noises out of speakers, but that's about the furthest it goes.
This is a very well composed answer. Great job Gene!
A few years ago i visited the Harman Flaship store in NYC and they promoted Audioquest Cables with their products. This is Harman
You mean a dealer that sells Harman? I've spoken to the top brass at Harman related to research, even one that comments here, Dr. Sean Olive, and they all know it's audio jewelry.
@@Audioholics No, their own official store on 527 Madison Av. . This was December 2016 if I recall and they had Audioquest cables and logos. I'm sure it was a commercial thing and they never sold me the cables but they had them
I found this out over 30 years ago when SIGNET was selling higher end cables. Nice cables but when I hooked them up and did A-B for my wife because of the placebo effect knowing which one that I had to have someone that didn’t and she has better hearing than I do and so much better today. She couldn’t hear any difference between the cables and this was on a Tandberg 3018 preamp and my Sony CDP-705esD back then. I came away with yes they are nicer built and look good! 😁
This is an excellent argument about cables. Thanks! Never got sucked into the exotic nutz cables. I like 10 gauge multi-stranded copper cable that I picked up from Lowes, works great! And shielded interconnects with good ends.
Don't tell me, you voted Brexit too.
Looking good Gene. Looking healthy as well. Keep up the good fight against audiofoolery.
Excellent video. Anything to discourage snake oil is a worth supporting.
You hit the nail right on its head, Gene!
Gene great video, this topic is never tiring, i have a question, under what circumstances can a cable be made to act like a tone control ? If we add more capacitance or inductance to a cable on purpose will that change the tone or sound in any way ? Also do different materials used to make a cable make any difference in measurements silver vs ofc copper ?
Sanjay Salariya the resistance, inductance, and capacitance of a cable acts as an RLC filter. That is how it behaves like a tone control.
I recently did some modeling of this for Gene with a reactive load and I had to vary the values substantially to actually see a big change in the performance. Which really supports the notion that the difference the cable makes is too minuscule to matter. Further, no reason to believe an expensive cable would be any better in this regard.
For the experiment I plugged in actual numbers Gene measured of real cables. The cables that did the best were often the run of the mill cheap cables. The ones that did the worst were often expensive exotic cables. Though in reality, within the audio spectrum, we are talking like 1/5 of a dB or less in variation. Very little. I had to put in crazy values to show something approaching .5 dB or more.
Matthew Poes thankyou for the reply, in your opinion using silver or copper makes any difference ?? .. looking forward for the polk audio L800 review.
I bought high quality bulk cable and terminations and made my own speaker cables. They are excellent. At my age, I'd bet they sound the same to me as lamp cord, though. Thanks for cutting through the BS, Gene!
Awesome video I agree 100% with you: above a certain price point audiophile cable are totally snake oil. I did a blind test once for speaker cables with very good equipment at an audiophile store many years ago: I could tell the difference between a 1€/m cable and a 50€/m cable but not between a 50€/m and a 1000€/m cable. The equipment for testing was not at the very top high end but very good, with Rogers LS3/5a speakers and I think an Acoustic Research pre with 2 high end monoblocks I don't remember which... Nobody in the room except for the store owner could tell the difference between the 50€/m cable and the fancy 1000€/m cable
I would like you to talk about network switches for audio, things like jitter, and how buffers are useless
Gene,
I watch your channel when I want to learn something.
I watch Paul's channel when I am eating food and want to be briefly entertained.
And I complete agree, PS Audio makes some products that I too would be interested in playing with. However, I think Paul is 100% batshit crazy when he's talking about synergy in cables. I posted in his channel a long time ago, a sarcastic comment stating that I use my cables as tone controls. And here we are in 2020 and you made this video!
Glad to see you are feeling better. Keep doing what you do, we appreciate it!
I think there is good synergy between my Luxman integrated amplifier and Alpha hook up wire :) And even more so with my wallet.
I am not a great believer of expensive cables. I had an issue with hum on my TT and it ended up being the cables but the solution in my case was to use Thermocouple extension cable (Which is Cu / Cu) which is reasonably priced despite the Teflon Dielectric which is there purely for temperature resistance purposes.
I do believe synergy between some components, like turntables and cartridges for instance but that is a logical one if you look at needle compliance versus tonearm designs.
Whilst I am sure some people don't like to have their "dreams crushed", as one commenter put it, honestly, the science and measurements-based approach actually makes me more happy with my system. If you can't measure it, I can't hear it, therefore it's not necessary to spend a lot of money on fancy cables, amplifiers etc at the hope of hearing a difference, as long as they perform the job they're supposed to, and the measurements back that up, then I sure as hell won't ACTUALLY hear anything (of course I might convince myself I can, but my ears and brain are not trustworthy!)
I agree :) but how about copper vs silver ? does it change some measurement ?
thx for the video. I myself can not tell the difference on cable and I don’t spend big money on them. But! Just because I can’t hear it doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist. I think MAY BE These people like Paul can tell the difference. All my life I want to see these people (ie. Audiophile experts, Audio Magazine writers) put into a blind test. If they can pass the blind test every time we swich the cable like 20/20 times then we know that the cable matters for some. But ,again, that won’t change the fact that I can’t and that won’t me spend big on them anyway. I just want Paul to be right, he looks like a very nice guy.
Great shooting location!
Are you kidding me? Audiophile cables makes a huge difference!
In your wallet that is! I am glad to see you are doing better!
I guess you and I are on the same planet .
Best cable I bought was phase wire from the DIY store. Pure solid copper strain. Less than €2,- per meter. Sounds just as good as my €10,- per meter Audioquest X2.
Does it make sense to buy expensive headphone cables ? I have spent thousands of $$$ on "pure silver" headphone cables but I haven't noticed any sound difference from stock cables.
How are they supposed to sound different?
I have watched videos with Paul from PS Audio, and the way he interacts with people that disagree in the comments is less than professional. It is the reaction of someone that is not happy that their biases are being challenged. Audioquest is a snake oil purveyor, and PS Audio is happy to ally with them. I wouldn't touch a product from either company. Synergistic Research is in the same class of huckster.
I have little experience with Paul on the forums. I was just going off the personality he projects in his videos.
Hey Gene, I just watched an old video of Dillons audio in California. Did you ever take him up on his challenge? Is so what did you find?
Thanks for your time.
Don't even know who that is so...no.
In general, I'd believe it's safe to say cables that do NOT have any special effects deliver the signal intact (low capaciatnce/inductive reaction) . In the same system, special effects (high end/ High C/L) would likely have an ADDITIVE effect. That is, Interconnect A rolls off a little, and Speaker cable B rolls off a little more.
You have been granted "Noise immunity" you are safe.
I've heard a little about using silver cables vs copper cables, I'd be interested to hear your opinions on that. I'm by no means tech savvy, my home theater is a basic 5.1 running only on my avr, so anything I could learn would be great, thanks!
I would love to see a similar feature video about audiophile capacitors. I can believe more easily that those components will make an improvement. I also wonder how many people have bespoke speaker cables AND electrolytes in the cross over network of their speakers. I think that before you buy expensive cables you should upgrade the cross overs in your speakers.
(I want to do that with my speakers, but I am satisfied with the sound I have as is. Is that bad? Sometimes I get the impression that you have to be unhappy with something to be taken seriously)
If I were you I wouldn't mess with your crossovers, they're very carefully engineered in tandem with the voice coils. To do that right, You'd need to have someone on staff in my opinion, you can just swap it out for something better. It's like they correct very specific anomalies that only that speaker system has, at least that's my impression from what I've learned.
Great video Gene, much appreciated ! In answer to your question, I don't believe in the synergy claim, it is just more marketing crap. Like most audio marketing, it is based on subjective bullshit, and that's o.k. if you like the products and want to spend your money on it, but I find it to be complete bullshit, and honestly, pretty disengenuous that these companies make claims without providing any objective proof to back up their claims. They're out for the sale, and hey, synergy sounds like good marketing. If they've tested products to be able to make the claims they make, great, show us the measurement results, or show us before and after measurements for the claimed improvements, but they don't and personally I dismiss such subjective claims as the bullshit that it is. Thanks again for the great videos, keep'm coming.
I think your strongest argument is your logical argument you started with. The measurement argument definitely is there, however I would argue that you should also offer to do a blind listen. And see if when cables are swapped you do or do not hear something. I trust that you would do it fairly honestly. Because I think their claim is even though they can’t measure it they hear it. OK I’m not sold on that, however I’m not dismissing it out of hand either. Just a thought. Love your presentations
Paul Roscelli so here is the thing. Human testing is pretty weak and insensitive all in all. We can measure things far finer electrically than we can hear.
So this measurement argument has a problem. What I refer to as a difference without a difference. The argument that we measure the wrong things can sometimes be true. But...a transfer function is a complete set of information that fully characterized everything in a system. If a cable makes any audible difference it must change the transfer function. It’s impossible for that not to be true.
In fact, that change in the transfer function will also contain many differences that are likely not audible. Truth be told, cables will very likely produce different transfer functions. That’s where these listening tests come in. Some reliably they can’t help us suss our where a difference exists that is also audible. But it’s always worth remembering, these tests don’t necessarily prove something isn’t audible. They simply fail to prove there is a difference. We then rely on repeating of the tests and other tests to triangulate the results and draw stronger conclusions.
I never tire of snake oil videos. Who knows, maybe one of these vendors will present real science behind their claims and I know you’ll share their findings!
Appreciate you calling out the snake oil. Keep up the good job sir!
Hitchen’s Razor…. I like that. I’ve been educated.
If I had a spare £50000 to spend on cables, I wouldn’t. I’d spend it on better components! Cables do make a difference. You wouldn’t use doorbell cable to connect your 3kw heater to the mains outlet, would you? But, good cables are good enough. The stupid amount of extra money needed to purchase ‘high end’ cables for minute performance increases does not make good financial sense. I’m all in favour of blind testing. I insist upon it when auditioning new components. Believe me, and forgive the pun, can be a real eye opener! An excellent, thought provoking video. Keep them coming.