Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I know. If you were concerned about audio/video quality for an RF cable then it pays to pay a little more. I could visually see the difference between the standard cable that comes with some electronics and an upscale well insulated RF cable. Even the upscale RF cable was very affordable, usually no more than $10 to $20 for 6 feet. With the composite cable there was only a slight difference and I really had to look hard to notice anything. With the digital or HD type cables I never could see a difference between cheap or expensive cables so I didn't bother. Same with digital audio cables. If you're running your own speakers it pays to do research for which grade of speaker wire to use. Last thing someone needs to do is pay $2 to $300 for 6 feet of one cable. Some magazines have tested them and the only way they could measure a difference was with electronic devices that measure things the human eye and ear cannot detect.
The high-end audio/visual-phile nowadays a serviced mostly by media servers.
Qusonix and Kaleidescape for instance.
the Q makes a media server for audio only. The Kaliedescape is for music and film.
Lostless digital tracks ripped form your pre-existing cd collection. The sound quality is amazing....but once you get past a few hundred track the slight compression kicks in, still WAY better than the tinny garbage that most people seem to be happy with on their earbuds!?!
I don't think that any amount of $$ on incredible speakers can help you out with poor sound quality mp3's. The key is in the 'lossless' technology, not the speakers. But if you are dealing with all vinyl and cd's then it's back to the same old tried and true system that can be cobbled together by being a research driven audiophile!
Nowdays it is all about HTS systems all in one! I remember the days of having a pre-amp, amp, etc. My brother still has his Adcom and McIntosh separates somewhere in his garage.
I still have a beautiful Sansui QR4500 four channel receiver (and a QR1500 as well), awesome Sansui SP7500K speakers (with 16" woofers), a set of Advent loudspeakers (small and large models), an Optonica RT6505 tape deck, a Bang & Olufsen Beogram RX2 turntable and a newer Sony CD player. I also have a TEAC 3340S four-track reel to reel that still works well today. I've recorded many things on that piece.
With exception of the B & O, all the components and speakers are from the mid to late 70's and work perfectly. They produce full, rich sound and I won't part with them. Todays stuff, although full of features, are made from crap. All my stuff was built to last and so far they have lived up to their end of the bargain.
To be fair, I do own a great Sony surround system for the living room. This has been a great system and I supplemented the not-so-good supplied speakers with Klipsch Tangent Series monsters (3 feet tall) that will blow you out of the room.
Call me an old timer, but I have a great system that reproduces great sound. Bottom line.
Yeah, it just seems like everything out there (Best buy) is not real high quality. I guess everything is digital now too. The stuff I have (had) was analog. I still have the receive and the turntables. A couple years ago my JBL speakers distengrated from dry rot. I got rid of those. Glad to see there are some of us out there that really despise MP3s.
I will listen to them when I have to. I have a little portable (all in one) thing. I went into the best buy and asked for a "boom box" and the 18 year old clerk looked at me like I was an alien. I can plug in the ipod and listen to MP3s outside which is what I bought it for. But already the CD player is going to h*ll in it after less than a year.
But I would prefer to be sitting at home relaxing listening to my CDs or vinyl. I have lots of vinyl that is unavailable in CD format which is why I keep it around. And everyonce in a while I find a good oldie that is clean at the goodwill store... just can't resist them at that pricetag.
Years past, was quite into the high end gear - checking specs, pouring over reviews, etc.
Still desire/demand higher quality sound, but will admit that the convenience at times is good,,, just to be able to carry thousands of tunes, anywhere, anytime,,, and to have these all stored in a tiny box, amazing. Yet, when the turntable rotates, the needle follows the grooves, the sound waves emit from the Boston Acoustics, then my ears are in true ecstasy.
What a strange coincidence that my old standby Harman Kardon receiver bit the dust today. I've had it since the mid 70s when I bought it used. Rest assured that it was played very well throughout it's glorious lifetime. Based on neighborhood complaints, it was one kick ass piece of electronics. My backup is a straight-up amp made By Scott from the 60s that I rebuilt two years ago. It pushes a clean 60 watts - I'm kinda guessing - through 2 channels and sounds sooo clean. I kinda been thinking of making it my regular unit for some time now anyhow, so I guess that's what I'll do. I haven't seen too many of these around so it should be a good conversation piece. Aside from my cd player, the newest component I have (now) is from 1972. I never got serious about speaker wires though.
Regarding speaker cables. I understand that low resistance cables consume less power leaving more for the speaker coils to use. Is low capacitance an issue? I used to work in research and testing. Collecting data in real time is very important as exactly when something occurs or what frequency is as important as how much. A long high capacitance cable between a transducer and data acquisition causes problems in time and frequency. It allows a signal to delay or be "stored" briefly in the extra "space" in the cable.
A bad analogy, turn on the water supply to your water hose with the nozzle closed. A lot of water flows in, but none flows out. Open the nozzle and the water flows out, well after it flowed in. Turn off the water and the water continues to flow out for awhile. That's like a high capacitance cable.
A low capacitance cable is like a hard steel pipe. (Assuming no air or no compression of water or line loss due to drag) Turn on the water supply with the pipe outlet closed and nothing flows in. Open the outlet and the water flows out exactly as much flows in. Turn off the supply and the water stops flowing out simultaneously.
Perhaps I have over thought this And perhaps the errors caused by cable capacitance are below a threshold that affects music. It does make a big difference in a 100FT cable in a D/A system though.
Remember the old days when you made sure you had the killer stereo system setup? The amp, pre-amp, belt drive or direct drive turn table? 2-way or 3-way speakers, etc. Just to make sure you had the optimum listening environment? I know I did.
And I still have all that stuff; some of it is newer, some isn't so new but still sounds better than anything else I've heard. I'd rather keep cobbling together a component system and baby my LPs than own two dozen iPods.[/quote]
Quote:
Originally Posted by square peg
What a strange coincidence that my old standby Harman Kardon receiver bit the dust today.
Regarding speaker cables. I understand that low resistance cables consume less power leaving more for the speaker coils to use. Is low capacitance an issue? ...
I may have found more information. I went back to my favorite cable company and see that indeed they do make low capacitance speaker cabling.
Belden Catalog Search Under the Search tab click Exact Phrase and then the right arrow. Scroll down to the 1300 part numbers.
Last edited by quiet walker; 12-15-2008 at 10:57 AM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
And perhaps the errors caused by cable capacitance are below a threshold that affects music. It does make a big difference in a 100FT cable in a D/A system though.
Know just how you feel.
