And yet we exist, in an analogue world. (unless you think we don´t). And we are ruled by analogue laws.
Saying so, let me put this questions just to try to understand your point:
- what system do you have? Please let us know.
- How do you make your choices? How do you avoid the perception mistakes?
- as you said before about your cables , could you say the same about the rest of your system? In another words, can we think your system is the best buy we can achieve, and everything forward is snake oil and if we buy it is just by the power of suggestion?
Since you feel I need to disclose my audio background and I am not a frequent flyer to this forum, I don't mind sharing that info. It's not a secret lol.
I've been into high end audio since 1982 but the budget wasn't quite there yet so I had to make do with a Denon system.
When I moved to Philadelphia suburbs in the late 80's, it got serious.
I was blessed to have been surrounded by fantastic high end audio stores during the two decades that followed. Overtures in Delaware, Soundex in Willow Grove, David Lewis Audio in Philadelphia, The Cable Company in Bucks County, Pa.
I spent countless hours listening in all the stores to just about every piece of gear spanning the two and half decades. There probably wasn't one brand that I did not get to hear since the preowned market and turnover rate was simply booming at Soundex and the "take it home and play with it for the weekend" was the norm for customers.
I've spent a small fortune "Borrowing" Cables from the The Cable Company Lending Library which carried just about every cable out there. If you are not familiar, I highly recommend it when shopping for and chasing the cable game. I've had no less than a few dozen of the top cable brands come through my house and often 2 or 3 at a time to get a good grasp at the differences. They even lend gear to evaluate these days.
https://www.thecableco.com/lending-library
Between me and 3 other friends over the two decades we have listened, evaluated, obsessed and bought, traded and of course borrowed from each other to the point of nausea...
It would also be easier for me to tell you what gear I did not own over the 30+ years than what gear I have owned.
Just briefly to put the skepticism to rest, I have owned 5 pairs of Sonus Faber speakers, 4 pairs of Wilson Speakers, 2 pairs of Martin Logan speakers, Dynaudio, Harbeth, 3 pairs of Tannoy and even a few I have built myself since I have an electronics degree and decided to give it a try. Not bad actually, a friend of mine still uses the two way speakers I designed along with my own crossovers that were scratch built from Madisound catalog at a fraction of the cost of store speakers.
https://www.madisoundspeakerstore.com/
As far as gear, I've either had "on loan" or at some point have "owned" just about every one of the well known brands of the 80's through late 90's. McCormack, Audible Illusions, Convergent Audio Technologies, Krell, Audio Research, BAT, McIntosh, Lamm, Bryston. Audio Research and finally ending up with D'Agostino Momentum Monoblocks x3 for a custom theater/2ch room with Wilson Alexia and Polaris center channel.
So could I say as you put it "the same about the rest of your system? In another words, can we think your system is the best buy we can achieve, and everything forward is snake oil and if we buy it is just by the power of suggestion?"
I would never say that and I didn't. There is no such thing as "the best system" and everything forward is snake oil. The best system is the one you have assembled to the best of your budget and desires. I am not delusional to say ALL GEAR sounds the same.
However, whether one spends $10k or $100k is not necessarily a good indicator of how much satisfaction one will derive if one knows what he/she is doing. I've heard plenty of systems that were ludicrous in amount $$$ invested and sounded like total crap and made me want to run away to spare my ears....
As far as cables, YES, I am happy with Transparent the WAVE speaker cables for $250 after spending a small fortune on Transparent for my own Wilson/D'Agostino room. Imagine that!
I can spend another fortune if I so desire but at this point I will never do that as after 30 plus years of high end audio I have placed cables on the very last shelf of importance to my system.
In fact when I assembled a new system just a year and a half ago, I thought about what I would enjoy and what I wanted to accomplish from yet "another system" and I am perfectly happy with the Harbeth 30.2, Luxman 509AXII, D-06 and PrimaLuna Dialogue HP for when the mood for tubes strikes. I could have duplicated any of the systems I've had in the past but I've also learned that $$$$ spent on the drastic diminishing rate of returns in Audio was simply NOT worth it to me anymore. It is about MUSIC after all, not so much the shiny boxes, at least for me. Harbeth and Luxman is very musical and pleasing to my ears. A solid musical system without going nuts.
For cables I didn't even bother thinking about what would be a good match, I simply picked up some Wire World ICs and am perfectly happy with the result. If it was Transparent again, I AM positive the results would have been absolutely the SAME. :scholar:
Like I said, "borrow" any cable you want from the Cable Lending company and let your own ears be the judge but as we already have discovered so many interesting facts in this thread along the way.... Ahem, whatever....
https://www.thecableco.com/lending-library
