Like many audiophiles I've had various systems. Right now I have my Joseph Audio Perspective graphene 2 speakers running - a speaker that John Atkinson declared "hi-res" in resolving subtle differences, Fremer raved about the Pulsar version, and Joseph audio regularly gets among "best of show" notices at audio shows. My preamps are the CJ Premier 16LS2, and also the ultra-low distortion Benchmark LA4, among the lowest distortion consumer preamps available. My amps are the CJ Premier 12 monoblocks, which I've compared to various amps (e.g. I've had a Bryston 4B3 for a while, and other amps, tube and solid state) and it holds up very well. Source is a Benchmark DAC2L - again, premier in low distortion. Turntable is a Transrotor Fat Bob S/Acoustic Solid Arm/Benz Micro Ebony L cartridge.
I'm quite familiar with very high end systems and mine holds up well (I've also heard my speakers on Nordost cabling/top of the line SimAudio amplification...and I'm getting plenty of detail in my set up, even more than I've heard at my dealer because I have a very good room, acoustically).
The thing is, though, this is all a red herring. Because it ISN'T a fact that audiophiles claim "you have to have a hi-res system to hear cable differences." Audiophiles with all ranges of systems, from very modest to expensive, claim to hear differences with cables!
Go to Amazon and even very cheap cables (by high end standards) used with modest gear get rave reviews for "changing the sound of my system."
This means either:
1. It's just false that you need a Super High Res system to hear cable differences, as they can make a difference on modest systems (making your request a red herring).
or:
2. The many audiophiles reporting differences with cheaper cables/systems are imaging the differences. Which would be a lesson about how audiophiles are prone to hearing differences that don't exist.
Gotta be one or the other.
Forgive me, that don't you see a problem with that reasoning? "If astrology weren't true, astrologers and horoscopes wouldn't exist!" "If psychics weren't real, that huge psychic reading industry wouldn't exist" "If X religion weren't true, then all those believers wouldn't exist...."
People really can fool themselves. Even many, many people. It's human nature, how our brain works naturally.
Ok, thanks for the story. But...
1. If I tell you stories about people NOT hearing differences with those type of cables (and in fact, I heard my speakers with near top of the line Nordost cabling, and I got all the detail I heard there with the modest pro-grade cables I used at home)....you won't take that as any evidence that cables don't really make a difference, right? Such is the power (or lack) of anecdotes in settling these issues.
2. Do you think they used Nordost Odin 2 cabling when making that recording you reference? (Or most of the recordings you listen to?). I doubt it, right? In all likelihood, like most studios, they used standard pro cables (e.g. Canare, Belden, Mogami, or others depending on age of the recording). Plus the cabling in many such set ups, strewn about the floor, would leave the cable-riser crowd with nightmares. And yet, those meager cables were sufficient to capture and transmit...often through reams of cables.... the very details that took your breath away. Right? Doesn't that tell you something?
Cheers.