Video Asylum

Posted by waVeman on May 18, 2002 at 17:55:33

In Reply to: Huh? Don't tell me, another person who does not believe in cables making a difference?(NT) posted by SamM on May 18, 2002 at 16:04:46:

VERY BADLY designed cables might make a difference (no shielding, wildly insufficient gauge, etc.) but even those cables they give you with your VCR or $150 CD player don't have that.

I find it curious that during the last decade or so, this audio voodoo stuff has appeared, coinciding with the fact ("fact": yes, that's my opinion) that a pair of "mid-fi" Boston Acoustics speakers can sound as good as a 70s/early 80s era pair of hi-end speakers. Or a well-designed receiver from Denon or Yamaha can reproduce sound as accurately as from an over-built Mark Levinson amp (notice I did not say "sounds the same"--different amps do have subtly different sonic characters, AND depending on what/who's speakers they are driving).

To me, many manufacturers of hi-end equipment and accessories know that audio technology is hitting the point of diminishing returns, where a "hi-end" system sounds barely better than a system one quarter the price. And so are using their advertising dollars to try to convince people there are all these electronic "boogey men" that scientific instruments can't detect, but of course!, their latest electronic widget/circuit design/whatever can eliminate. Ever notice the most cable companys never give you any technical info or graphs? Instead, a lot of flowery and mush-minded language is employed, blanketing the cable-issue in metaphysical nonsense, and using the "guilt card" sometimes: "If you REALLY love music, you'll spend $XXX on our Super Excellento interconnect. Anything less would be an insult to your favorite artist!"

Phooey.

Electrical theory is now extremely advanced, and while I freely admit science can't--and probably never will--explain EVERYTHING, there are some things that us two-legged creatures DO know about in fine detail. And wires just aren't that complicated for us now, especially in consumer-equipment frequency regions. This isn't the 1920s anymore.

And magazines certainly wouldn't test a Gold Series IC against whatever high end cable was the flavor-of-the-day: what if they found no difference? Now what? Print those results and guess what that high end cable manufacturer would do with his advertising dollars, those $$$ being the life-blood of a magazine? He's GONE!! And anyway, magazines never seem to do proper scientific testing, testing that takes into account KNOWN AND PROVEN psychological factors that can seriously alter & contaminate a listening test. So I wouldn't believe such a test either.

So........nothing gets properly tested, or tested at all, and these weird audio rumors grow unchecked. And with the Internet here now, they can grow exponentially.

Human senses are limited, some of the worst in the mammalian animal world and our awesomely complicated brains can play tricks on us--ever been to a carnival with one of those funhouses with the tilted floors? Psychologists know (and I have personal experience with this) that just knowing something MIGHT exist can cause one to think in a delicate or difficult-to-perceive situation that it does exist.

And when someone tells me I have to spend $150 to get a good picture when there are cables available using the same technology for $40, you are damn right I am going to question such a statement!!!