Help with interconnect

Anyone?

Don't bother changing them. Most if not all "improvements" credited to interconnects are merely the placebo effect.

Which explains why when I tested four last weekend they all sounded totally different. In fact, I hooked up a Kandy CDP and Apollo CDP and played copies of the same disc through them both at the same time on two line inputs. Changing between sources allowed me to compare the sound directly. When I changed the interconnect on one, the difference between the sounds changed dramatically. I was skeptical until I did this test.

Then I did a blind test of all the four with my friend and his system. He described each interconnect and the changes it made. The Chord Cobra stood out a long way as it seemed to make it warm and less detailed. The Chord Chameleon Silver Plus won the test, and it happens to be the expensive one. The Black Rhodium Prelude, recommended by the Rega dealer he bought his system from, sounded glaringly bright and less controlled in the bass than all of them. At £80 it was a suprise to find we liked it less than the cheap QED Qunex 2.

I'm happy to accept that _simple_ design differences, such as materials, can make this difference, but it was enough to make us both pay careful attention to which one we chose.

All very interesting...

Meant to say, borrow some to try at home. Only buy if a) you notice a difference, b) you like the difference and think it's worth the cash. Don't let price guide you - you might prefer the c£50 Chord Cobra to it's dad, the Chameleon Silver Plus at c£100 (copper versus silver). Most of all, enjoy the tests. Get a mate to do the cable changes so that you can concentrate on the sound.

The placebo effect has fooled many. Don't worry about it.

Most if not all? Most? Most?? i.e. possibly not all of them???? i.e. Some of them are real improvements?

Dammit man, you're losing your touch. Don't fail us now...

Possibly including yourself. But don't worry about it.

I have to include the possibility that the replacement of a lead might improve the sound of a record deck. Lower or higher capacitance etc.

My way it doesn't cost me any daft sums of money, so what's there to worry about?

Hmmm. Ermm... Could you explain?

Can't really argue with that per se, but the absolutism of it all seems like you might actually end up never getting the best out of the investment you do make in other bits of the system. Which would seem a shame. Balance in all things. What interconnects do you actually use? Where is your perception of balance?

I am a little concerned that you always see the placebo effect in action because you expect to

And never got the chance to say sorry about the pudding thing, it was just such a cheap and awful joke my twisted sense of humour couldn't resist. I should have tried harder to keep it under control. 'Twas unecessary and would have been funnier, as are all such jokes, self-directed (as I realised about five minutes after pressing "post").

Haha, oh God, it has started all over again...
...all I can say is that I've heard the change in sound directly having gone through four (of many!) leads in one sitting. I wasn't expecting to, but now I need to change my Cobra...tried my Crimson against the Cobra the day after too - not as detailed.

But hey, Keith, some people don't taste the difference between a Jacobs Creek Shiraz and Amarone. Some of us are blessed with finer senses than others...

The sad thing is that while you persist with this nonsense you will probably never be content with the sound you have, you'll always be listening to the cables rather than the music.

And some of us are blessed with enough common sense not to buy an interconnect that costs pence to make but sells for three figure sums.

Bless him - he's a national treasure! Seriously though, we do need people like Keith to keep our feet on the ground and make sure we're not going all gooey eyed at the latest technology for no good reason (as we tend to do!).

I think "Devil's Advocate" is the term. I'm betting, in reality, Keith has spent more on interconnects than any other human being. He just likes to tease us is all!

Perhaps we ought to set up a "World Of Cablecraft" and fight it out to the death

The way I see it is that there are various aspects of a cable that will impact it's "performance", not least of which is the equipment at either end and how it reacts to the cable.

A cable that sounds great in one system will not shine in another, and vice versa. And cost has (relatively) little to do with it.

From blind testing I'm aware of the significant changes cables can make (even digital ones) in some systems, but I'd be wary of recommending cables (or not) to anyone whose setup didn't match mine, and my music collection and sonic preferences.

So if it works for you and your system and it fits the budget do it, but if it doesn't or it err doesn't then don't

rubbish. I said I wouldn't get drawn into a cable thread and look what's happened? Best I head over a Harley Davidson board and argue the merits of synthetic vs mineral oil