"Glenn Richards" wrote in message
...
Roy wrote:

That doesn't make sense. You're suggesting there is a difference
between a "no cost" cable and a £15 one, but no difference between a
£15 and a £100 one. So just where is this cut off point. You need to
do more experiments before presenting your conclusion.

No, I didn't say there was no difference, I said the difference wouldn't
be worthwhile.

For example, I'm using a Chord Cobra II between the DAC and amplifier on
the system down here. Had I paid full price for this cable (£55) it
wouldn't have been worth the extra over a Cambridge Pacific (£30). But as
it cost me £24, it was worthwhile.

It's called the "law of diminishing returns". That point depends greatly
on the kit that's at either end of the cable - eg between bargain basement
Technics CD player and amplifier you'll get a difference between freebie
and Atlantic, but not much (if anything) above that point. Certainly not
worth spending more than a tenner on a cable.

Go up the scale (and I've tested this myself) either with a better CD
player or by hanging a top-notch DAC off the digital output and you'll
hear an improvement with each step up the "cable scale". Again, you'll get
to a point where you either can't hear an improvement or the improvement
doesn't justify the cost. And once you reach that point, money's better
spent elsewhere, better speakers, better source etc.

--
Glenn Richards Tel: (01453) 845735
Squirrel Solutions http://www.squirrelsolutions.co.uk/

IT consultancy, hardware and software support, broadband installation

Glenn, did I understand correctly that you're saying that with a top-notch
DAC, you hear an improvement by changing the digital cable between source
and DAC, or did you mean on the analogue outputs of the DAC?

Another point:- I don't doubt the sincerity of your conclusions on the tests
you did, but I have done similar tests using two identical inputs and a
common source, and I failed to hear any difference on any cables, between
the freebies and anything else. So, either our ears are very different, or
our expectations are different; you expected to hear a difference, so you
did, and I expected to hear none so I didn't. Have you been able to try an
ABX test, where you could be listening to the same cable twice? That would
be a way of eliminating the inherent bias between what you expect to hear
and what you believe you hear. I can't think of a way of eliminating my own
bias for not expecting to hear a difference as ABX won't help prove
negative.

S.