Hi guys,

I was recently auditioning the Rotel 1071 pre-power combo on some
lovely $12,000 Sonus Faber speakers. They were fitted with some $200
IXOS interconnects. I played a couple of vinyl records (Miles Davis -
So what, Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon) the bass was overwhelming
and a bit boomy at times (at least more that what I am used to).

I replaced them with some $70 Tara Labs cables and all seems to sound
crystal clear and neutral. Even the sales guy acknowledged that.

The equipment does not have hidden gizmos to enhance the bass and I
wired them with my own good hands. So there was no foulplay or
snakeoil involved.

Explain this - what's a mere cable got to do with adding extra bass?
As far as I know a cable is a cable with no processing happening
within it.

Cheers

Max

max graff wrote:
Hi guys,

I was recently auditioning the Rotel 1071 pre-power combo on some
lovely $12,000 Sonus Faber speakers. They were fitted with some $200
IXOS interconnects. I played a couple of vinyl records (Miles Davis -
So what, Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon) the bass was overwhelming
and a bit boomy at times (at least more that what I am used to).

I replaced them with some $70 Tara Labs cables and all seems to sound
crystal clear and neutral. Even the sales guy acknowledged that.

The equipment does not have hidden gizmos to enhance the bass and I
wired them with my own good hands. So there was no foulplay or
snakeoil involved.

Explain this - what's a mere cable got to do with adding extra bass?
As far as I know a cable is a cable with no processing happening
within it.

Nothing. Your ears/mind adjusted to the sound, that's all.
Salesmen will agree with anything you say if it helps you buy.

I have a cable that adds extra bass but it contains two resistors
and a capacitor. You can have it for $200. :-)

--
Eiron.

In article .com, max
graff wrote:
Hi guys,

I was recently auditioning the Rotel 1071 pre-power combo on some lovely
$12,000 Sonus Faber speakers. They were fitted with some $200 IXOS
interconnects. I played a couple of vinyl records (Miles Davis - So
what, Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon) the bass was overwhelming and
a bit boomy at times (at least more that what I am used to).

I replaced them with some $70 Tara Labs cables and all seems to sound
crystal clear and neutral. Even the sales guy acknowledged that.

The equipment does not have hidden gizmos to enhance the bass and I
wired them with my own good hands. So there was no foulplay or snakeoil
involved.

Explain this - what's a mere cable got to do with adding extra bass? As
far as I know a cable is a cable with no processing happening within it.

You would first need to provide useful data on the following areas:

A) What steps you took to level-match the comparison, and what protocol you
used to ensure that the difference wasn't due to some other factor. e.g.
your hearing varying with time, or as a result of having been exposed to
the sound levels for a given time. Listening to one arrangement for a
while, then listening to another for a while may simply not tell you that a
'change' was for the reason assumed. So such 'comparisons' may be worthless
as a guide unless they are done with care and knowing how to avoid quite
simple misleading factors.

B) What the values were for various parameters like cable capacitance,
source and load impedance, frequency responses of the two arrangements,
etc. Also check for hum levels and any RF pickup.

It is quite possible to dream up a variety of plausible-sounding hypotheses
to 'explain' what you describe. But they might all be nonsense. The only
way to tell is to provide the relevant information so that any ideas can be
checked against that.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.audiomisc.co.uk/Armstrong/armstrong.html

On Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:54:38 -0700, max graff
wrote:

I was recently auditioning the Rotel 1071 pre-power combo on some
lovely $12,000 Sonus Faber speakers. They were fitted with some $200
IXOS interconnects. I played a couple of vinyl records (Miles Davis -
So what, Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon) the bass was overwhelming
and a bit boomy at times (at least more that what I am used to).

I replaced them with some $70 Tara Labs cables and all seems to sound
crystal clear and neutral. Even the sales guy acknowledged that.

The equipment does not have hidden gizmos to enhance the bass and I
wired them with my own good hands. So there was no foulplay or
snakeoil involved.

Explain this - what's a mere cable got to do with adding extra bass?
As far as I know a cable is a cable with no processing happening
within it.

I suppose an over-complicated cable MIGHT be badly-designed enough to
do some passive filtering. More likely they sounded exactly the same,
but you were listening hard for a difference so found one.

I think we can discount the salesman's opinion. That's one step worse
than "...and even my wife noticed the difference!" :-)

"Laurence Payne"


I think we can discount the salesman's opinion. That's one step worse
than "...and even my wife noticed the difference!" :-)


** How about ?.

The dog pricked up his ears ...

The cat positioned herself in front of the speakers ....

The canary sang along ......


Or the ultimate in ********:

It sounded just like several veils had been lifted off the sound .....


Peeeeeeeeukkkkkkeeeeeeeeee




........ Phil

max graff wrote:
Explain this - what's a mere cable got to do with adding extra bass?
As far as I know a cable is a cable with no processing happening
within it.

Bass is addictive. Hear a bit of it, and your brain sometimes wants a
bit more next time (unless tending a headache) to re-establish what you
thought was the baseline a few seconds ago.

Play the following track(*) loud, and set it so the the glass ornaments
in the fancy cabinet (substitute local equivalent) just about shake.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_ciiCyxOJA

Stop, then play it a few minutes later. Note the ornaments still shake,
but the bass doesn't seem as intense as when you first played it.

* - Patti Smith - IMO best cover of Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

--
Adrian C

"max graff" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hi guys,

I was recently auditioning the Rotel 1071 pre-power combo on some
lovely $12,000 Sonus Faber speakers.

So far so good.

They were fitted with some $200 IXOS interconnects.

Which were either as sonically accurate as $5 commodity interconnects, or
not.

I played a couple of vinyl records (Miles Davis -
So what, Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon) the bass was overwhelming
and a bit boomy at times (at least more that what I am used to).

Rule number one is that you rarely if ever get reference quality bass off of
vinyl. If there's 5 minutes of music per 12" side, maybe just maybe.

I replaced them with some $70 Tara Labs cables and all seems to sound
crystal clear and neutral.

It was now 5 or more minutes later and a second listening. Being 5 minutes
later, there's no hope that you could reliably discern a subtle difference.
Being a second listening without the ability to go back and forth between
the two difererent hardware configurations, you violated the order rule.

Bad experiments are bad guides.

Even the sales guy acknowledged that.

You're going to cite a sales drone as an independent authority? You must be
a real hoot at used car lots! If the turnip truck circles back in time, you
can catch it back home before you really hurt yourself...

The equipment does not have hidden gizmos to enhance the bass and I
wired them with my own good hands.

You found a sorce of Rotel build-it-yourself kits? Do tell!

So there was no foulplay or snakeoil involved.

Competency in the experimental setup and procedure was also carefully
avoided.

Explain this - what's a mere cable got to do with adding extra bass?

If both cables were as sonically transparent as a $5 interconnect, which is
to say perfectly sonically transparent, then the cable had nothing to do
with adding extra bass.

As far as I know a cable is a cable with no processing happening
within it.

That's not true in every case.

max graff wrote:

Hi guys,

I was recently auditioning the Rotel 1071 pre-power combo on some
lovely $12,000 Sonus Faber speakers. They were fitted with some $200
IXOS interconnects. I played a couple of vinyl records (Miles Davis -
So what, Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon) the bass was overwhelming
and a bit boomy at times (at least more that what I am used to).

I replaced them with some $70 Tara Labs cables and all seems to sound
crystal clear and neutral. Even the sales guy acknowledged that.

The equipment does not have hidden gizmos to enhance the bass and I
wired them with my own good hands. So there was no foulplay or
snakeoil involved.

Explain this - what's a mere cable got to do with adding extra bass?
As far as I know a cable is a cable with no processing happening
within it.

It is.

Human hearing changes from day to day, if not hour to hour so it's entirely
normal for the same thing to sound different. Add in psychological influences
and you've got a gold mine.

Graham

max graff wrote:

Hi guys,

I was recently auditioning the Rotel 1071 pre-power combo on some
lovely $12,000 Sonus Faber speakers. They were fitted with some $200
IXOS interconnects. I played a couple of vinyl records (Miles Davis -
So what, Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon) the bass was overwhelming
and a bit boomy at times (at least more that what I am used to).

I replaced them with some $70 Tara Labs cables and all seems to sound
crystal clear and neutral. Even the sales guy acknowledged that.

Now try some £3.99 cables from ebay (you can get some nice ones for that) and
see if they sound any different !
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SLx-Gold-Digit...QQcmdZViewItem

Or even try the £0.99 ones !


Graham

On Tue, 23 Oct 2007 16:08:01 +0100, Eeyore
wrote:



max graff wrote:

Hi guys,

I was recently auditioning the Rotel 1071 pre-power combo on some
lovely $12,000 Sonus Faber speakers. They were fitted with some $200
IXOS interconnects. I played a couple of vinyl records (Miles Davis -
So what, Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon) the bass was overwhelming
and a bit boomy at times (at least more that what I am used to).

I replaced them with some $70 Tara Labs cables and all seems to sound
crystal clear and neutral. Even the sales guy acknowledged that.

Now try some £3.99 cables from ebay (you can get some nice ones for that) and
see if they sound any different !
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SLx-Gold-Digit...QQcmdZViewItem

Or even try the £0.99 ones !


Graham

I've never bought a cable in my life. I have a box full of odds that
came bundled with bits of kit. They will see me out very comfortably.

d

--
Pearce Consulting
http://www.pearce.uk.com