Thanks for answering Steven's question Icehockeyboy, and thanks to everyone else for continuing much the same cable conversation you've been carrying on all over the forum. All fine and dandy, but John, go easy on the tinnies when you're posting mate - everyone in your circle knows what you're like, but you do have a tendency to come over all aggressive to the newbies. You too Gerald.
Just caught up with a friend on a break who use to make valve amps etc, (he modded my speakers for me). He said the arguments about interconnects have been around for many years and people usely fall somewhere into 2 camps i) objectivist (scientific analysis- what you can measure) vs subjectivist (the ears), generally I think most hifi buffs would probably fall into the later - but i maybe wrong, and the enginneer the former - it was good to hear a different perspective, as it gave me a big picture what angle people may come from in the discussion about interconnects, power leads etc.
Anyway I don't want to open a can of worms, in regards to sound I probably fall somewhere in the subjectivist camp.
I have got the answers I need regarding Nordost. Thanks for everyones input especially to those who who gave feedback on the Nordost (Icehockeyboy etc.)
You may have read one person's experience but something that should have been readily apparent from the last few postings is that the way a cable "sounds" is highly dependant on the network of which it forms a part. Change that network and everything changes.
A quote often seen on boards is YMMV - "Your Mileage May Vary". More appropriate here might be YMWV "Your Mileage Will Vary". Before you blow several hundred quid on cables, if you are currently dissatisfied try this stuff which has been given rave reviews by folks on this board. It's so cheap that you could afford to throw it away if it doesn't suit you, but at least two true believers in the power of cables have described it in glowing terms.
All irrelevant anyway as Stephen is in the land down under and I don't think the Maplin empire has extended that far yet. But my point holds... when you are looking for new wires, why not at least give the £10 option a try before spending hundreds? Have enthusiasts become so conditioned that you now believe a cable that cheap cannot possibly be any good, not worth trying?
They have Maplin in Hong Kong And other far flung places too, plus, I recall Steven saying hed be interested in trying a cheapie NVA some posts back..........
Electrohead also gave me his reflections on the Nordost, thanks Pluto I have got my Kimber 8tc speaker cable and i am very happy with it. I started of with cheap interconnects in the beginning and have personally found improvements as i have upgraded to kimber pbj a few years ago, but I will look at the Maplin on the net anyway and will check out the NVA .
I've been trying to catch up on this thread and got as far as reading some of the interesting links a page or 2 back.
The crux of the argument seems to hinge on the premise "any properly designed amplifer should render cable choices redundant"....so what they are saying is....unburstable PSU, direct couple, keep signal paths short, add a dash of negative feedback to promote stability and Bob's your uncle, you've got the perfect amplifier and we can all go home.... ????
Regret to say that this is not happening and probably never will....
If it were that easy to design the "perfect amplifier" someone would have cracked it by now - or even 20 or 30 years ago and put the rest out of business. Fact of the matter is that they are as unique as people are in terms of their behaviour with complex loads so the perfect amp does not yet exist. (If indeed our listening tests with various load combinations over the years is an indicator ?) What I will say is that relative performance with difficult loads is getting closer - if you compare the cost-is-no-object amps - but even these, under extreme conditions can not just mal-perform but can still be blown by the right(wrong) speaker (!)
Buying a £100 class D from Richer sounds will not solve the problem either. In this case the only thing that will feel better is my wallet but I seriously doubt that my ears would be happy given my own speaker choice....and in any event I'd end up buying another amp to replace the pile of debris shortly...
Apologies for what looks like a rant, just my 2 cents worth....
Hi Bill good to hear you again, go on mate , treat yourself to that class 'D' cheapie, they drive electros just like anything else. IMO they have all the warm fullness of valve, extreme imaging and a 'relaxed' sound. The reasons are fairly complex but I think explained in my article.
I agree, designing the perfect amplifier is far from easy, but a large decision has to be the topology, class 'A', 'B' or 'D', I don't think anyone would argue the sonic merits of class 'A', warm engaging full bodied sound etc.
Ask anyone who has heard it, however to create good on 'paper' specs, an expensive route and not followed by many. Class 'B', 90% of amps on the market, very good but don't quite 'cut the mustard' at low listening levels, excellent at 'demonstration levels' but usually rather harsh and grainy at two in the morning levels.
Now class 'D', often rejected on the grounds of, just too cheap, or being considered digital (not true) could not possibly be very good etc. But what are the differences between 'A' and 'B', and there is really only one, that being crossover distortion, it maybe only be 0.01% in a good class 'B', but it simply does not exist in a class 'A', I can see no other reason for the perceived differences.
Enter class 'D', a completely different way of amplifying, a totally different concept, but one that simply cannot create those nasties called 'crossover distotion', and I might add is no more digital than FM radio.
That's McIntosh for you.....synonymous with retro-styling
Long time ago a girl I knew had a degree in psychology and introduced me to the concept of Phatic Communication.....it stayed dormant in my mind until a couple of weeks ago....
I put a more complete description a while back on the perceptions Thread....
