High end speaker cables: Fact or Fiction?

Can't vouch for them, as I've never used their cable. It looks nice and looks well made. I'd imagine the shielding might help improve it over Radio Shack wire, but I'm no expert.

Just curious, not trying to be snarky, have you ever compared a high end interconnect or speaker wire to a basic one on a high quality stereo you were familiar with?

There was no fairy tale fiction involved when I tried my first small cable upgrade decades ago, it simply sounded better. Despite my firm belief it could not be so, I had to admit I was wrong.

I change my outlets to $50 outlets made by PS Audio. I found things are just clearer. That's not a crazy money tweak, but it sure helps everything a lot.

U wasted $45 when u can buy the same exact hospital grade outlet for $5 at Home Depot, it's not debatible, we already proved this, clamping strength of the receptical is the single most important thing with a receptical, if u spent a few Hundy on a balanced power supply, ud kill everything else u'd think would make a difference, smooth common mode rejected power baby, It's a fact, not voodoo.

I used to be friendly with a gentleman named Albert Porter, and by "gentleman" I really mean that, he was a great guy.

He was an audiophile's audiophile, and had a world renowned stereo system. It was similar to knowing someone who could afford the smallest important detail on a world class competition sailboat, He really knew his stuff, and was gracious about sharing his experiences. He had carefully experimented with all the available power outlets available, in his quest for the best. I've long since forgotten what brand he mentioned, but it had a little dot on it. He documented his careful tests and found he preferred one type. I think they cost $15 or maybe $20, his tests included megabuck super duper duper pricey brands too.

I believe the PS Audio receptacles are similar to the ones I have. If I can find the brand name of the ones he recommended, I'll post it later.

The thing is, I didn't have time or the inclination to test audio minutia, but his word was good enough for me to bother buying a $20 receptacle instead of a $4 one. Oh, and it did sound much better than what was in my apartment, but they are probably 5 or 10 years old or more.

No one here has ever responded to my question regarding have you ever tried or tested any cabling?

And blind tests have their own biases. You can't feel or experience the long term effects. I noticed that with certain interconnects I listened to music for shorter periods of time over a month or two. Once I noticed, I used a brand I listened for longer periods of time comfortably. I'm really not on a soap box here, just telling you guys to try a few things for yourself and see what you find. Two of the electrical outlets I replaced for my stereo system were brand new. I listened to both my recording system and stereo system, when I popped in the upgraded outlet, it sounded better, clearly, unmistakably more detailed with a more 3D soundstage.

Martin, you're making this tough bro? it seems you are indeed on a soapbox, i believe people are being kind to you here by not saying anything! you've offered mostly hyperbole on this subject actually. First of all, a Blind scientific test is a "scientific test", hence the word scientific. The perfectly logical analogy that you seem to have such an incredibly hard time grasping-hooking a fire hose to a normally functioning garden hose in series, is not going to make the fire hose perform like a hydrant connected fire hose, this is simple logic, no matter how fecklessly you insist! Do you think someone as silly obsessive as myself hasn't put things like this to the test? It's about bang for your buck, a $50 wall outlet on 14awg romex in your walls is $ poorly spent, it's going to do exactly 0 for you (barring it replacing a faulty outlet), it's like a bullet with no gun, i would bet the entire contents of my studio that you would fail a legitimate blind test on the difference between a $1 to $200 outlet in that scenario. 

The outlet that you mentioned early is DEFINITELY the same as the hospital grade outlet sold at home depot, it's got the same exact markings, and plug grip. I promise you that the snakeoilers who sell this shit do NOT put the money into mold injection machines and automated assembly factories to manufacturing the miniscule amount of these "super outlets" that they sell to a scant number of gullibles, sorry bro, it's just the way it is. I will say i've seen different platings on the metal elements, but i call BS on that with the amounts of voltage that are present. If your fighting some sort of oxidation problems in your dwelling, then you need to get ventilation/air conditioning in your pad, 2 new outlets of any plating will perform exactly the same because no oxidization exists in a brand new state.

I am also trying not to be an asshole, but I believe the information that gets put out here on this site needs to be of quality if we want to attract good members, i personally don't like the way you're representing right now, so i'm pushing back.
    This would be my personal list of actual, provable electric upgrades that someone can make in their apartment building/studio that is littered with emi/rfi and all kinds of supply line noise.

Most bang for your buck, Get a filtering balanced power supply, with shielded toroidal tranny of high VA, that you can plug your entire audio rig into. A balanced power supply common mode rejects noise off the mains giving you perfectly clean power, the filters get rid of emi, rfi and all kinds of different i's lol
This is real world, tangible audio quality improvement that pulls noise of the mains supplies and makes your gear function better, and your electronics last longer.

from this point, adding higher quality power cords, interconnects and speaker cabling will be more effective(though small in comparison to a BPSU). It's a sum of all the little things game we play here, there is such a thing as putting the cart before the horse, and diminishing returns, ultra expensive cabling is useless tapping crappy power, but useful maintaining quality power, but to a limited extent not approaching the cost of some of the prices i've seen here.

Who wants to participate in this test?  

A while back I recorded some guitar and snare clips through 3 different mic cables.  Yes, they are different takes, but the mic and source position did not change, just the cable.  Only the snare samples are small enough to upload directly so I'll start with them.  Take a listen and see if you can hear ANY difference.

Setup: U87ai through each cable into a Vintech 1272 to DAW.



Samples: Snare
mic about 2.5 feet from head


CABLES: Zaolla Silverline Mic Cable (solid silver core), Accusound Silver Triplex (Silver over copper), and EWI quad cable $20.


And... if you can hear a difference, is it significant enough to justify paying up to $200 for any one cable?

GO...

B has issues a and c both sound fine I cannot split them. Its not just about the cable I suspect the connectors/joints maybe the issue with B. I make all my own leads up because of the number of dry/bad joints you get with commercial premade ones.

can you run a sweep measurement on the cables?

if you are on mac you can use fuzz measure

cheers

Wiz

I have some acoustic guitar clips, but they are too large to upload, let me see if I can edit them down to fit, or host them on soundcloud. 

Well, there it is, C sounds clearer. All I've ever said is sometimes cables make a difference, so try some.

Tony says in the case of mic cables it can matter, and I agree, add up lots of tracks done with cable C, and the entire mix will be cleaner. So, Tony, it's really a matter of in which instance you find cables make a difference. Our main disagreement is simply I've heard small differences with some other types of cables. That's OK, I know you know your stuff, so I would never try to say otherwise, but I trust my ears much more than most people do, so I'll keep on looking at every detail I can afford to, even if that means a power cord or an interconnect. 

It had been a long time since I changed my outlets, so my memory was vague. I remember now that two of my outlets were brand new, only a few days old, because the apartment had been renovated. I changed them to the $15 or $20 outlets my friend recommended. I heard a clear improvement. Even if it was only because of how the new ones were connected, it didn't really matter to me then why, for $15 I got a better sound from both my stereo and my recording system. 

 To me "small" differences matter, because they can be cumulative. 

Here's a small cabling story I'll pass along. I use to have a hi def movie projector on my ceiling, and a big screen in my living room. I used the stock power cord. I had sold a few things, so I had an extra PS Audio $50 power cord available. With 6 people in the room. I simply switched power cords, and the picture had less hash, deeper blacks and colors seemed richer with no bleeding. All six people saw it and were genuinely surprised. These kinds of experiences are why I try things sometimes, even though I'm no engineer or electrician. No disrespect intended to the helpful folks here who are.

What power conditioners do you guys use? Tony, Bob?