i would just like to say my Microlab SOLO6C’s are bedding in nicely. I know they are not ££££££££££ audiophile **** bank things, but by heck they do sound good and for £70 who can moan!

*waves at Mr Woppitt*

So … did that test ever happen then ? 🙂

Of course cables make a massive difference to the sound.

Try removing them from the system and you’ll soon notice the difference.

I’m running a mid seventies pair of Celestion Ditton 66’s, and a mid/late 80’s pair of Ruarks on a second system.

For the money I paid for the 66’s I’d have to pay an absolute fortune too get even close to the range and quality they give. But then they were probably close to £1500 when new.

The Ruarks are a great pair of bookshelf speakers.

I have beem down the well trodden NAD, Marantz, Mission and Cyrus road over the years but a while ago I finally acquired some Bang and Olufsen and fulfilled a lifelong ambition.

I faffed around a bit but have achieved what to me is the perfect sounding system.

B&O Beomaster 6000 circa 1982, B&O CD X circa 1985 and B&O Penta 1 from around 1987. I mixed and matched various amps , CD players and speakers before finally settling on an almost total B&O system which still looks fantastic, is built like a tank and sounds just beautiful. I tried several B&O turntables but use a Moth as I reckoned it outperformed the B&Os.

The system would have cost several thousand when new but has cost me about £500 which wouldnt buy anything sounding anywhere near as good today.

Oldies are goldies!

Still vey much enjoying the Mordunt Short Aviano 6s I bought back at Easter with the help and advice of you guys 😀

Of course cables make a massive difference to the sound.

There’s a story that comes up regularly in cable discussions. It’s along the lines of a blind test at an audio equipment conference (or similar) – all gear behind a screen – where people/experts/gobshytes are asked to comment on and judge the qualities of various transfer set-ups. The winner of these test was, wait for it… wet string.

Get some second hand Mission 753 Freedom, get a mint pair for £ 250 – £ 300, the best sounding speaker i have heard.

Make sure they are the later Freedom model.

The winner of these test was, wait for it… wet string.

I did a blind listening test a few months ago between two different speaker cables and I could a) both tell the difference between them and b) make up my mind which one I preferred.

glenh – Member
[physicist]Cables can and do make a difference. But mostly if your amp and or cable is badly* designed[/physicist].

*Or deliberately designed oddly to perpetuate the myth that expensive cables are needed.

screw “properly designed” – I’ll have whatever sounds best, feel free to choose “properly designed” amps and mediocre sound…

geetee1972 – Member
I did a blind listening test a few months ago between two different speaker cables and I could a) both tell the difference between them and b) make up my mind which one I preferred.

What were the cables, and how did you do the blind test? Getting somebody to physically switch the cables over?

What he said.

I did a blind cable test some years ago between Naim A4 and twin & earth.
Night & day.
Ended up with QED, a nice compromise between the harsh t&e and the too smooth Naim.

Nicest system I’ve ever heard was a Pink Triangle deck, an old Creek 4140 and some old Epos speakers.
Worst was an LP12, NAIM stack and Isobariks.

Currently have a Rega, old Pioneer and some very cheap Gale floorstanders, weighted with sand.
Sounds great.
Still miss my old Royd speakers though – great with vinyl, unlistensble with cd’s.

Would be happy to do a blind cable test if anyone fancies setting one up.

Unable to make any specific recommendations, as they may not be matched to your kit, but I would be willing to take punt on some good, well respected, s/h speakers.

At £400 the market for s/h standmount speakers would really open up, for £300 the market may be tighter, but still worth a little time looking IMO.

I have always been a buy everything new sort of guy, but over the last year the proportion of my system that was bought s/h has increased significantly In fact of the 5 electronic boxes 1 CD player and 4 boxes for the amp then only the pre-amp was bought new. Huge savings to be had

Yes, go second-hand would be my opinion as well.

Forums like http://www.hifiwigwam.co.uk and http://www.pinkfishmedia.net have pretty active classified sections and there is the bay of thieves as well. However, when I was looking to buy a second had CD player I did notice that the same model would end up going for more than on the two forums I mentioned above.

This is a pretty good site to help you find what you are looking for:

http://www.hifihunter.com/

Some Rogers JR149s would probably be within budget.

If you live near Horsell in Surrey I have a couple of pairs in need of cabinet work but sounding ok which you could borrow to try out.

Also got some Spendor SP3/1 which would be in budget but have found out that some of these older Spendors (like the lush SP2/2s) can harden in the driver surround, leading to a drop in bass performance. Apparently the application of some DOT 4 brake fluid can sort this, but I have tried it yet.

What were the cables, and how did you do the blind test? Getting somebody to physically switch the cables over?

They were equivalent runs of Naim NACA5 and another brand I’d never heard of before called Mogami. They were the same price.

I wore a blindfold while listening and during the switch over. I didn’t know until the whole thing had finished what I was listening to.

There are always two questions that seem to get mixed up in this debate.

One is ‘is there a difference to be head in the sound reproduction between different cables?’

The other is ‘are more expensive/hyper expensive cables better, in any discernible way, than cheap(er) cables?’

The answer to the first question is unequivocally yes, the answer to the second one is ‘sometimes, it depends but often the answer is actually no’.