No speaker improvements in 4 years?

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No, I am sorry but highend cables do make a difference. The difference is not very noticable with my Infinities, but it was there. The bass became more controlled and the sound stage expanded a little bit. The difference was noticable with my SR325is with the addition of a silver cable going from my sound card to my receiver. When I hook up better speakers like a pair of highend $800 Polks that I sound tested, I tested 3 different sets of wire and there was a large difference in the sound in each. The stock made the sound somewhat muffled and cold. The Oxidizes Copper ones I use for my mother's little system fixed the muffled sound, but my high end copper and silver wiring was able to get some warmth from those Polks (not easy with Polks). I also noticed a more balanced midrange. Regardless of my preference there was a different and distinct quality to each setup. Cables do NOT make a huge difference in most circumstances and tend to be a waste of money when you can put that money towards better speakers, but I got all my cables extremely cheap since the guy who makes them as a hobby fell on hard times and I had already bought 5 silver and gold plated HDMI cables and 1 HDMI/DVI version off him. I bought them because of the terrible box that Comcast gave us, which was the top of the line they offered. I spent a good amount on it and those cables increase color accuracy and fixed the flicker problem I was having with even the high end Monster HDMI cables. The HDMI to DVI was free so I said why not, and it does make a slight improvement on my monitor's contrast effect in games, it is not very noticeable, but shows up in tests. Also using Winstone cables on my Ultimate Ears Super.fi 5 Pro earphones made the largest difference out of all my examples and made them MUCH more accurate in terms of bass.
 
First, the only region where a higher end cable makes any difference is high frequencies, not low. This is because of the inductance and capacitance that resists fast changes in voltage and current. Even this however is negligible in cables less than 50 feet long. Sorry, but there is simply no difference, though I'm sure you won't accept this (especially after you bought high end cables).

Second, even more useless than high end speaker cables are high end digital cables. Digital is a wonderful thing. It relies on only needing to distinguish two states - a 1 or a 0. Because of this, a cable either fully transmits the signal or it doesn't. There is no such thing as a slight contrast improvement by improving your digital cable - the signal is transmitted in a way that it will literally make no difference, and this is a provable fact.
 
lol.

Do a blind test on your cables. There is a reason that none of the "high end" cable makers don't do comparison and blind tests between their cables and the competing products...It is because there is virtually nothing to differentiate them!

I'm sure that it helps you sleep better at night knowing that you had a good deal on an overpriced item that sets you apart from your friends. That, no one can take it away from you for sure. The rest of us are going to spend that money on something that actually has value though 😉
 
who cares? I mean people look at us because we tend to waste money on "useless" computer hardware... we think it is necessary.... others don't... it doesn't matter its all about perspective

Anyway... back to mouse topic...

go back to mouse topic... i know something about it 😀
 
This an ancient argument, and one that I did a lot of research on. However, the only way to find the difference or lack of a difference is to blind test them. I have, and cables do make a difference in certain circumstances, but if you don't want to try them then it is your loss. I never said I got more bass, I said it was more accurate meaning the distortion level was lowered. Digital is not just digital, though you are right to a certain extent. Digital will stay the same up to a certain threshold, depending on the system and the CABLES. At a certain threshold the signal will degrade, but highend cables will increase the threshold which will lower the chance of sound degradation. Another thing that you fail to consider is the imperfections in the stock cables of a lot of audio equipment, which highend cables should not have. I would never pay more than what I did, and what I paid for was something I do not believe is worth the money over some decent handmade copper cables, but the added silver mesh and the added quality construction are nice when it comes to longevity and a tiny bit of sound quality. The difference between the decent copper cables and the better ones I use was $50, an amazing deal. I have tested many different things with true audiophile equipment as my stepfather is a chronic audiophile and spends WAY too much on cables because he wants longevity. I wont argue the difference, because I have been using decent aftermarket cabling for a few years after I proved that there was a difference with some totally blind tests. The HDMI cables were nothing special, the ones that came with Comcast kept failing so I wanted some reliable ones and the Monster HDMI cable I bought died in the same time frame, unacceptable. Also the cable that came with my monitor was not even the right type, so I have no idea if it made a difference because of the cable's quality or the type. You can deny all you want, you can insult all you want, but until you truly test it then I don't want to hear your objections. I do not need help sleeping at night because I had the option to send the cables back or not if I did not hear a difference, and I did. In the end the difference IS minimal and is not really worth the price, but this way I don't have to worry about failing cables, and the sound is slightly better as a bonus. The only time replacing a cable gave a very noticable improvement was the aforementioned westone cables for my UE Super.fi 5 Pro earphones, it truly was a large difference that shocked me.
 
I prefer 10$ head phones at target...

I find their quality to be within 5% of other higher end sound systems.... thats a fact btw




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honestly i don't believe that... I have 200$ headphones and they are such an improvement... but i don't have room for speakers so thats the best sound system i'll be using for a while
 
jumping in late, but I have to agree that there are not really any great sounding pc speakers. Those logitechs are cool for gaming, and explosion noises, but just sound terrible with music. I got rid of a set of those z-5500s a few years ago in favor of a harmon kardon soundsticks 2.1 system. They're not terribly loud, but very clean and accurate considering the price (i think they were ~$150). They look alot nicer sitting on the desk as well.

For media playing, though, I use my htpc, with an asus xonar output to an onkyo theatre system. Once again, it's not perfect, but about a million times better than any pc speaker system I've come across. Honestly, the base isn't as clean as that little harmon kardon sub.

When it's time to rock out though, none of it can yet beat my old 1980s radioshack Realistic system. And when it's time to listen to jazz, i have a decent turn table running through a 60W tube amp to a nice pair of mackie monitors (that were gifted to me).

Good speakers have been around forever. I think the problem is all of the inbetween parts in creating a good sound system. I'd also argue that digital sound just doesn't sound as good as analog, yet. Well, maybe it's that digital distortion is way more noticeable than analog distortion.

As soon as there are computer speakers that sound half as good as component gear, I'll buy them. But I don't see any reason to dump any money in computer speakers if you actually want good sound.

 
People say money can't buy happiness... that its beyond false... that is... i don't even know lol
 
+1 for teenage texting skills 😀

i for one am good... but not that good
 
speakers are speakers... and I would just take the mid-ranged ones. I am curently using an iPod dock lol (it is originally for my iPhone.) But they sound great and I notice a big difference between the monitors built-in ones... they are really lacking bass and its flat and I heard recently that bad speakers can slowly deafen you and then your ears can melt off! :O
(joking.... 😛 obviously 😀)
 


oww... the squinting and all sorts. I can't use my iPhone for internet browsing. It is too slow! 😛
 
I have a nice 3G bubble at my work. 😀 To be honest, I only wrote the last 2 posts on my iPhone, but I forget to use paragraph structure and such when I'm on my laptop. (I rarely use my desktop for something so mundane as posting on forums, no offense.) I owe Tom's a lot for getting me through some slow days.
 
The iPhone does everything, but does not do anything exceptionally well. A full keyboard was important to me and the qwerty buttons on some smart phones are just too small for me. I am happy with my iPhone, but I will be the first to admit it is overly hyped, I knew that going in.
 
audiophiles in the family, audiophiles in your friends, looking down on using a desktop for mundane tasks...

Yes. I do believe that YOU believe the cables make a difference worth 50$.

It reminds me of this story:
At some point, a couple of days before getting to their destination, the captain sends a man to check on some equipment around the ship. The man eventually gets into a container and takes a temperature reading. Apparently, the container wasn't actually cooled at the time but the measuring device was broken and showing a near zero temperature. The door closed on man which got stuck inside the container that he believed was cold.
When they found him, 2-3 days later, he had written his last words on the inside of the container and had passed away, of hypothermia. The temperature inside the container was about 20 degree celcius. The writings were showing that he believed that he was going to die because of the cold.

This goes to show that the mind is a very powerful tool. For better or worse.

Enjoy your cables, speakers and iphone :)
 
I use the old 750 gigaworks speakers for movies on the htpc, they are adequate, although I dont think they have a particularly "sharp" They can do loud and vibrate the floor just fine but no amazing clarity or "sharpness" they are also severely lacking on the connector front, I would replace them but its hard to find a 7.1 set up with s/pdif for the PC. They will do for now on the plus side they've been problem free for years of movie watching now and Ive not been desperate to replace them.

For serious gaming I like a good over ear head set. Ive never found any speakers that give the same "atmosphere" as even a half decent headset, completely blocking out background noise and immersing you in the sound, great stuff, a game with great audio can make you jump far better with headphones than even a loud set of speakers, and I dont wake up the kids \ annoy the neighbours as well.
 
On the cables front,

When it comes to perception of the difference things make a great example is age of conan at release, they had a dx10 box you could tick, it didnt do anything as the game didnt launch with dx10 but there were so many people saying wow DX 10 looks great, and then the arguments started as they get told the game doesnt have dx 10 yet, and the "believers" coming back saying just because it doesnt work for you doesnt mean it isnt working "I can see the difference when its clicked its like a night and day difference etc etc" at which point they get referred to the forums with the announcement that theres no dx10 at launch, some still came back saying the devs were wrong... I did myself try toggling dx 10 on and off - no difference, The options was later removed to avoid confusing people. But there were loads of people really impressed with the imaginary difference because there was a tick box they could click...

That said I have certainly heard some major differences in sound quality depending on connections in my younger days. Old note to self :- 20 year old recycled heavily oxidised frayed twisted together connections dont make for great sound quality :lol: , But I havent tried really high end cables to see for myself, for me £20 for cables is enough 😀
 
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