Speaker cable length???

[Porscheguy]

Dec 5, 2009 11:18:27 GMT -5 DYohn said:

Dec 5, 2009 11:06:29 GMT -5 monkumonku said:

Maybe the cashier who rang up the sale at the store forgot to put in the decimal point. ;D

More likely the salesman thought to himself, "Woo boy, another sucker with more money than brains. Come on commission, daddy needs a new boat!"

Well, I'm not going to pick on Emotofu for his big buck cables. After all, I'm driving a big buck car and a lot of people don't understand that either thinking it's a waste of money. Then again, they have never driven a Porsche..... ;D

I do find this curious though in a Emotiva forum where most guys are in it for "bang for the buck, great value" reasons. Imagine buying an XPA-2 for $700 and then spending 4k - to 7k on speaker cables..... Reminds me of the kid next door that bought a $1000.00 car and put a $4,000.00 stereo in it.

Ec

[emotofu]

I do not drive a Porche, but I certainly like them and porcheguy's is a beauty! My damn LS350 is in the shop for the accelerator pedal recall.

MIT's are used between my MC2000 and 1.2TL's. so the price to gear ratio isn't so bad.

I just bought the new XPA-5 and EmoCable to drive my old Bose 901's in my 15-yr. old's sons room. That is probably overkill, but the 901's are on their last legs and better speakers will follow. (And no, I'm not adopting, my three older girls are in college ;D)

You might question this, but the idea is to make our home a destination and keep my son and his friends here instead of "out there" where it is easier to get into trouble.

[stillearning]

Dec 5, 2009 23:21:36 GMT -5 emotofu said:

I just bought the new XPA-5 and EmoCable to drive my old Bose 901's in my 15-yr. old's sons room. That is probably overkill, but the 901's are on their last legs and better speakers will follow. (And no, I'm not adopting, my three older girls are in college ;D)

You might question this, but the idea is to make our home a destination and keep my son and his friends here instead of "out there" where it is easier to get into trouble.

Good pick with the amp 3 girl's all college age?!?! How do you sleep at night? I like your idea of making your home a "chill" place! It will make a difference for shure

[checkereddemon]

Dyohn wrote, in response to another member's bragging on his $3,600 speaker cables:

"More likely the salesman thought to himself, "Woo boy, another sucker with more money than brains. Come on commission, daddy needs a new boat!" "

Amen. I sold hi-end gear for several years and I can tell you, without a doubt, that cabling (both ICs and speaker) is one of the most lucrative products on the shelves of the audio retailer. I can also tell you that you are wasting a LOT of money by spending it on cable "ear jewelry".

This is not to say that "nice" cables are not worth having. But I do proclaim that the buy-in price for "nice" cables is much lower than $1,800/ft. You can get VERY good quality speaker cables for $10/ft. And, you'd be much better off using the money you saved buying better source materials and acoustic room treatments.

And, I have to be frank here, the hubris demonstrated by MIT is unbelievable. How can you possibly expect a cable that incorporates an active filtering circuit to work properly without knowing the amp and speakers that will be used on either side of that circuit? Do the "engineers" at MIT actually believe that a pair of electrostats "look" the same to a circuit as a pair of ported, paper cone speakers? And how do they accommodate the electrical differences between a 15 watt SET and a 250 watt SS amp?

Expensive cabling is the biggest rip-off in the audio/video industry - don't you be a chump for their ridiculous claims...

[emotofu]

I've always been one to read, listen, doubt and then buy for myself.

I ALWAYS doubt manufacturer's claim.

In 35+ years of active engagement with high end audio, I have been through about 100 pairs of speaker cables, starting with 14-2 lamp-cord type cable where I tinned the ends with silver solder myself.

I listen, decide for myself, sell what I don not like and move on.

My point to the original poster was to always be looking forward to the point where you will be reselling your gear because if you are really interested in improving the sound of your system, you will always be trying new gear.

I might also suggest that having the self-earned income to afford proper cabling might indicate an intellect other than that of a "chump".

Last, having being involved in this forum for just a short while it might be unfair to judge, but so far I think I have learned where at least a few "chumps" hang out.

[Deleted]

Dec 6, 2009 16:34:55 GMT -5 emotofu said:

I might also suggest that having the self-earned income to afford proper cabling might indicate an intellect other than that of a "chump".

Last, having being involved in this forum for just a short while it might be unfair to judge, but so far I think I have learned where at least a few "chumps" hang out.

If you have so much self-earned income and the implicated intelligence approaching that of Kim Ung-Yong, then why in hell do you own the Bose 901? My second pair of speakers back in 1972 were Bose 901. I was a stupid chump (redundancy intended) back then and didn't know anything about audio. It didn't take me long to figure out the marketing fraud and the negatives of the 901. Luckily I found a sucker to take them off my hands.

To me a chump is anyone stupid enough to pay $180 per foot for speaker cable.

Being the Emotiva Lounge Extraterrestrial Psychosomatic Moderator I hereby henceforth and evermore change your screen name to:

baka emotofu

[emotofu]

I believe you missed a prior post. I have been buying/selling/collecting for a few decades.

I'm introducing my teen son to hi-fi and he thought the vintage 901's looked "cool". 'Nuf said.

My main rig containing the MIT's, also cited above, consists of a Mcintosh C2200 preamp, McIntosh MC2000 amp and recently restored Polk SDA SRS 1.2TL's.

I have many sets of speakers I've moved past, but kept because they are classics. As bad as the 901's really are, they unique among all-time speaker designs and I couldn't part with them when I should have back in the late '70's.

[checkereddemon]

Emotofu,

Please excuse my rather harsh reply. Despite my poor choice of phrasing, I did not mean to imply that you are a chump. If I did so, please accept my sincere apology. Sometimes it seems like the only reason I open my mouth is to change feet <g>!!

I do, however, stand by my proclamation that spending $180/ft. for speaker cabling is un-necessary to achieve top-quality sound. There are many very fine cables available for $5 - $10 per foot and I think most folks would be quite satisfied with the sound from such cables.

My system uses better than average cables, I have Alpha-Core Goertz MI-2 Pythons in a 12 foot length driving my Gallo Reference 3.1 main speakers. The sound is quite smooth, fast, sweet, and clear and the cables look "cool" enough that all of my non-audiophile friends are suitably impressed when they see the cables. From an electrical standpoint, they are about as good as speaker cables get and I paid the princely sum of $250 for the pair, almost exactly $10/foot.

And, to show that I'm not such a bad guy after all, I hereby issue a standing invitation to EmoTofu: if you're ever in the Washington, DC area give me a shout and I'd be happy to have you over for an afternoon of food, fun, and fantastic music. If you happen to bring your MIT cables with you, we can also have some fun A-B'ing the MITs against the Goertz's.

No matter what, I guarantee we'll have a great time and I promise to send you away with a smile on your face and a bag load of some VERY good-sounding multi-channel music. I'm one of the Administrators of the SurroundSound Hub and I have access to over 30 Terabytes of the very best multi-channel music you have ever heard - guaranteed!

Best Wishes,

CD

[Nemesis.ie]

I would question what the build-cost is on these $180/ft cables? How much mark-up is the company making, I think that would be VERY telling.

Also I would like to see a comparison of the wiring used inisde the amp versus the aforementioned cable.

If the internal amp wiring on e.g. a Krell is of the same cost. Otherwise, if the signal passes through "inferior" wire before it even gets to the fancy cables, how is the fancy cable going to improve it?

In short, anything "better/more expensive" than the internal wire, would seem pointless.

Or do Krell use pure silver/gold/platinum/unobtanium inside and it is a large portion of the cost of the unit?

[Porscheguy]

Dec 5, 2009 23:21:36 GMT -5 emotofu said:

I do not drive a Porche, but I certainly like them and porcheguy's is a beauty! My damn LS350 is in the shop for the accelerator pedal recall.

MIT's are used between my MC2000 and 1.2TL's. so the price to gear ratio isn't so bad.

I just bought the new XPA-5 and EmoCable to drive my old Bose 901's in my 15-yr. old's sons room. That is probably overkill, but the 901's are on their last legs and better speakers will follow. (And no, I'm not adopting, my three older girls are in college ;D)

You might question this, but the idea is to make our home a destination and keep my son and his friends here instead of "out there" where it is easier to get into trouble.

Nothin wrong with a LS350, nice ride. But it's true that speaker cables and interconnects are HUGE profit makers for stores. I was told as much as 500% profit on some brands - and thats probably conservative. I bought a 32" Vizio Plasma (Wal Mart $389.00) for behind my bar in my basement. I went to the now defunct Tweeter ETC to buy a 40' HDMI cable. The sales guy looked it up and glanced over and said "$335.00". Wut? I said, I just bought a whole 32" plasma TV for 50 bucks more. He rambled about expensive copper, blah, blah. I told him he was insane and bought one online for $42.00. Works great.....