Sounding off

[ajm]

No, this thread isn’t about having a moan and letting off some steam! !

Last weekend I dismantled my system for a spring clean but after connecting it all back together I had the feeling that it sounded off. I couldn’t quite put my finger on exactly what wasn’t right, the bass/treble seemed ok and there was no distortion or anything obvious. It’s just that I wasn’t enjoying listening to music and knowing my system well I knew that it wasn’t sounding as good as it could.

In particular, I know that the HiLine interconnect can be tricky to install correctly. Even though I’ve previously read many times the tips on HiLine installation it took me over ten attempts to get it right and return my system to sounding good.

This however got me thinking - I wonder how many times people try equipment on loan and never hear its full potential if the cabling isn’t 100% right? Could this also explain some of the differing views on certain pieces of kit?

[Svetty]

No idea - I try and avoid installation SNAFUs

[Simon-in-Suffolk]

@ajm

This however got me thinking - I wonder how many times people try equipment on loan and never hear its full potential if the cabling isn’t 100% right? Could this also explain some of the differing views on certain pieces of kit?

Absolutely

To the point of when doing a serious evaluation I try in two or more configurations if possible.

[feeling_zen]

Comes with the territory unfortunately. To make something truly “high fidelity” that is sensitive enough to reconstruct, preserve, and reproduce nuanced details from source to speakers is to make something highly sensitive to environmental factors like cabling, positioning, and setup. high fidelity and immunity to such factors are largely mutually exclusive.

Lower end systems rarely sound “off”. They just aren’t sensitive enough in the first place to reveal impact from such things. To some degree, this is why building budget systems is so satisfying - they nearly always sound how you expect.