Many years ago I use to hear daily differences due to electrical variations etc. but surprisingly (or unsurprisingly), as my system has got better, it’s become far more consistent and stable to the point where I notice very little difference from one day to another. I’m guessing it’s down to all those massive power supplies doing their job and the many good quality power cables and sockets I have keeping that nasty ‘noise’ at bay.
Probably down to emotion, temperature, atmospheric pressure, dopamine, seratonin, placebo, mood, confirmation bias, expectation bias, mains noise, grid noise, footfall, sunk cost bias, room treatments, sock colour, earwax build up, time of day, underwear cleanliness, dedicated ring main, dedicated ring worm, background noise, source quality, pressing quality, dac, amplifier quality, signal paths, speakers, sense of humour, plug fuses, wife’s good book, furniture, speaker stands, equipment isolation, degradation of cd laser, hair length etc etc. Definitely not power cords though mine are both powerline lite and they’re rubbish apparently ![]()
Only when compared to POWER-LINE, the Naim upgrade hierarchy is dogma.
My system doesn’t warrant such an upgrade as it’s not resolving enough apparently.
Your system may be just fine, I think you may need to address the “sunk cost bias” issue before reaching that conclusion ![]()
understood ![]()
I think you responded to your proper question. Because even with high resolving system, let’s say 500 series, you hear the difference easily, but it’s not night and day however, like going from Atom to Nd555/552/500.
Unfortunately, science has become a religion now, and folks are rejecting science in the name of science…
Folks think the map is the terrain and don’t want to use objective thinking.
Cable designs solve a problem. If you don’t have that problem, you won’t hear the difference. Heck solving the problem might make things sound worse since you might enjoy the character of the sound with the noise.
The simplest example is shielding:
Just but some inexpensive copper braid from Amazon, wrap it around your cable, ground it - and you will hear a difference - if you have emf and RFI in your area. For bonus points put your WiFi router next to this cable to induce the noise.
And - please don’t touch the cable’s copper. Don’t want you to be the grounding path if something’s wrong in the system.
I suspect the allergic reaction that people have is to the price tag - and they conflate that with the lack
Of science.
Which brings me to the saying I heard in this forum: is the price of art just the price of paint?
Again - please create your own thread where you shout into the abyss how cables don’t make any difference. Like my teenager likes to say: “did I ask?”
The Revolution Will Not Be Cableized
No it’s not, at least at the simple level appropriate to a hobby like hifi (as opposed to formal double blind testing needed for absolutely critical things like medical research).
Off topic, but.
What cables and connectors do recording studios use to record the music we listen to? Do the cables used on the original recording have an effect on what we hear on our audio system?
@Paul52135 your NDS and 52 must be crying mate.
On a serious note, you’ll be able to pick up a fairly decent power cable for not too much more than that amount, if you shop around secondhand - a Puritan Classic+ or similar would likely provide a decent uplift for the NDS, or maybe the Chord. Wouldn’t waste your money on the other two for the NDS as it deserves better (I have and use both, but they are for router/switch on the digital side at best).
Good power is a fundamental. ![]()
I did a couple of years in a recording studio back in the early 90’s and remember vividly just how much the studio ignored gaining any sonic improvements from the recording equipment. I was astounded how good a 24/48 track could sound before it was transferred to CD and then how bad that could sound after it had been transferred! Nobody seems at all interested in making it sound any better. Signal wires were a total spaghetti mess, equipment stacked on top of one another and trailing leads (with neons) plugged into more trailing leads, often blowing fuses. The finished article was more like listening to the radio rather than the beautiful sound that came from the tapes. I did see an article that Mana had equipped one of Pink Floyd’s studios out with all their racks and it had made an impressive difference, so the weren’t all like the one I was working in.
I believe the likes of Mogami cables are common in studio monitoring systems - pro use is their primary marketplace. I’ve never read anything re mains cables, which I suspect are whatever is supplied as standard by equipment manufacturers. Studio monitoring setup is interested in low noise, reliability, and accuracy, at least in those that are serious about sound quality.
Interconnects and speaker cable may modify the sound due to the effects of the electrical characteristics of the cable, whether directly on the signal or the loading by the cable influencing electronics if it is susceptible, the latter possibly including any effect of the cable acting as an aerial bringing in RF. Where people play with different interconnects interconnect and speaker cables in hifi, I think it they are effectively using them as a form of tone control, trying to modify the sound to tune the system to their preference - but with no idea what effect there might be without trying each one. (Other people’s experience might not translate unless the connected components are identical, and of course people’s sensitivity to any changes or expected changes can differ, whike descriptions are subjective and subject to considerable variation as to what constitutes a big or small difference.)
To my mind it would be far better to provide tone controls as part of the system itself, which people can then tweak to get whatever sounds best to them, and with the great advantage of being able to adjust to compensate for the occasional bad recording. From the purist angle tone controls came to be regarded as bad, partly because the additional circuitry apparently had some negative effect on sound even when flat - though easily avoided by fitting a bypass switch as in the last amp I had with tone controls, and surely using cables that affect the sound is no better! As I have suggested previously, in a digital system tone controls using DSP could be more flexible than the bass/treble boost/cut of old, also potentially offering other capability that might have benefit for some.
I did concert photography long ago.
Classical music is not amplified, and an Italian Opera House is designed to amplify the sound. The theatre I worked in had a sort of acoustic box for concerts in the stage area.
But Jazz and other modern music was amplified, with a mass of cabling and with amplifiers and speakers, that could not be described as “High End”.
So for live music. Only Classical music can come over as high sound quality for the listener.
Your studio experience, confirms what I hear with many recordings.
This just about sums up the cable argument for me, if it’s good enough for powering a gig and making it sound awesome it’s good enough for me to power my hifi to listen back on it.
Of course you cannot here it you do not want to hear it. Very simple the brain wins all the time.
I can easily imagine the reduction of audio fidelity working to your favour here.
Nordost power cables have a focus on clarity and given the forward/propulsive nature of many Naim systems I do not think it will suit, could be a bit too much.
I personally love Nordost power cables but not a fan of their IC’s or speaker cables.
One of my powerlines showed a slight cut on the rubber area. So I took it upon myself to repair it. took the iec end apart, put it all back together. Almost. Gave up after failing to fix the strain relief collar on it. screws too short/other end not strong enough, kept falling apart. I guess I’ll have to send it back in for fixing..
In the meantime, since I had a wattgate 20Amp IEC end at hand, installed that, and swapped in the Wattgated (now on both ends) Naim Powerline cable in place of the valhalla 2.
Hmm.. system sounds more like what I call a naim system again. A little less clarity, a little more closing in of the top end, but music sounds more propulsive, times better, more engaging and more of the addictive naim quality.
Valhalla 2 goes back in later today.
