RE: Speaker cable quality - magic or voodoo?

["James Day" <james@xxxxxxx>]

I saw this in a recent New Scientist magazine: It may put the louspeaker
cable issue in perspective!!

Regards
James


AT THE UK's annual hi-fi show, held recently in two hotels at London's
Heathrow airport, several exhibitors were selling exotic cables to connect
amplifiers to loudspeakers. The price of these cables was staggering. A
6-metre length of oxygen-free copper could cost as much as =A330,000 - and
=
no,
those four zeros are not a misprint.

We cannot comment on whether these cables really do make music sound
better=
,
because none of the exhibitors offered a controlled blind test - switching
the same music between cheap and expensive cables without the listener
knowing which was which.

But now that the show is over, we can reveal a secret.

One of the most popular demonstrations at the show was staged by British
company Quad, to mark 50 years of making its world-famous hi-fi equipment.
Recording engineer Tony Faulkner demonstrated Quad's latest loudspeakers.
H=
e
explained how he used them to monitor the sound while making a recording of
Saint-Sa=EBns's complete works for piano and orchestra, which recently won
=
the
coveted Record of the Year award from Gramophone magazine.

As hi-fi buffs enthused over the sound, we spotted that the speakers were
connected by some orange wires that looked strangely familiar.

"Yes, they would look familiar if you have a garden", Faulkner
told us.
"Before the show opened we went over the road to the DIY superstore
and
bought one of those =A320 extension leads that Black & Decker sells for
electric hedge-cutters. They are made from good, thick copper wire, look
nice and sound good to me. The show's been running for three days and no
on=
e
in the audience has noticed".



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