had a fight with a futureshop kid once, telling me i HAD to buy the goldplated OPTICAL cable for my dvd-receiver, i'm like listen ya jackass, OPTICAL IS LIGHT, ITS EITHER ON OR OFF, GOLD PLATING DOESN'T MEAN S**T

he was confused and i walked away

I'm unconvinced HP5P, did you do any blinded tests on the cables? How do you know it wasn't the $30k that made you think they were better? It's well established that the more money you spend on a product, the more likely you are to think it was worth it, even if the product is crap. Because of human psychology and innate biases, we need to rely on objective scientific testing for questions like this. I run into people all the time claiming that some study is irrelevant because it didn't look at 'their' form of woo-woo. i.e. a study comes out showing astrology doesn't work, but another astrologer says "of course not, that astrology that was tested was obviously bogus... mine is real!" Yet they don't provide any evidence, still. It's called the 'moving goal post'. It only turns out after the test was done, and comes out negative, that it "doesn't count". This argument about high end audio cables have been going on for DECADES. And still, no good evidence has yet been shown that anything better than a lamp cable makes a difference. But hey, if I spent $30k on audio cables, I'd want them to be worth it too.

Do wooden knobs on your stereo also help the sound? Many people claim it does, who am I to doubt them?

Quoted from jonny_eh

I'd rather send my money to Wayne for an MM then buy cables for more than $10 a piece. I

Very good choice Jonthan!

Quoted from The Loafer

there are a couple of people I know who see no difference between a Hi-Def BluRay and a DVD.  Those same people never saw a difference between laserdisc and VHS and they don’t hear a substantial difference between dolby surround pro-logic and Dolby Digital 5.1..

I like to call those people "wives"  

Who told you?!?   Actually, she doesn't always HEAR the difference but she's not that bad either.

Quoted from ALJO

Very good choice Jonthan!

Now that was funny!! Well played my Friend!!

Dave

The difference there is that it is actually plausibly that there is a visual difference between bluray and DVD. With audiophile claims, they're stretching the scientific plausibility of physics and what the human ear/brain can actually digest and what hardware can produce.

I said my system was worth $30K, not the cables. Before i bought any new cables I listened to my system with my old cables for an extended period of time, often with other friends in the hobby and then I plugged the new cables in. Often I would remove the new cables and put the old cable back, and test again. The only cables I bought were one one that made a significant improvement, so noticable that my wife would say "WOW". There is science here, if you believe it or not. They have interconnects and speaker cables made for Solid State amps and others for Vacuum tube equipment. No one i met in that hobby is stupid or blind or buys on reputation, like many do thinking Monster Cable is better. All the high end stores will LOAN you cables to test on your system,  because certain cables work better in certain systems. There is also a breakin period for cables, as they do sound different over time. I have many friend that are still in the hobby and often we exchanged cables and equipment for similar testing purposes. Sure there is alot of crap out there, but if you choose to go to the big box store, that is what you get.

Check out this website: http://www.cardas.com/content......rconnect  

They are one of the finest cable manufacturer's out there. I use the 300B cables in my home theatre and I am very pleased with the performance. They do not list pricing, but you will be in shock on what their high end cables cost. While you are reading, Read this review: http://www.soundstage.com/revequip/cardas_golden_reference_cables.htm

That is a sample of the science that goes on with cables.

Don't get me wrong, I am NOT accusing anyone of being stupid. It's very tough to believe that our own subconscious can play tricks on us. It's the same reason why people swear by the effectiveness of snake oil products like cold-fx, homeopathy, acupuncture, and other alternive meds, despite the fact they all have no scientific evidence supporting their effectiveness. People and doctors swore by the effectiveness of blood letting for thousands of years, until it was scientifically proven 100 years ago it was ineffective (and kinda harmful). The only sure way to settle these controversies is with strict scientific studies with tight controls. Asking your wife her opinion does not count as scientific.

Now I expect this thread to go off track with people defending Cold-fx. (hey, if Don Cherry gets paid to promote it, it must work!)

I won't get into the audiophile stuff too much.  The zaniest things I saw was a wooden block sitting on top of a speaker (said to enhance the sound), and ceramic pots used to isolated the audio cables from the ground.  Did that 60k system need it?  I don't know but it sure sounded good.  Typically most users setups are in the low/mid range and or the source is sub optimal that they can never perceive the difference.

Re: monster cables.  Did you know that they sued Disney for the use of the word Monster in 'Monsters inc,'  Yup they are very aggressive about their trademarked name and tend to go after just about anyone who uses it.

There was a digg article sometime back about the cables.  Bottom line is that a digital signal is a lossless method, and unless the cable has severe damage, distance or interference its going to perform the exact same way.  Since most people are going to get a 6-10ft cable it makes no difference.

http://digg.com/hardware/Monster_Cables_Monster_Ripoff_80_Markups
http://consumerist.com/353938/monster-cables-monster-ripoff-80-markups


http://digg.com/gadgets/HDMI_Cable_Battle_The_Truth_About_Monster_Cable
http://gizmodo.com/tag/hdmi-cable-battlemodo/

Quoted from Meat Popsicle

Re: monster cables.  Did you know that they sued Disney for the use of the word Monster in 'Monsters inc,'  Yup they are very aggressive about their trademarked name and tend to go after just about anyone who uses it.

Crazy.. I wonder what they think of Monster.com, then

http://www.monoprice.com
http://www.monoprice.com
http://www.monoprice.com
http://www.monoprice.com

did i mention http://www.monoprice.com