Sorry if my previous post offended. I was refering more to why I think they sell despite using subjective claims of improved performance. Not why you choose your particular accessories. Without readlily compariable meaningful specs everyone should see for themselves, as you do.
But I fear many people may not have such obliging shops that let them home trial accessories, so instead have to rely on reviewers and manufactures claims rather than their own eyes and ears. In this situation I would like to have specs as an objective guide, at least to start from.
I have carried on slowly reading what hifi forum. They believe in speaker cable directionality, burn in and equal lengths. Cable manufacturers also proclaim these to be fact, but offer little explaination of how or why. They claim even non-directional speaker cables become directional after being used for along time. Since they make claims that seem to be on the face of it pure nonsence I find it difficult to take their other claims of improved performance seriously, without specs to back them up.
Alternatively my very limited understanding of how these things work maybe very flawed. If so any links to info that could re-educate me as to how speaker cables can be directional, need burning in and need to be the same length, would be welcome.
Oh and I have just had a post deleted from What hifi forum without a trace. So no one will know what my reply was to someone who questioned how their reviewers could see different hdmi cables improving picture quality. So the threads over there must be somewhat misleading as a guide to opinions.
Dovercat,
Thanks for the kind words
If I came across as defensive, apologies too
Okay a few thoughts on the matter. Well one thing I think everyone is in agreement with is the fact that there is a lot of hype and very, very overpriced wire that is marketed inappropriately. I picked up the rest of my Naim cables yesterday and plugged them in last night, as I watched a film I had not seen before I actually have no clue whether they are better or worse, but the track sounded quite weighty and if anything a little overblown in the bass. So at the moment I have no clue if the sound differences I found by testing two cables will be the same (but more on this later)
Well back to the point of overpriced 'rubbish' or at least marketing hype to sell overpriced products...
I had a good chat with the dealer, mainly about my 2 channel system and he had grown up listening too and buying and had used at home a lot of similar equipment. His favorites were my favorites of the past, Naim Nait (original) Naim 42/110 Roberston power amp. Krell KSA 50 oh and horn speakers. When I mentioned the debate on this forum he was kind enough to walk around his dem room and fill my boot with 'stuff' to borrow. Soem old, some new, some traded in covered in dust. What was his view ? Well careful experimentation can bring worthwhile gains but he has never found anything magical with overpriced stuff. He did suggest I tried some Chord Odyssey (been mentioned before) as he liked this cable, but I declined as there was not a long enough dem pair, it's £20 per meter and I had just paid for Naim NACA5 (did a deal at £11/m)
The bits I will comment on, they will all go back, I suspect especially as there are three very overpriced (IMO) interconnects ($2,000 , £650 and £450 a pair........) The $2,000 pair are from a customer - who clearly doesn't use them any more and these are covered in dust !...... The dealer has never used them, I bet if it was a pre-amp or cartridge he would of tried.......
All of this I will cover after the weekend
I also have a £400 mains cable...... I struggle with this idea, but today remain open minded.
Regarding cable burn in and directionality. Well I personally have no clue as to why cables do sound better one way against the other, but they can...
Burn in is very easy to witness. Cables and new equipment seem to take a few weeks to burn in. The sound changes sometimes quite dramatically form often a little bright and harsh in the high frequencies and lean or weak in the lower frequencies to a weightier more dynamic and more fluid sound.
I really don't know why this is, I wonder if something is going on in a similar way to magnetism and orientation of something, again I don't know. I have certainly heard this with cables, amps and other products. But TBO I was surprised how much the sound of the Denon changed in the first 3 weeks or so.
I don't worry about this I simply leave things playing with the door closed for a few days (Miles Davies is playing as I write downstairs)
Regarding links and debate I have seen strong opinions backed up by some explanations (RF interference, surface interaction with coatings, skin effect issues, linearity, non linearity and heaps of complete gobbledegook). I think the point is no-one really knows exactly what is going on. I think a real issue with sound at the subtler end of differences is that if you look at a track on an oscilloscope yo would be terrified about how you might underdstand those sounds. Our ears and brains are awesome at differentiating tones that make voice recognition possible and so on.
One problems with the cable industry is there is a LOT of rubbish and a lot of expensive rubbish. Magazines don't deal with the fact that a £20 interconnect might actually perform nearly as good or even better than a £1000 interconnect. I will let you all know how these dusty old things perform over the weekend.
There is however IMO some good stuff out there at reasonable money that in the right circumstances provides value......
Maybe the reason I have found Naim cable to be good in the past is the fact that it has been developed by an equipment manufacturer. Either to add to the sales of each customer's buy. Or to ensure their equipment performs at it's best. Knowing Naim, probably and hopefully the latter. Don't forget cabling has been around for a long time the upgrade from 'bell' wire was recognised a very, very long time ago (pre 1970 I think)