samedi 4 mai 2013

The Audiophile Speaker Cable Dispute

By Mona Moody


Audio enthusiasts the world over love to find ways to enhance their listening enjoyment. At times this includes investing in rather expensive equipment with the aim being to produce the highest quality sound possible. Some go to extremes in this regard spending surprisingly large sums of money on items such as audiophile speaker cable to make their system sound as good as possible. There is much debate whether this actually makes much, if any difference in the actual listening experience.

There is general agreement that the single most important aspect of any type of speaker wire is resistance. The lower the resistance, the better the sound quality will be. When the signal can move more freely, the ultimate output will be improved.

Lowering this factor can be achieved in one of three main ways: decreasing the length, increasing the thickness or some combination of both of these. The conducting properties of the material used have an effect as well but there is less agreement on the extent of this. Copper is the most widely used but silver is said to have a lower resistance but also a significantly higher cost.

Even more expensive than silver are what are known as audiophile speaker cables. These high-end wires can run upwards of hundreds of dollars and even into the thousands. It's certainly going to be a bit too much for casual listeners, except perhaps those with money to burn and a desire to impress people with their purchases.

There are those that argue that the difference is minimal and not worth the investment of such sums of money even when the budget would allow for such an expenditure. Those who fall on this side of the argument claim that high quality, high cost cables will not make a detectable difference in the audio quality. Some even go as far as to say that coat hanger wire will work just as acceptably. This may simply be a case of using hyperbole to make a point, but it shows that there are strong opinions against the use of such products.

There are some true audiophiles, however, that swear that the difference is audible. There are claims that, when combined with other top shelf components, these cables can produce sounds rivaling that of live music. They say that they can easily tell a difference between the sounds produced using run-of-the-mill wires and these much more high-tech ones.

As with most debates this one can get quite contentious at times. Both sides feel strongly about their positions and have some sort of evidence to back it up. Although there are ways of measuring sound quality scientifically, it's virtually impossible to quantify the actual user experience since it's more or less completely subjective.

There is no clearcut answer on whether audiophile speaker cable is worth the extra money that they are bound to cost. In large part the lack of a simple answer is due to the fact that it is ultimately up to each individual to decide what they deem to be worth it or not.




About the Author:



Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire