|
Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
|
|
|
Speaker Asylum General speaker questions for audio and home theater. |
|
In Reply to: drug trade vs. speaker cable trade posted by chocolate_lover9999@yahoo.com on April 10, 2007 at 18:45:05:
I used to have cosmic insights like this whenever I was tripping, maaaan, but I never had the gall to subject others to it. This pond is smooth, but very shallow. There may very well be those who become obsessed with improving their stereos by jumping levels in a line of cables, but to compare that compulsive behavior to the physical addiction suffered by some pathetic victims of drug abuse is intellectually flawed and frightfully trivializing. I know that audio cables are not illegal, no matter how expensive they are, and they probably won't destroy your life.Not a bad idea, however, to limit the profit margin to only 1000% or so. I think the price of most cables is obscenely inflated. The material in most of them is worth only a tenth of the retail price. The labor to assemble them is minimal. Transportation costs are equally miniscule. Don't give me that R&D cost crap, either: it doesn't cost much to get some wire and plugs and solder (or cold weld, as some are fond of saying) them together to see how they sound. The reason cables cost so much is because suckers will buy them, especially after reading a review written by a pampered stooge of the audio industry. Hint: trade magazines exist to sell stuff, not to inform people. When someone tells you every three months that the newest cable from Sexy Audio is far superior to anything else they've ever had in their system, even better than the $3,000 pair of one meter cables they told you to buy last time, do you actually believe them? Do you believe the cables are better value if they cost only $1000?
I do hear the differences, and I believe good quality wire is very important to the overall performance of an accurate system. I also believe that some of these companies will sell anything that looks good for whatever they can get for it from those who take in their endless marketing bullshit. No doubt about it: advancing technology has improved cables, and increased resolution of audio equipment has increased our need for them. But the greedy manufacturers have raised prices to the point where some of them no longer deserve to be supported.
Do yourself a favor: buy a few feet of decent wire, a set of plugs and some heatshrink tubing and build your own wires. They'll look like crap compared to the glitzy commercial stuff, but I bet they'll sound as good as any wire costing ten times what you put into making them. Yes, 1000% better.
And please take the microphone away from that well-spoken and probably well-meaning but essentially vapid gentleman before he has another brilliant insight.
Peace,
Tom E
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:
Follow Ups
- Not a very good analogy, but a valid point about cable sales - madisonears 20:37:19 04/11/07 (1)
- It is impossible - E-Stat 08:23:51 04/12/07 (0)
Top of Page ]
[ Contact Us ]
[ Support/Wish List ]
[ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
