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there is an element of truth in the analogy of upgraditis of speaker cables (or of speakers or audio whatevers) via slick audio salespeople and the drug trade but getting high on audio stuff is healthier and cheaper in the long run than feeding a crack, smack or coke habit.
Follow Ups:
Thank goodness for text, that guy was hard to take.
The premise is that people get "hooked on cables" by getting the first set free whereby they have to spend more money to improve the "high". Ok. So, from whom have we gotten free cables for the past forty years? Zenith, Sony, Toshiba, Pioneer, Magnavox, Philips, GE, Thompson, Samsung, etc. I've never gotten any free cables with my audio purchases.As for outrageous margins, you should look into phono cartridges and private label speakers. I worked for a hi-fi shop back in the seventies. We sold several cartridge lines divided along two camps: good cartridges with reasonable margins and junk cartridges with cartoonish margins. An example of the latter was Empire. We bought the 999 PE/X in quantity for $4.00 and the list price was $59.95. At list price, the profit margin was 93%. In reality, we sold these for $19.95 and were able to inflate the system "savings" to the low end buyer whose criteria was largely based on the level of discount, not the quality of the sound.
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.
...to limit the profit margin to only 1000% or so.to have a 1000% margin. You're confusing markup. If something cost you zero and you sold it for any amount, then you realized a 100% margin.
I only lasted 30 seconds and started to fade hard...
Not even close
I agree with the analogy to drugs. The hobby can certainly be just as addictive! Like drugs, it's also completely unable to fill spiritual voids.
Immaturity perhaps.
If you are speaking of my maturity and not the Youtuber I said yawn because its old thought. Lenny Bruce did a great comedy routine on being "addicted" to Hi-Fi in the early 60's. It has such phrases as "you got the stuff man" with a reply from the supplier about all the features of the new preamp he shouldn't live without. The buyer replies with "you got me started on this stuff". So, the Youtuber brings nothing to the table and has an oversight-it's not just cables is all the gear. Besides being over 40 years late.........thus my yawn. Kapeesh?
Maybe everything has already been expressed at some time in history or some place in the universe. You must do a lot of yawning, but is it because of disinterest or are you just tired. So next time you try to denigrate a thread with counterfeit ennui just close your eyes and count the sheep. Baa?
OK, I' ll be sure to obey you from now on. By the way no real/fake/imagined ennui on my part, just a lack or originality and inappropriate scope by the youtuber. Now maybe you understand. I ended the first sentence with a preposition, wanna start a new thread on that? So long weasel-I have ended my folow ups to you and this thread. Remember it's OK if someone disagrees with you and puts their thoughts out there. You're going to have a problem in life if you can't deal with what others say. Try a country without free speech and by all means stop using the net.
"By the way no real/fake/imagined ennui on my part,"So I guess you were just tired.
"Remember it's OK if someone disagrees with you and puts their thoughts out there."My point all along!!
"So long weasel-I have ended my folow ups to you and this thread."
Name calling is another sign of immaturity. You should listen to your own words.
We always trade up. Wife Nr. 5 is much better than wife Nr. 1! & will be even better! We learn from our mistakes and trade in the old ones or the ones that don't work right.Of course it's worth it! My first wife is 64! My current wife is 32.
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"Live life as if you'll die tomorrow... -Gandhi
Learn life as if you'll live forever..."
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Very interesting to say the least.............It is a mentally myopic drug dealer that starts one off on a "cut" sample of his product and then gradually decreases the "filler" so as to methodically hook the user to his product.
He should start off with his best "product" and then ascertain if the customer can justify the purity of said product. He can then "adjust" the product to his repeat customers needs.
If the dealer is selling to affluent customers, who are already familiar with a high end product, then it would be in his best interest to NOT treat the end user as a novice such as displayed in the video which I must say is COMPLETE bullshit!!
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