Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Axiom video cables.

Now look what you've gone and done Curtis.

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I've come to HATE Monster cables. If for no other reason than the grip of death hold they have. I've ruined more than one RCA jack with those darn things.

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Thanks for giving us yet another reason not to buy the Monster cables. All I ever want in a cable are RELIABILITY, RELIABILITY, and RELIABILITY. Without the damn basic mechanical/electrical reliability, "outstanding build quality," "high-spec looks," and /gasp/ "excellent sound quality" means absolutely nothing. After all, you should be able to hook up a cable and forget about it. So much for spending significant amounts of $$$ on the overpriced, relabeled OEM cables, only to find out later that they give you more troubles than benefits!

I guess I will stick to the inexpensive AR cables (and the like) from PartsExpress.com -- they've NEVER ever given me a trouble for the past >10 years. No grip-of-death breaking the RCA jacks of my precious electronics; No thickie plugs rubbing each other... And importantly, they sound just RIGHT, period!!! HAHAHA...

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The "10% of cost theory" is old and based on someone's idea of what should be.

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And of course, that "someone" is the very cable industry and dealers. Any questions?

My new system consists only of a carousel DVD player and an AV receiver connected by an optical digital cable. The DVD video signal is sent straight to the HDTV by component video cables (from Lowes). I'm completely satisfied w/ my current sound and video performance.
My M60s are connected w/ 12 gauge Monster copper that I picked up for free, but I would be just as comfortable using the 12 gauge garden lighting wire that I use for my QS8s.
No amount of psuedo-scientific marketing BS or anecdotes from delusional consumers will lead me to part with a single dime in the name of "wiring upgrades".

I take a little offense to that delusional remark. I don't mind people having different opinions, but nothing positive comes from demeaning remarks.

Up until two weeks ago, I didn't think cables could make a difference, but nobody ever proved to me that my thoughts were true.

I also recently heard differences between three different CD transports. Clear differences, all using the same external DAC and cables. This puzzles me even more than the cables.

Take it for what it is worth to you, but there is no need to call people delusional....you do not want this board becoming like AVS.

-curtis

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if you spend 5000 on equipment spend 500 on cables and wiring. thats what i did and i am completely happy with my sound quality. you do have to make compromises. spend the money where it will be used the most. if you usually listen to only music and not much tv spend more money on the interconnects from the music sounrce than from the tv source and so on.

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Well, Chris, I don't want to belittle your decisions or make you less happy, but if I were in exactly the same situation, I would have spent the bulk of those $500 to buy more CDs/DVDs. That would give me infinitely more tangible "improvements" in my AV experience -- in fact, the most expensive part of my own AV "system" has always been and will remain my music CD/LD/DVD collections.

Okey guys lets end this. Many a times we have traveled down this path (me included). It won't be resolved as with cables, tubes and power amps. Its up to every individual to justify costs and your plain ole ears to make the decision. Lets keep it civil. We are all friendly and lets keep it that way.
We are here for knowledge be it bias or not.

I've been through numerous similar "mysterious" experiences like the ones that Curtis described, ever since my awakening as an audiomusicophile in my high school years (in mid/late '70s). Early on, I had once even wrapped my speaker cables with aluminum foil after reading somewhere about the wonderful effects of such treatments -- and actually heard the difference! I also tried a good number of different "seating materials" on my Denon turntable -- and I thought I heard an improvement. I swear that each and every one of my own such experience was REAL when it happened. However, to my disappointment, NONE of them was reliably reproducible later; I did not even need to blind myself to re-test them with negative results (yes, I was aware of the concept of blind testing already in the '70s, even before going to college).

Fast forward two decades, after moving to Texas and initially settled on the Adcom 200W/325Wx2 power amp that I still use, I brought in home a number of "high-end" amps from dealers and friends in order to seek for a better sounding amp. In several occasions, I did hear a clear improvement with a new amp, which obviously made me very excited. However, again, EVERY one of these "improvements" was later found out to be so unreliable, much to my own dismay -- one day, I thought I heard the difference, the next day, I wouldn't... In the end, I was never able to convince myself into investing additional $$$ (not an insignificant amount, btw) in any of these amps. Again, I never even tried to blind myself, or set up a true instantaneous A/B comparison. I simply relied on my own ears, manually swapping the amps... Mind you, I wasn't doing these tedious in-home tests in order to "prove" that these high-end amps were no better than my Adcom. Rather, I was eagerly willing to buy one of those if I was convinced that they provide a definitive sonic improvement. I was disappointed in the end...

So, Curtis (and others), the practical $0.02 I have here is that a one-time experience may have very little significance in the end. Don't try to convince yourself just yet, based on those "chance observations." Rather, first try to see if the phenomenon reliably repeats itself again and again, on different times and occasions, irrespective of time of the day, astrological alignments, and your own mood. You should go from there...

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So, Curtis (and others), the practical $0.02 I have here is that a one-time experience may have very little significance in the end. Don't try to convince yourself just yet, based on those "chance observations." Rather, first try to see if the phenomenon reliably repeats itself again and again, on different times and occasions, irrespective of time of the day, astrological alignments, and your own mood. You should go from there...

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Understood. But I am going to have more of an open mind about it than I did before.

You don't have to believe it...not sure I do either, but I do know what I heard, and the circumstances.

There is no reason to make demeaning remarks. That degrades this great board.

-curtis

Getting back on topic... For anyone interested (this is sort of a double post, so I'll keep it brief) we did a sneak preview of the Axiom Cables here. This rather subjective "sneak peek" will be followed up by an objective article which will include test measurements, etc.

How did they sound? Transparent, like I expected. I really don't want cables that make my system sound better, chances are that if I hear a significant difference, then one of the cables is a giant inductor!

The video cables are excellent with no apparent problems. Component video and S-video signal was transferred without any visible problems using AVIA as a guide. I know what my monitor is capable of, so comparing a video cable swap is easy to do and can be done without a DBT configuration.