winter wrote: 
He had a car for his too.  Until he crashed it while driving at night wearing those cool shades.

 black321 wrote: 

I would think that an inline power conditioner / regulator to filter out all the ac noise would be a better solution.

 cc_rider wrote: 
Hey I never said THAT didn't work.

 kysmet wrote: 
Not really. Mine is so awesome I have a car to carry it.

 mzpro5 wrote:
  But, but, but... after I used a green marker to color the edges of all my CDs, there was a noticeable improvement in sound quality! Really! I heard it!

 black321 wrote: 
Again sorry but that physically/scientifically can't be true.  There is no way in the world a change in your AC cord is going to effect the bass or any other sound in that way.

Not trying to put you down but I have heard so many of these arguments over the years, especially concerning AC cords, and there is absolutely no objective basis for these types of claims.

Placebo effect - You "KNOW" there's a change, so therefore you "HEAR" a change.

 DaveInVA wrote: 



nice...feel free to post a journal on the specifics for your DIY projects, I'd like to give them a try. I found this ac cord is nice, cheap tweak (maybe its my own bias, but I'm pretty certain I heard deeper bass when i swapped out my stock cord)...although i noticed the price delivered is now $37 (was $30 just a few months ago). http://www.angelfire.com/biz/bizzyb/ILJPOWER.html

Of course there are plenty of options for replacing the outlet too :)

You're jealous.

 mzpro5 wrote: 
I make my own cables and interconnects. You can make a nice one for very cheap that will work better than most low end cables. I am not into the snake oil expensive cables but many off the shelf cables are not that great or are to over priced.

For interconnects I buy mil spec teflon sleeved silver plate coax from a couple of surplus places. Very low capacitance and rugged as all hell and cheap via surplus. I then use $2 Neutrix connectors and am perfectly happy with their performance, The coax has double shielding with both 90% mesh and foil so it works well at shielding high frequency noise also. Many standard audio cables only havs 50% or less mesh coverage. Some of the connectors they use are not well shielded either. A good audio cable should be well shielded, have low capacitance and be rugged.

For ac cable I buy mil spec shielded 3 conductor ac cord again from surplus and use hospital grade plugs and hardwire the other end. Cheap to make and works great. Whats the point of buying an expensive ac cord and then plugging it into a 0.98c IEC connector on your equipment. No matter how good your ac cord is the cheap ass connector will always negate any benefit from the cable whether real or perceived.
Shielded ac cord is nice because if you have a rats nest of ac cords and audio cables behind your equipment it will lessen the chance of hum being inducted into the audio cables. Also there is usually all kinds of other higher frequency noise on the ac that could get inducted into an audio cable. 

 black321 wrote: 
I don't play music either, I just play the radio

Its the tinkering with the music part that keeps me busy and happy.  My equipment is my equipment, but I have fun "remastering" my favorite tracks, trying to get a little more out of them and make them more listenable to my ears.

In the end, crap is still going to sound like crap no matter how good the rig.  And there are some recordings that are so terrible that nothing can improve them as well as those should be left alone in their warts and all presentation.  Perhaps that's an inherited tolerance from having grown up with vinyl.

 black321 wrote: 
You and I will disagree about that. There is no reason to replace the original power cord on good equipment.  The manufacturer is not going to sink money into a good piece of equipment and ship it with a POS power cord.  Plus after the electrical power is run through the distribution system and into your home an after market power cord is not going to change anything.

As for other cables there is absolutely no reason to go overboard with cables.  There are quality products at a very reasonable price out there.

I use 2-3 places for all my cable/wire needs.

Mono-price.com for the majority of my needs

Bluejeans Cable is also a good place.

And when it comes to HDMI, toslink or coax audio cables the place that has good quality at a low price is Amazon.

 black321 wrote:  Agreed. I like building my own speakers, for example. Are they better than store bought? Only at the specified price point: I can build speakers with 'audible quality' (entirely subjective of course) comparable to speakers costing about twice as much. Which is typical: on most products we generally estimate the cost of labor to be roughly equal to the cost of the parts.

But it's fun to cut precise rabbet joints for a completely leak-free enclosure, route recesses for flush-mounted drivers, (over)build crossovers with air-cores and film-and-foil caps...

 cc_rider wrote: 
It's okay. You're a Bieber fan. These things are inevitable.

 DaveInVA wrote: 




Impressive stuff... I find that a lot of folks, like myself, who dont know how to play music, tinkering with the sound we get from the music is almost as much fun.

 winter wrote:
  Dammit, I got ripped off. The reviews said my cables would make it sound like Justin was right there in the room with me, with the perfect balance of aural clarity and spaciousness. Turns out it was all marketing hype. Boy do I feel stupid.

 cc_rider wrote: 




Right you are, those virgins are critical to good sound.

Seriously, they can change the presentation, good or bad....but whatever works for you. I know folks who spend thousands on cables and cords, and others with $20k systems and only rely on the cheapest interconnects from Radio Shack. Myself, I've found a investment in interconnects and power cords can provide some nice tweaks to a sytem (personally never noticed a difference in digital cables). In the end, its what floats the boat of the discerning listener that matters.

I mostly listen at work through my PC, using my second pair of Sennheiser HD 280 Pro headphones. They provide decent bass response and isolation (very important at work) and are priced right at about $100. They're also one of the full full can sets that fold up neatly for travel—another huge plus.

My home rig comprises a Yamaha RX-V2700 AV receiver with Polk Audio speakers all the way around. When rebuilding the house, I rigged selectable leads up to the master bath, the living room and the patio. The bath is outfitted with a Polk Audio ceiling speaker, the living room with Mcintosh bookshelf speakers and the patio with a pair of Bose outdoor speakers. The Macs and the Bose I've had for ages and ages, so they've been repurposed at this place; everything else (except the sub) is built-in.

When working outside—away from the patio—I'll sometimes plug my HP laptop into my Bose clock radio and listen to RP that way. Other times I go crazy and set up the JBL EON 15 PA speakers (300W per side). 

 DaveInVA wrote: 

I've got 3 stereos set up at the moment. A main hi-hi system, a homely theater and my "office" system. I only recently got the house finished so I only recently set the main stereo up after most of the equipment was in storage for 5 years during the house repairs.

First up is the main stereo. I'll get a better pic of the speakers when the sun goes down as its to bright and is washing out the shots at this time.
It consists of:

Speakers:
I pair DIY electrostats I designed and built about 7 years ago. 1440 si of radiating area each. 101.5" tall. They can run full range down to about 70hz but I cross them over at 225 hz. This way I get a more realistic midbass experience by using lightweight midbass cone drivers.
1 pair of DIY midbass towers. Each has 8 matched 5.25" Scanspeak Revelator midbass drivers each in their own tuned compartment. These I run down to 80 hz.
1 pair of DIY subs using 1 - 15" Dayton Titanic woofers. I am building a quad of "Ripole" subs to replace them using Peerless drivers.
 

Amps and related:

2 - Yamaha P2250 commercial series amps (drives subs and midbass)
1 - Smart TA 242 amp  driving the 'stats. I am building a OTL tube amp to replace them. I finally have all the parts - just waiting for a friend to build the custom chassis.
TCM active crossover for midbass/subs
Richter Scale sub equalizer


Source equipment:

Empire 698 turntable with Talisman Boron LO MC  cartridge.
Sony PS-X555E Biotracer turntable with Dynavector 23MR LO MC 
Denon 2900 SACD/DVDA player - modded with better caps and output IC's.
PS Audio 4.5 preamp upgraded with better caps.
DIY PC/MAC music server

Office system:

Sony STR-7055 Receiver I bought new around 1970.
DIY 3 way speakers using Dayton 8" woofer, 2" mid and Peerless 3/4" dome 
Cheapy - A-Neutronics 12" sub
Marantz SLT-12u tangental turntable I've owned since new with Nagota 11 cartridge 

7.1 Home Theater:

Citation 7 Preamp
Rotel RB-985 5 channel amp (drives center, side and back surrounds)
Yamaha P2250 (drives front speakers)
6 - DIY MTM tower speakers using 2 Dayton 6.5" drivers and 1 Dayton 1" dome
1 - DIY Center speaker using 2 Dayton 8", Dayton 2" dome, Peerless 1" dome. (this was actually leftover from my previous setup)
1 DIY sub using Dayton Titanic 15" and Dayton 240 watt plate amp.
Directv HD receiver.
Sony BDP-S570 Blue Ray player (also plays SACD)
Moome HDMI to RGB converter
I have a lot of other equipment that I dont have hooked up yet, mostly lots of old recording equipment.

 

 cc_rider wrote: 
You are such a dupe. Nepali monks? Those guys use inferior-grade spider silk to keep costs low. What you want are the ones made by the blind fishermen of Borneo. That's where it's at if you want to get your Justin Beiber to really sound right.