Rock Bottom

Elsdude, I respectfully and politely opinion that most (the great majority imo) audiophiles and/or enthusiasts would view listening, auditioning, and reviewing hifi equipment “remotely” via recordings as the antithesis of the listening experience. ...might explain the low voter turnout. David

Ain't wisdom grand! Great comment Ajax!

Again with the listening to recordings of equipment...I recall folks were listening to recordings of cable, now we're listening to recordings of DACs? And...someone slyly questions if such a fuss is what gives audiophiles a bad name. Fear not; there's nothing remotely audiophile about this post.

Nice!

"OTOH, my own experience and that of others is that better cables can provide an appreciable improvement in SQ that is anything but ephemeral. More expensive may or may not result in "better" but, IMO, the cheapest rarely if ever are comparable." As this thread concerns HDMI cables could you explain in technical terms what constitutes a "better" HDMI cable. And since it's experience that affords you such conviction, what has been your journey of progress with changing HDMI cables?

The title was launched exclusively on Tidal. Thus follows.

OT - James45974 I notice the Rietveld chair photo. A part-time design instructor of mine in college in late 70's asked me if I could repair two broken chairs - I was making furniture at the time. When I went to fetch them I was pleasantly surprised, they were both very old Rietveld zigzag chairs. And both in bad shape, the glued planks having separated down the length of each. I was well aware of this chair design so I was curious and asked about these. Seeing my excitement she then showed me a cabinet maker's stamp on each and then went on to explain that they were part of the final prototype run for Rietveld himself! I was shocked. She then reminds me her last name is Schroder, as in her mother was Truus Schroder, design confidant and Rietveld's final domestic partner in life. Yep, the part-time Uni instructor teaching design studio drawing technique grew up in the Rietveld Schroder House - arguably his most important work. David Rietveld Schröder House | Centraal Museum Utrecht

hehe

"Accurately reporting what they heard does not mean that their reasons for hearing it accurate as well." Accurate reporting? They were critiquing the sound of cable they heard streamed over the internet FFS. - David

"These guys are leaders in their field, they are highly qualified electrical engineers with many years experience supplying pro audio recording and playback gear. I am comfortable relying on their expertise, particularly when they are in a neutral corner. Hence I have not got on the cable band wagon, although I'm a great believer in "if it makes you happy.... "" Agreed. - David

Regarding my standing, now that I was being sarcastic about

And no I wasn't baiting Paul, but it started feel like I was so yeah the apology was sincere.

I fear my standing in this battle, nay my standing in the community, is lessened following such a public lashing.

FYI I use specialty brand cable for both HDMI and USB connecting my server to my TV & 2 channel integrated simply cuz they look so much better than generic.

That a handful of people claim they can hear the difference between USB cable does not amount to a fact. The belief is theory, and apparently faith based. ...."though explaining why is still not something anyone I know can do with authority." Anyway sorry I mentioned USB in previous comments, it's sideshow. This thread concerns a video which tried to demonstrate the varying audio sound qualities of AQ HDMI cables. Varying audio qualities don't exist in HDMI – this according to the industry. That inconsistency peaked someone's interest so they analyzed the audio track, which showed the audible difference was in the mix. Now here is a forum post regarding that video (they're everywhere). Not surprisingly people quickly take to kicking AQ. Almost just as quickly and without a hint of the obvious irony, a few members then "review" the sound quality of AQ cables as they heard them on the video. For example... "Am I the only one who thinks the sound from the Audioquest cables in the ad is terrible? It sounds to me like some sort of high pitched ringing has been added to "sharpen" the sound." "Oh I definitely agree. In fact none of the samples sounds very good at all even for the compressed format in use via youtube. Maybe Blue Coast has a stake in this dishonest demo using their music." Now make no doubt about it, that’s cable review via streaming an on-line video …of a recoding …of an actual sound demonstration performed some time in the past somewhere else. That’s not remotely close to theory.