[Beobloke]

I'm probably going to regret this but I'm going to relate two recent cable-related occurences. As some of you know, I am a hi-fi reviewer for a couple of UK hi-fi magazines, but am also an electronic engineer with a great deal of cynicism when it comes to cables and the general ridiculousness that surrounds them. So, onto recent happenings:

(1) I recently received an item for review which came with a £700 interconnect as part of the package so, naturally, I used this for the review. Now the review item in question was superb – really good, however I noticed when I came to disconnect it at the end of the review that the interconnect had arrows on it that I hadn’t spotted and it turned out that I had been listening to it for weeks connected…..wait for it…… the WRONG WAY ROUND!

Now, as a qualified engineer who has also been faffing with hi-fi since I was about 14, I am well aware that the concept of a difference in sound due to cable directionality is utter poppycock but, just for a laugh and for completeness sake, I turned it round the ‘right’ way and listened to my last couple of test tracks again. Result? Absolutely no difference. Obviously.

This then got me thinking and wondering just how much of the superb performance of the review item was down to this interconnect and whether I should mention in the review that you weren’t going to hear it at its best without it. Hence me substituting in the regular interconnects that I use, which are around £120 per set, and the astonishing revelation that it sounded exactly the same. My eyes then alighted upon a 3m long cheapo interconnect (about £22 IIRC) that I happened to be lying around so I stuck that in for a laugh and, again, no change.

The £700 interconnects went back with the review item and so I’m sticking with the £120 ones. Why not the £30 ones, I hear you ask? Well, not only are the £120 ones prettier, but they have also proven to be well up to the repeated plugging/unplugging and general abuse that I subject them to in the course of reviewing – I’m less convinced that the £30 ones will last as long. Frankly this is far more important to me than whether they make my blacks inkier and my midrange more mellifluous. Which it turns out that, compared to the £30 ones, they don’t anyway, so I can stop worrying about it.

Not that I was worrying about it. They’re only wires, after all. But then came happening number two:

(2) Due to the utterly chaotic state it has been in recently, I've been spending a few weekends tidying, organising and re-arranging my listening room. Due to the big re-arrange, I took the opportunity to change from a pair of good quality Heco bi-wire speaker cables that have performed faultelssly for me, for over 20 years but on which the insulation is starting to become brittle and which were just a smidge too short for tidy routing in the new equipment layout.

I swapped these for some super-duper cables that I used to use in the lounge before we went over to active speakers. Result? hard, shouty midrange, complete collapse in soundstage and just completely ruined the balance of my setup. I summoned Mrs. Beobloke for a quick test as she plays the piano and flute and has an excellent ear for music and sound quality. She is also a lady of instant decision and few words, and managed about twenty seconds of the test track I played her on the fancy former lounge cables (note - I didn't tell her which cables were which) before grimacing, getting up, walking out and telling me in no uncertain terms - "Whichever ones those are; get rid of them".

Naturally, being a dutiful husband, I added some heatshrink over the cracking insulation of the old Heco cables and put them back. All is now well once more.

I would finish by adding that I have also heard differences between conventional coaxial digital cables which both confused and annoyed the hell out of me - after all, it's only ones and noughts isn't it?