James Randi Offers $1 Million If Audiophiles Can Prove $7250 Speaker Cables Are Better

Gizmodo.com ^ | Oct 1 2007 | Charlie White

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

...the speakers in my car don’t have the audio range that my Bose headphone on my computer has...

Bingo. After having been involved in every phase of the audio electronics business over the years I can say that the weak link is the speakers.

The ones in your vehicle at best, when brand new have a frequency response of 20-20,00Hz. As time and environment does their thing on the rubber surrounds and other elements of the speakers, this reduces their efficiency.

They simply can be no match for the Bose headphones you use where a newer speaker is in close proximity to your ear.

It is possible too that at higher volumes used in a car environment, the amp is clipping a bit (not reproducing higher frequencies) and this would easily affect the sound reproduction. That would depend more on the source and your listening habits.

[Notary Sojac]

Easiest way to test that is to control for the source. Play the same commercial CD in your car and on your computer.

I'm inclined to agree with you that it's the headphones.

Given the same source material, my guess is that most of the variation in perceived quality results from the last link in the chain..whatever you use to produce the final output to your (analog) ears.

[IamConservative]

I haven’t figured out if something is being lost during CD burning, my CDs are of poor quality, the speakers in my car don’t have the audio range that my Bose headphone on my computer has (quite possible), or my CD player doesn’t have the audio range as the sound card in my computer. Or some combination thereof.

May be other factors, but music does lose clarity each time it is digitally transcoded. Multiple points of transcoding is also one of the challenges in VoIP networks. It is hard to put in words the subtle difference - some say tinny, distant, "chambered", etc. - but there is a difference.

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

Without knowing the exact parameters of your A/B test you’re talking about the difference between listening to an mp3 version of a tune versus listening to a “full” WAV file of the same tune. Major difference. The mp3 is in most cases perfectly adequate for headphone or portable use and is an “abbreviated” format designed to conserve disk/memory space. Which it does...at the expected expense of dynamic range and etc etc.

[John Valentine]

...the speakers in my car don’t have the audio range that my Bose headphone on my computer has (quite possible),,,

Ya think?

[RightWhale]

The iTunes files are reduced in spectral range so they will sound reasonably clear in earbuds. When played over a bigger stereo system the difference is audible and definitely not HiFi by older standards. It’s like pop tunes intended to be played over AM radio: HiFi they are not, but you can hear the screeching and caterwauling for a block.

[Hemingway's Ghost]

Seems to me that those cans sitting on your ears (or in them, if they're buds) would sound very different than the speakers in your car, and very different than the speakers in your house. That's probably the chief source of the differences you're hearing.

[HonorInPa]

Your first problem is that music offered on itunes is at a significantly lower bitrate (meaning it has less of the original digital data describing the sound) than a purchased CD. Granted, on most crappy equipment including those tiny earbuds sold with iPods it is nearly impossible to hear a difference. But on good equipment with a ear for music you will definately hear a difference.

You can send higher bitrate music to your iPod but you need much more disk storage.

If you are making cd’S from your iTunes downloads they, too will be at the lower bit rate.

[chaosagent]

“Personally, I find nothing captures the authenticity of perfomance, the essential “you are there” je ne sais quoi-ness of musical experience, quite as well as the Edison Wax Cylinder.”

That’s because you had to be THERE to record one!

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Don’t laugh, you’d be amazed at how good a wax cylinder in good condition, played on vintage (non-electric) phonograph actually sounds.

Most of the ones you hear are badly scratched and worn. Those in “like new” condition, played on a machine in good condition are impressive. Not a single transistor or vacuum tube, not even an electic motor.

[Fire_on_High]

Of course devices sound different...I can readily tell the difference between various sound cards, set up as identically as possibly, on the same speakers or headphones, or the same music played on my iPod Shuffle or from the original cds on a portable player. You learn the characteristics of a device over time and get used to it and can easily identify the familiar quirks it has, the same as you can identify the sound of your own car’s engine.

I’m pretty skeptical about cables making any real difference, though, figuring all cables being compared are of a reasonable minimal quality and undamaged.

[reagan_fanatic]

The company I work for sells HDMI cables along with computer cabling. We routinely get people coming in and getting hopping mad that the cable they just bought at Best Buy for $59.95 could be bought here for $9.95.

Accessories (and warranties) are where the big box companies get most of their profits from.

[Notary Sojac]

the quality difference between stereo equipment can be immense

The difference between a $200 rig and a $2000 rig? Absolutely!

Between $2000 and $10000? Probably.

Between $10000 and infinity? I doubt it very much. The law of diminishing returns starts to kick in big time when you reach the high four figures.

[oh8eleven]

I went to Circuit City where I saw the Monster ones for $89.99. I was shocked. After a little research online, I found I could buy an HDMI cable for $12 that would do the same job.
LOL - I went through the exact same scenario although I think the cable was over $100. When I balked at the Monster cable the sales kid asked me how much I paid for my HD TV.
When I told him, he tried to intimidate me by asking why I would put a $12 cable on such an expensive piece of equipment? I told him. "So I can put your lying @ss out of a job."

[JamesP81]

It is possible too that at higher volumes used in a car environment, the amp is clipping a bit (not reproducing higher frequencies) and this would easily affect the sound reproduction. That would depend more on the source and your listening habits.

Not an issue; I don't have an amp.

[mnehring]

jeeze, I thought my $25/foot Phoenix Gold cables were high.

[darkwing104]

Bump for later.

[Revolting cat!]

Suckah be born ebry minnit, you know what I’m talking about?

[Attention Surplus Disorder]

I’ve seen people wire their stereo or hi-fi speakers with eentsy wires, like 22 ga telephone wires. That’s clearly wrong, speakers being driven with real power require current, sometimes considerable current, and tiny conductors indeed act like resistors, the longer they are, the worse.

In professional sound-reinforement applications, like traveling rock shows, another consideration is that the cables undergo a lot of flexing when they are put in place and taken down multiple times. So, not only do they have to carry a lot of power, they have to not degrade by losing conductors under rough treatment.

That said, with the proviso that it’s possible to make crappy connections using even mil-spec wire and connectors, once you have adequate gauge cables, the obsession with welding-gauge speaker wires is laughable.

[JamesP81]

It is hard to put in words the subtle difference - some say tinny, distant, "chambered", etc. - but there is a difference.

I've always used the term 'richness'. There are certain sounds that don't come out on my car speakers. This is more pronounced or less pronounced depending on the song. Certain rock bands that I listen to that have a very rich sound just don't sound very good at all on my car speakers. I recently put a new CD player in my car since my last one crapped out, and it has an equalizer; it gives me much better results than my last CD player did, but I can still tell it doesn't quite measure up to my Bose headphones.