[reignofchaos]

If you search thru stereophile forums, you'll see a long thread on this Michael Fremer who's a reviewer for stereophile accepted the challenge but Mr Randi never replied back.

UPDATED: Journalist Accepts $1 Million Challenge: Do $7250 Cables Sound Better or Not?

[carboy]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

If you search thru stereophile forums, you'll see a long thread on this Michael Fremer who's a reviewer for stereophile accepted the challenge but Mr Randi never replied back.

UPDATED: Journalist Accepts $1 Million Challenge: Do $7250 Cables Sound Better or Not?

Actually, Randi did reply. It was Pear Anjou which backed out of the challenge - read this - Pear Cables Earns Honors in Yahoo's Worst Tech Products of 2007 — Reviews and News from Audioholics

Another nice link there - Top Ten Signs an Audio Cable Vendor is Selling You Snake Oil — Reviews and News from Audioholics

[sk456]

I think we are seriusly scaring Manveet who will end up buying a Bose. So lets forget Mr Randi and stick to the discussion.THis is turning to the traditional Bull vs Illusion fight of the ICE section and I for one am gettign sick of such fights/arguments.　What the hell. lets have another fight here.. bring it on...

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by manveet

Yes, what you are saying is true. But pointless. We should compare Apples to Apples. If comparing a Bose with something, WHY should I turn the Bass Module off and make a comparison?
..........

Agreed that was not a fair comparison test !!!
let it be ignored.

However since speaker size is a big factor in your criteria, I still feel for the same money you spend on Bose, you can get decent bookshelves.

btw, Generic info for everyone, you can try this India site if you are ok with good condition used ones.
Loudspeakers

[sk456]

Jokes apart guys. I think one should let ones ears decide. It really does not matter what me or anyone says. If one finds the stcok cables good enough please go ahead and buy them ( oops they would be free in most cases ).

[Thad E Ginathom]

Like I said... cables is where hifi meets religion!

My understanding is that Monster offers a wonderful wallet-emptying exercise to anyone who wishes to participate.

[reignofchaos]

^^That is so very true. If you believe cables make a difference after personal trials, you may spend on cables. If not, just move on! YMMV and no point arguing at all.

[carboy]

Everything you want to know about interconnects & also the history of expensive speaker wires - Speaker Wire

The author of the above article is the Director of Accoustic Research at the McIntosh laboratory - he probably knows a few things.

McIntosh | Product Collection
McIntosh Laboratory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

At the end of the article

When confronted with the truth, believers do not want to hear about it. They want to remain in the magical world of fantasy where they think they can hear improvements in their wire, often arrived at by making listening tests without adequate controls or understanding of the problems involved. One of the prime tools in creating such a faith for the average consumer is by capitalizing on fear and ignorance as in many other things that aren’t readily apparent. There is fear that the wire currently in use is not good enough.

[ImmortalZ]

Cables, Interconnects and Other Stuff - The Truth

One of the best I've read.

One of the biggest laughs I've had is reading the description for the Denon HDMI cable and how they say it makes the audio sound better. It's bloody digital!

[Thad E Ginathom]

I hear that Monster are even relieving people of their money for digital data cables now. Of course, the same data arrives at the other end of the cable --- maybe it just felt better about the journey!

This thread has been interesting, as Ihaven't given much thought to hifi for a while. Looking forward to hearing the final decision (will he come on stage with a golden envelope? ) --- and feeling slightly envious of the shopping trip!

[reignofchaos]

Originally Posted by ImmortalZ

Cables, Interconnects and Other Stuff - The Truth

One of the best I've read.

One of the biggest laughs I've had is reading the description for the Denon HDMI cable and how they say it makes the audio sound better. It's bloody digital!

Digital doesn't mean everything is perfect. There are always issues with coupling and jitter due to poor clock chips and resampling. While the differences are a lot less with HDMI than SPDIF, there still exist issues. I'm not saying a better cable improves it as I don't hear differences in digital cables but digital transmission is not the alpha and omega.

[valhallen.282]

You WANT cubes fine. go to polk audio and get yourself cubes. they are the usual microscopic by the usual standard. BUT in a back to back test they killed the bose! my test was to get both the systems to play the same 320kbps compressed mp3 from the same PHONE and the bose i'm sorry to say did not live up to its standard. call me a weirdo for doing that or SACRILEGE even in the name of audio comparison. BUT for 40k plus amp i think it is far far more than worth it. you can look for the profx store i believe they deal in it.

[ImmortalZ]

Originally Posted by reignofchaos

Digital doesn't mean everything is perfect. There are always issues with coupling and jitter due to poor clock chips and resampling. While the differences are a lot less with HDMI than SPDIF, there still exist issues. I'm not saying a better cable improves it as I don't hear differences in digital cables but digital transmission is not the alpha and omega.

I meant cables meant to transmit digital data and not the transceivers involved or even digital as a paradigm.

As Thad said, maybe the zeroes and ones feel more comfortable in Denon cables compared to bog standard ones. Sure, a crap cable will result in drop outs or even a complete lack of sync. But as long as a link is up, there is no way a cable is going to make it sound magically better.

Originally Posted by valhallen.282

You WANT cubes fine. go to polk audio and get yourself cubes. they are the usual microscopic by the usual standard. BUT in a back to back test they killed the bose! my test was to get both the systems to play the same 320kbps compressed mp3 from the same PHONE and the bose i'm sorry to say did not live up to its standard. call me a weirdo for doing that or SACRILEGE even in the name of audio comparison. BUT for 40k plus amp i think it is far far more than worth it. you can look for the profx store i believe they deal in it.

You should be using Audio CDs when testing serious equipment. Seriously, a mobile phone playing MP3 through its analogue out?

Weirdo

[carboy]

Going back to the original subject of this thread.
Mavneet, you need to check these from Onkyo - I loved the sound.

ONKYO SIGHT & SOUND - INDIA
ONKYO SIGHT & SOUND - INDIA
CS325

In my opinion, Onkyo is really value for money.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by valhallen.282

You WANT cubes fine. go to polk audio and get yourself cubes.

I don't know Polk... but this could be a a really good suggestion. It least it increases the choice on miniature speakers.

I have a set of Mission speakers that cost me less than Rs4000 (I think the original price was over GBP100, but in London there is Richer Sounds). They are very far from cube, but they are thin, being a flat (NXT, I think it is called), paper-based speaker, plus the sub/amp unit, of course. They were not sold specifically into the computer sound market, but that is what I use them for. Several of us bought them, while stock lasted, and have all been pleased. For small, they surprise!

My main system speakers, by the way, are from a lesser-known British company called Castle. I'm a real bargain hunter, rather than a latest-model seeker, and these were much less than their GBP600 MRP. I went in to demo amplifiers, and ended up buying the speakers they did the demo with!