savvypaul

When it comes to FR, flat enough is flat enough. FR is a measurement of sound quantity not sound quality.

We buy music because it stimulates our emotions. That is the core purpose. Regardless of measurements, if your hifi gets in the way of that emotional connection then it isn't worth whatever it cost. Use your ears and heart to decide. If you need measurements to decide whether a component is good or not then you might want to sell the lot and start again...

Seen them all at least twice. Very enjoyable. Michael Kitchen's facial expressions are wonderful. I would very much like to be able to replicate them for my own use. Honeysuckle Weeks went missing for a while, a few years back , but was found safe and well. She played Agatha Christie in The Frankie Drake Mysteries very recently.

Schiehallion Craft Lager v nice

I'm not keen on some of the mitigation measures...

A good question. Lower volumes usually mean higher margins. Lower margins usually need higher volumes (which does not seem possible for the foreseeable...). I guess any price cuts may come down to brewery incentives and what government might do with duty rates on alcohol.

Flavia Caesariensis - later became the 'Anglia'

You have definitely elevated this thread Cno iirc, he also said words to the effect that we find and build our truth one bit at a time. The important thing is to keep looking / challenging... EDIT - and never underestimate the desire to buy something, anything, right now. That's what marketing thrives on.

On paper, there are seemingly logical and objective reasons for blind testing. However, music is subjective. My ears (and heart) are the best guides, for me. It's also very difficult to swap plugs with the lights out - ooh err, missus imo, blind testing creates unnecessary pressure on the listener to make a snap judgement. Imagine Chris Tarrant hovering over you...A, B,C or D? Final answer? Borrow a couple of cables for a couple of weeks. Live with them in your system, in your room, swap them out and put the originals back in. Then, you will have definite experience and knowledge.

Nearly all 'audiophile' cables are off the reel base cables that are then dressed up with different insulation, plugs, and branding / colour schemes. There are very, very few companies that can afford (or justify) the set up costs required to manufacture their own cables from scratch. Certainly, your average audio equipment maker isn't in that category. Strip away many 'branded' cables and you will find the same base cables that are used in studios. That's often why you won't hear a difference. You also pay extra for the different colour scheme and branding, of course. ime, cheap cables are rarely bad cables, per se, not least because they are not trying to do anything fancy with capacitance, resistance etc. On the other hand, I have come across several high end cables that are doing weird things (such as very high resistance or capacitance)to have an effect - one will add brightness, the other will roll off high frequencies. I've found that many people use these as a sort of tone control. However, I have found very obvious and repeatable improvements when better quality base metals and insulation are used. The skill for the buyer is to be able to find the difference between better materials and 'better marketing'. All just my experience, of course. And, for clarity, I own NVA Hi-Fi, which makes and sells cables to use with NVA amplifiers.

Stranglers - Black & White

High efficiency and large driver are good for full dynamics at low levels. Klipsch - Cornwall / Heresy JBL